One of the most confusing parables in the gospels lies in Luke 16 of the parable of the dishonest steward. At first glance, it seems like Jesus is ok with people using dishonest means in order to secure their place in the Kingdom of God. Yet, this seems to go against the general advice in the letter to Ephesus to do honest work (Ep 4:28) and the bible in general to lead lives with integrity.
Could anyone suggest a sensible interpretation of the parable?
This is a message from beyond the grave from an unknown ghost writer, the author of the gospel, who had a peculiar sense of humor. First, he wanted to convey that he was smarter than the principal. The message is simple: “Look for yourself, I wrote a terrible piece of crap and no one noticed it and no one corrected it. See for yourself who I had to work with.”
This is the tradition of writers “Maybe I can fool readers ..” continued to this day, for example, by Morton Smith or Paul Coleman Norton..
I think we can legitimately ask if any of the parables recorded in the synoptics actually go back to Jesus himself. A lot of the ones recorded seem awfully sophisticated literarily to be sayings of an itinerant preacher. The ones that are most popular, like the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan, seem the least likely to be authentic. Mark uses his account of Jesus’ parables to further his own agenda so we can’t say he passed on his sources unmodified. Perhaps the parables of the Sower and the Mustard Seed. Who knows?
BDEhrman
FreedomBen
evgendob
Robert
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