Luke's Take on the Talents (Luke 19: 11-27)

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Was there an original story about the servants and the money and the bit about the unhappy subjects and command to slaughter them added to the story? How can we judge this possibility?
 
jimkenney12 said:
Was there an original story about the servants and the money and the bit about the unhappy subjects and command to slaughter them added to the story? How can we judge this possibility?
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This seems very possible. Either Luke embellished the story or Jesus added the slaughter command himself in a subsequent telling.

I think it's significant that Luke places this story just before the triumphant entry into Jerusalem. And he gives Jesus a reason for relating the parable. The people were expecting the kingdom of God to arrive immediately.

Could be this was a heavy handed way of emphasizing the need to be ready.
 
jimkenney12 said:
Was there an original story about the servants and the money and the bit about the unhappy subjects and command to slaughter them added to the story? How can we judge this possibility?
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Imagine all the lost talents and deprived skills because of lack of distributed intelligence ... inclusive of reading into oxymoron's and other paradoxes!

So much is thus unknown and needs recovering through induction ... thus the draught!
 
Some teachers and philosophers offer stories that are the opposite of what they want to support. Is it possible that offering a story like this pokes people into considering the opposite. "I hate the idea of having a ruler like this, a ruler hated by his subjects who has people murdered for opposing him. The Messiah must be a different kind of leader.". Herod and the Roman governors were like the ruler in the story.

Most of his followers were poor people. How would they have heard the story about the minahs?
 
Interesting observation about considering the opposite @jimkenney12

Now I am being reminded of the parables of the dishonest manager and the unjust judge. We can't always expect everything in a parable to be allegorical.
 
jimkenney12 said:
Was there an original story about the servants and the money and the bit about the unhappy subjects and command to slaughter them added to the story? How can we judge this possibility?
Click to expand...
There is a similar parable in the non- canonical Gospel of the Hebrews ( not the Book of Hebrews)
In this version the servant who hid his money from his cruel master is rebuked, but presented as more righteous than the wealthiest servant who squandered his money and was cast into darkness.
 
There is the sense of the dark mirror here ... folk reflecting on the vast unknown and wondering why they do not know substantially mor than the insubstantial bit we do? Some say it is nothing and others say the minion is everything to them ...

It may cause considerable query regarding substance abuse ...
 
jimkenney12 said:
Some teachers and philosophers offer stories that are the opposite of what they want to support. Is it possible that offering a story like this pokes people into considering the opposite. "I hate the idea of having a ruler like this, a ruler hated by his subjects who has people murdered for opposing him. The Messiah must be a different kind of leader.". Herod and the Roman governors were like the ruler in the story.

Most of his followers were poor people. How would they have heard the story about the minahs?
Click to expand...
Some of Jesus' parables are based on the "how much more principle; e. g. the Parable of the Widow and the Unjust Judge, where the unjust judge stands for an antitype of God, and the Parable of the Friend at Midnight, where the crabby neighbor who is awakened donates the loaves just to get ride of the knocker.

Jewish women didn't count towards the 10-man minyan. So they would have viewed the pounds parable through the lens that their service doesn't count the same as the men.

The question of when Christianized synagogues develop, when they are replaced by house churches, and when synagogues with some Christians decide to expel their Christian members is an intriguing one. But the issue for the parable is how Jesus envisaged the christianization of synagogues.
 
jimkenney12 said:
Most of his followers were poor people. How would they have heard the story about the minahs?
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Yes, and how would they have reacted to the idea that the rich will become richer? And what little they have will be taken away?

They may have been all too familiar with this experience of life.
 
Imagine the consequences if there were two Jesus ... one illuminated and one in dark reflection ... profound recession?
 
Luce NDs said:
Imagine the consequences if there were two Jesus ... one illuminated and one in dark reflection ... profound recession?
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"And He asked them, but who do you say I am?" (Mark 8:29)

Sorry, I don't often respond on these threads by quoting scripture but I had to do it. ;)
 
paradox3 said:
"And He asked them, but who do you say I am?" (Mark 8:29)
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It is like Jesus appears as the Dark Mother in the MIR! Widow ...it is all hidden in the word of the story ... few gather as such! Accept sacred and Gnostic stuff is ut there because of the shadowy efforts of power ... they are out to shaft and rod the ordinary ...
 
paradox3 said:
This interpretation assumes that Jesus expected a Christian church to be established.
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Which I don't think is really the case. He was expecting the end times to be imminent. From my reading of history, the Christian Church as we know it is really the work of Paul, Peter, and other Apostles and early church leaders. And to some degree the chroniclers like the gospel writers. Jesus teaching lit the fire, but they're the ones who carried out beyond his small circle.
 
Mendalla said:
Which I don't think is really the case. He was expecting the end times to be imminent. From my reading of history, the Christian Church as we know it is really the work of Paul, Peter, and other Apostles and early church leaders. And to some degree the chroniclers like the gospel writers. Jesus teaching lit the fire, but they're the ones who carried out beyond his small circle.
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Except not even Jesus knew when the end times were....only God.
 
Waterfall said:
Except not even Jesus knew when the end times were....only God.
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Matthew 24:34, "Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place." (NRSVUE) after a lengthy discourse on the last days. That alone makes it pretty clear he did not see these as something in the far future but something imminent. I think once you strip away the whole "Son of God" mantle and look at Jesus as a preacher/prophet, he was most definitely aligned with other apocalyptic movements of the day in seeing the Roman occupation and the corruption of the Temple leadership (or at least that's how groups like the Essenes and seemingly Jesus saw it) as a sign of the Day of Judgement drawing near.
 
Mendalla said:
Matthew 24:34, "Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place." (NRSVUE) after a lengthy discourse on the last days. That alone makes it pretty clear he did not see these as something in the far future but something imminent. I think once you strip away the whole "Son of God" mantle and look at Jesus as a preacher/prophet, he was most definitely aligned with other apocalyptic movements of the day in seeing the Roman occupation and the corruption of the Temple leadership (or at least that's how groups like the Essenes and seemingly Jesus saw it) as a sign of the Day of Judgement drawing near.
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So was it necessary to be crucified then?
 
Mendalla said:
Which I don't think is really the case. He was expecting the end times to be imminent. From my reading of history, the Christian Church as we know it is really the work of Paul, Peter, and other Apostles and early church leaders. And to some degree the chroniclers like the gospel writers. Jesus teaching lit the fire, but they're the ones who carried out beyond his small circle.
Click to expand...
Jesus as community builder:
"You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church (mATTHEW 16:18)."
'If the member refuses to listen to them (2 or 3 witnesses, tell it to the church (18;17)."
"Whoever's sins you forgive, they are forgiven (John 20:23)."
 
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