Jesus’ Parables of the “Old Wine”
Luke 5:33-39
Thesis
Conventional interpretation of the text regarding Luke 5:33-39 has widely been deduced as a series of parables whose meaning spoke to the New covenant as the “new wine” and the Old covenant as the “old wine”. This was true even though the recitation of these parables follows Jesus being questioned concerning the fasting practices of the Pharisees and John the Baptist and his disciples, as compared with the lack of fasting by Jesus and his disciples. In the discussion that follows, I contend the interpretation of the text of Luke 5:33-39 is better read as the parables of Jesus, in which he examines the implications and comparisons between John the Baptist, and himself.
Introduction and Discussion
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(Luke 5:34) The conventional analysis would further find that the following three parables uttered by Jesus in Luke 5:36-39 were somewhat disjointed and unrelated to the inquiry regarding fasting, and that Jesus sought to establish a separate point with a deeper meaning. The exegetical analysis suggested in the discussions to follow, would offer a consistent and related response by Jesus to all of the inquiries of the …show more content…
As was discussed earlier, it’s important that in light of our enquiry that we examine the full record of Luke as it pertains to Jesus and John the Baptist so to better inform us with respect to the conversation in Luke 5:33-39.
Luke introduces us to John the Baptist on the day of his birth. (Luke 1:57) Through Zechariah’s prophecy we are told that John the Baptist would be “called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way.” (Luke 1:76) John is next identified in Luke 3, when John emerges from the wilderness proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. (Luke 3:3) Luke then makes the connection between John the Baptist and the “Old Testament” prophet, Isaiah, who had prophesied of the coming of one whose, “The Voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord,” (Luke
...itten in, and can also be seen because there is no mention anywhere of the parables, Jesus' primary teaching method according to the synoptic gospels. Instead, John makes use of miracles and uses examples from Jesus' ministry to demonstrate his power and divinity. He uses his power over nature to raise people from the dead, heal a blind man and feed 5000 people with the physical amount of food for only a few.
All Gospels record the feeding of the 5000; the authors of Matthew and Mark record two feedings. A doublet or two separate events? The context of the narratives, similarities and differences, whether one event or two, historical or myth and the significance for each writer will be discussed.
N.T Wright (2008) stated that “When we read the scriptures as Christians, we read it precisely as people of the new covenant and of the new creation” (p.281). In this statement, the author reveals a paradigm of scriptural interpretation that exists for him as a Christian, theologian, and profession and Bishop. When one surveys the entirety of modern Christendom, one finds a variety of methods and perspectives on biblical interpretation, and indeed on the how one defines the meaning in the parables of Jesus. Capon (2002) and Snodgrass (2008) offer differing perspectives on how one should approach the scriptures and how the true sense of meaning should be extracted. This paper will serve as a brief examination of the methodologies presented by these two authors. Let us begin, with an
A parallel of the parable of the lost sheep is found in the Gospel of Matthew. The remaining two parables in chapter fifteen of this Gospel are unique. The reader may assume that the source of the material found in and around this passage comes from both Q and Special L. The use of triplets is common in Luke and that is precisely the literary technique we find in chapter fifteen. The parable of the lost coin that follows the lost sheep is almost identical in content. Th...
Luke Timothy Johnson uses Prophetic Jesus, Prophetic Church in order to make a strong point that when studying both Luke and Acts as a unit, rather than reading the canonical order in the Bible, gives us one of our best prophetic looks at the Church for all ages. By presenting this point Johnson hopes to light a fire in our churches of today by using the prophetic works of Luke, so that we as Christians will attend to the ways that Christ intended the church to be. In Johnson’s introduction he states that it is not wrong to study Luke and Acts separately as there are many ways to study the scripture, nevertheless it is wrong to look at Luke and see the prophetic ways of Jesus, and then looking at Acts as non-prophetic. Through seeing Luke’s
The New Testament teaches about who Jesus is and what he did on the earth. John wrote the last of the four gospels which recount Jesus’ life and what is to come. The gospel of John is somewhat different from the other three gospels, in that it is more symbolic and less concrete. For example, John expresses Jesus as the Passover Lamb when Matthew, Mark, and Luke do not. This gospel is showing that Christianity is moving away from the long-practiced Jewish traditions. John’s gospel can be laid out into four parts: the prologue or the incarnate word, signs of the Messiah with teachings about life in him, the farewell teaching and the passion narrative, and the epilogue or the roles of Peter and of the disciple whom Jesus loved. The Gospel of John is arguably the most
The birth narrative of Luke begins with the announcement of the birth of John, whose mother was Elizabeth. An angel came to Zechariah, Elizabeth?s husband and the angel said that his son John would be in great sight of the Lord that he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even in his mother womb and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. In the sixth month the angel Gabriel...
