Can We Trust the New Testament?
Continuation of Chapter 3: THE TOOLS OF DISCRIMINATION
To be continued...
Continuation of Chapter 3: THE TOOLS OF DISCRIMINATION
THE TOOLS IN USE
But before him in the story others are sent, and there is a good deal of minor variation in the number of servants sent and in the treatment accorded to them. In his book The Parables of the Kingdom C. H. Dodd suggested that the oldest, and simplest version was the typical triad of the folk-tale, of two servants followed by a son, who alone gets killed. He lived to see his suggestion vindicated by the Gospel of Thomas, which has precisely this. The rest of the detail is expansion and elaboration to bring the story more closely into line with the long list of Old Testament prophets and their fates (who are clearly those whom the servants are meant to represent). This is most obviously the case in Matthew's version, where the individual servants have been replaced by two waves, the second more numerous than the first, corresponding to the former and the latter prophets. This is a typical example of the process of allegorization (making each of the details of the parable symbolic), which is especially characteristic of Matthew (compare, for instance, Matt. 13.37-43 and 49f.).
To be continued...
Comment