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Greek Prep Index

Exegetical Considerations
Luke 12:13-21
9th Sunday after Pentecost/ August 1, 2004

1. What is the literary context of this passage?

a. How does this passage relate to those literary/theological moorings?

2. What is the flow of the text?

a. How does the parable of vv. 16-20 fit into this flow?

3. Using the brief definition of the genre of parable ("a mashal that employs a short narrative fiction to reference a symbol" Scott, Hear Then the Parable, p. 8):
a. What is the mashal in vv. 16-20?

b. What is the short narrative fiction in vv. 16-20?

c. What symbol is being reference in vv. 16-20?

4. From a 1st century sociological perspective, how would an audience in a peasant-based economy of scarcity have evaluated
a. The rich man’s dilemma in vv. 16-17?

b. The rich man’s solution in v. 18?

c. The rich man’s conclusion in v. 19?

5. How do vv. 19, 20 echo such Old Testament passages as Isa. 22:12-14; Jer. 4:22; Prov. 14:1; Eccl. 8:14-17; Sir. 11:18-19?

6. In such a social situation, why is the final line of the parable (v. 20) so shocking?

7. What is the significance of understanding the use of apaitousin (v. 20) as a term that can be used to describe a banking loan?

8. How are zoe and hyparchontes (v. 15):
a. Being presented/contrasted in this text?

b. How might that relate to similar contrasts in Luke-Acts?

c. How would these concepts generally have been related to each other in the 1st century?

d. How are they generally related to each other in the 21st century?

e. What, then, is Jesus saying about them and how does that relate to the text’s concluding statement in v. 21?