Before making some discussions on the gospel we believed to be written by the disciple who loved by Jesus (John 13:23, 19:26, 20:2, 21:7) it is good to see the purpose of this gospel. The purpose of the gospel of John seems summarized in two verses “Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, who are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:30-31, NIV).
John was one of the first twelve disciples of Jesus and therefore an eye-witness (John 19:35); John brings out the spiritual significance as well as recording the practical aspects of Jesus' works and words. John lived to be older than any of the other writers. It is therefore likely that he was familiar with their accounts and wanted to supplement theirs with additional teaching and miracles by Jesus which had a bearing on the situation towards the end of the first century AD.
Reading the Bible takes time and patience. Understanding the meaning of the stories can make the Bible more interesting to read. The baptism of Jesus is one such story that may seem small, but it has a deeper meaning to it that sheds some light on Jesus’s mission. The baptism of Jesus is recorded or indicated in all four gospels of the New Testament. It was specifically mentioned in Matthew 3:13-17, Mark 1:9-11, Luke 3:21-22, and John 1:24-34. All the gospels give different accounts of how the baptism took place. True to their name, the Synoptic Gospels have stories that are almost similar, but the Gospel of John has its own unique story. Understanding the different accounts of the baptism is crucial to understanding the significance of why Jesus was baptized and by whom.
Mark’s gospel and John’s gospel contain many differences from the beginning, but both end with Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. The gospels of John and Mark represent Jesus as two different people. The disparity is that Mark represents Jesus as a servant while John portrays Jesus as a divine being. However, one must realize the two texts are meant to read by different audiences during different time periods. Each description presents a particular aspect of the life of Historical Jesus.
In the days of Christ’s life on this earth, believers did not have access to the Bible in its entirety as we know and are familiar with today. Believers in this ancient time period only had access to the Old Testament. However, through their access to the Old Testament, believers were provided a foundation for New Testament times. This foundation provided New Testament believers with the Lord’s established principles of right and wrong they were expected to follow. In addition, the Old Testament is overflowing with accounts of people whose lives exemplified the future life of Christ on this earth. These pictures allowed the Israelite nation to begin to have an understanding of why Christ needed to come as their Messiah and the work He needed to do on earth. Finally, there are common themes that are interwoven throughout the entire Old Testament. Three of these themes: transgression, redemption, and consummation point to the purpose of Christ’s atoning death on the cross. These themes portray God’s work both in the lives of Old Testament believers, but they also foreshadow God’s desire and plan for believers in New Testament times and beyond.
The Gospel According to St. John was written during the first century AD in Asian Minor. The author of the book cannot be definitively proven according to the Zinderfan Pictorial Bible Dictionary but there is strong evidence that the author was John the apostle. The author had an intimate knowledge of Jewish traditions and the geography of Palestine. The gospel goes into many explanations of these things because its intended audience was gentiles. It is unlikely a gentile would have had the knowledge to give the background information that the author presents. The writer of the gospel identifies himself as the "disciple who Jesus loved." In the gospel most of the disciples were mentioned by name and so can be eliminated as the author of the gospel. Those not mentioned included Mathew, James the less, Simon the Zealot, James, and John.
O’Day, Gail R. (1995). “The Gospel of John.” 491-865. In The New Interpreter’s Bible: A Commentary in Twelve Volumes. Vol. 9. Nashville: Abingdon Press.
...a law perspective and Luke from a socio-ecomomic perspective. Retrospectively the ipsissima verba and the ipissima vox of Jesus, enunciated the authenticity of His voice and not his words verbatim. Therefore we should believe that each writer gives us an accurate summary in their own words. (Lea and Black,The New Testament Its Background and message 2003:122-125)