Stories for the Waiting Room

Did Jesus condone slavery?  In the sixth episode of "Stories for the Waiting Room," Mark and Lee discuss one of the more difficult lessons Jesus teaches his disciples. While on his way to Jerusalem to die, Jesus tells them a story about a Dutiful Servant whose day begins and ends with labor performed at a nameless owner's behest in Luke 17:7-10. At the parable's conclusion Jesus offers the following bit of instruction: "So also you, whenever you have done all the things you’ve been instructed to do, you should say 'We are useless slaves. We’ve only done what we should’ve done.'" To help form a suitable response , Dr. Proctor examines three contexts for Luke's challenging similitude: 1) slavery in the Greco-Roman world, 2) the Stoic philosophy of Epictetus, and 3) Jesus' previous instruction in Luke 12:35-38.

The fifth episode of Stories for the Waiting Room investigates Matthew's treatment of the Treasure in the Field and the Pearl of Great Price. Dr. Proctor suggests both Matthew's arrangement of the two stories and his selection of Greek verb tense within them suggests the First Evangelist aimed to present the pair as a set of conjoined fraternal twins. The two parables in Matt 13:44-46 thus make separate points about the kingdom’s “hiddenness” and “costliness” that nevertheless entail one another. Should Matthew’s audience hitch their wagon to the message of either story, they will soon find its sibling’s twin claim in tow as well; for the stories’ proximity to one another and their structural similarity do not allow for their convenient separation. While all who locate the Kingdom of God's whereabouts should consider themselves fortunate, they must all pay a stiff fee to acquire it, one requiring they break from their morally suspect past. 

If a parable’s growth is a good indicator of a writer’s editorial interest, it seems clear the author of the Gospel of Thomas was willing to emend Jesus' parables about the Treasure in the Field and the Pearl of Great Price in such a way as to make profitable use of first-century dislike for profiteering. Comparing the Kingdom of God to a moneylending capitalist would be a surefire way to gather audience attention in the ancient world, but exactly what is Thomas’ point? Is he criticizing the family who let the kingdom’s possession slip out of their possession into the hands of a moneylender (Treasure in the Field), while simultaneously allowing a prudent merchant to access it by means of a wise investment he makes for himself (Pearl of Great Price)? 

The third episode of Stories for the Waiting Room examines Jesus' parable of the Leaven, which concern's a nameless woman's domestic activity. In keeping with Jesus' normal storytelling style, this brief account presents a stereotypical housewife engaged in the task of preparing bread. Yet the proportions of her recipe are all out of whack, and Jesus' positive use of traditionally negative symbols would likely have struck his audiences as a curious way to illustrate what life in the Kingdom of God must be like.

In the second episode of "Stories for the Waiting Room," Dr. Proctor uses the text of Ecclesiastes 9:14-15 to illustrate some of the basic narrative qualities of Jesus' parables. In addition to being terse accounts of status quo people in stereotypical life situations, the parables frequently insert unexpected "twists" that encourage readers to engage in the interpretive process. Paying attention to the contexts of the parables can frequently assist readers in their efforts to unravel Jesus' meaning. Episode two closes with C. H. Dodd's famous definition of "parable" in his book, The Parables of the Kingdom.

In the first episode of "Stories for the Waiting Room," Dr. Mark A. Proctor discusses the four sources for Jesus' famous parables (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and the Gospel of Thomas) and the possible historical implications for stories lacking multiple independent attestation.