THE TRILOGY OF PARABLES IN MT 21:28-22:14 FROM A MATTHEAN PERSPECTIVE Inaugural Dissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines Doktors der Theologie Betreuer: Professor Dr. Bernhard Heininger Zweitkorrektor: Professor Dr. Hans Rechenmacher eingereicht von ROWLAND ONYENALI APRIL 2012 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABBREVIATIONS ......................................................................................................8 0. GENERAL INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................11 0.1 THE TERM PARABLE .......................................................................................11 0.2 MODERN PARABLE SCHOLARSHIP .............................................................12 0.3 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PARABLE AND ALLEGORY ...............................16 0.4 THE MATTHEAN PARABLES ..........................................................................19 0.5 REDACTION-CRITICAL STUDIES OF THE TRILOGY .................................22 0.5.1 Wolfgang Trilling ..............................................................................................22 0.5.2 S. V. Tilborg ......................................................................................................22 0.5.3 Eduard Schweizer ..............................................................................................23 0.5.4 Ivor H. Jones ......................................................................................................23 0.5.5 Warren Carter ....................................................................................................24 0.5.6 W. G. Olmstead .................................................................................................24 0.5.7 Matthias Konradt ...............................................................................................25 0.6 METHOD AND STRUCTURE OF THE WORK ...............................................25 CHAPTER ONE CO-TEXT AND TEXT OF THE TRILOGY 1.1 CO-TEXT OF THE TRILOGY ............................................................................30 1.2 DETERMINATION OF THE TEXTUAL UNIT ................................................33 1.3 TEXT OF THE TRILOGY ...................................................................................34 1.4 THEMATIC AND VERBAL SIMILARITIES IN THE TRILOGY ...................38 1.4.1 THEMATIC PARALLELS ...............................................................................38 1.4.1.1 The demand to bear fruit .................................................................................39 1.4.1.2 The contrast between saying and doing ..........................................................39 1.4.1.3 Rejection and redefinition ...............................................................................39 1.4.2 VERBAL LINKS ...............................................................................................41 1.5 CONCLUSION/MATTHEW AS AUTHOR OF THE TRILOGY? ....................42 2 CHAPTER TWO LINGUISTIC AND TRADITIO-HISTORIC ANALYSIS OF THE PARABLE OF THE TWO SONS (Mt 21:28-32) 2.1 LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF THE PARABLE .................................................44 2.1.1 STRUCTURE ....................................................................................................44 2.1.1SYNTAX AND SEMANTICS ...........................................................................47 2.2 THE ACTANTIAL ANALYSIS ..........................................................................51 2.3 SEMANTIC WORD FIELDS ..............................................................................53 2.4 Mt 21:28-32 TRADITION AND REDACTION ..................................................54 2.4.1 Mt 21:28-32 AS A MATTHEAN COMPOSITION .........................................55 2.4.2 Mt 21:31b-32//Lk 7:29-30 .................................................................................59 2.4.3 Mt 21:28-32//Lk 15:11-32 .................................................................................60 2.4.4 (a) Tensions and contradictions .........................................................................62 2.4.5 (b) Combination of genres .................................................................................63 2.4.6 Mt 21:28-32: A POSSIBLE RECONSTRUCTION ..........................................64 2.5 MATTHEW’S LOVE FOR DUALISM AND CONFLICT ................................65 2.6 THE FRAMES OF THE PARABLE ...................................................................66 2.6.1 THE INTRODUCTION OF THE PARABLE. .................................................67 2.6.2 THE CONCLUSION OF THE PARABLE .......................................................68 2.7 CONCLUSION .....................................................................................................69 CHAPTER THREE (Mt 21:28-32) THE REAL WORLD AND MT’S UNDERSTANDING OF THE PARABLE 3.1 THE FATHER-CHILD METAPHOR VS. HONOUR DUE TO PARENTS ......72 3.2 THE COMMAND ὕπαγε … ἐργάζου ἐν τῷ ἀμπελῶνι .............................................76 3.2.1 THE VINEYARD ..............................................................................................76 3.2.2 THE CONCEPT OF WORK .............................................................................77 3.3 THE EXPRESSION “Τὸ θέλημα τοῦ πατρός” .......................................................78 3.4 THE SOCIAL POSITION OF οἱ τελῶναι καὶ αἱ πόρναι ........................................80 3.5 THE MATTHEAN ALLEGORY OF A FATHER AND HIS TWO SONS ........81 3 3.5.1 THE EXPRESSION ἐν ὁδῷ δικαιοσύνης ..............................................................82 3.5.2 MATTHEW’S “οἱ τελῶναι καὶ αἱ πόρναι” ...........................................................85 3.6 THE METAPHOR OF THE FATHER AND HIS SONS ....................................86 3.7 CONCLUSION .....................................................................................................87 CHAPTER FOUR LINGUISTIC AND TRADITIO-HISTORIC ANALYSIS OF THE PARABLE OF THE WICKED TENANTS (21:33-46) 4.1 LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF THE PARABLE .................................................91 4.1.1 STRUCTURE ....................................................................................................91 4.1.2 SYNTAX AND SEMANTIC ............................................................................93 4.2 ACTANTIAL ANALYSIS ...................................................................................99 4.3 Mt 21:33-46 TRADITION AND REDACTION ................................................100 4.3.1 AGREEMENTS BETWEEN MT 21:33-46 AND MK 12:1-12 .....................101 4.3.1.1 The construction of the vineyard ..................................................................101 4.3.1.2 The sending of the slaves ..............................................................................101 4.3.1.3 The mission of the son ..................................................................................103 4.3.1.4 Question to the opponents ............................................................................104 4.3.1.5 Answer to the question .................................................................................104 4.3.1.6 Contrast between the crowds and the leaders ...............................................105 4.3.2 THE MATTHEAN REDACTION ..................................................................105 4.3.2.1 The introduction ............................................................................................105 4.3.2.2 The respondents to Jesus’ question ...............................................................106 4.3.2.3 The transfer of the kingdom .........................................................................107 4.3.2.4 The reaction to the parable ...........................................................................108 4.3.3 STYLISTIC DIFFERENCES ..........................................................................108 4.3.4 TENSIONS AND CONTRADICTIONS ........................................................110 4.3.5 IMPLICATION ...............................................................................................112 4.4 THE FRAMES OF THE PARABLE .................................................................112 4.4.1 THE NARRATIVE INTRODUCTION ..........................................................113 4.4.2 THE CONCLUSION OF THE PARABLE .....................................................114 4.5 CONCLUSION/LOOKING FORWARD ..........................................................114 4 CHAPTER 5 Mt 21:33-46: BACKGROUND AND MT’S INTERPRETATION 5.1 CULTURAL BACKGROUND ..........................................................................118 5.2 LITERARY BACKROUND ..............................................................................123 5.2.1 Mt 21:33-46 AND THE RECEPTION OF ISAIAH 5:1-7 ..............................123 5.2.2 THE VINEYARD AND ITS OWNER ...........................................................127 5.3 THE MATTHEAN PARABLE OF THE WICKED TENANTS .......................129 5.3.1 THE VINEYARD AND THE TRANSFERENCE OF THE KINGDOM ......130 5.3.2 THE IDENTITY OF THE SLAVES ...............................................................133 5.3.3 THE IDENTITY OF THE SON ......................................................................134 5.3.4 THE BUILDERS AND THE REJECTED AND EXALTED STONE ...........136 5.4 MATTHEW’S GENTILE SUB-PLOT ..............................................................139 5.5 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................143