Thursday, April 20, 2017

Economic unreality in a parable of Jesus

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Economic Knowledge in the Parables (Michelle Christian).
A number of parables in the Jesus tradition appear to draw on the everyday details of ancient economic life. However, I consider a case for which there are no realistic comparanda: the so-called Parable of the Entrusted Money. The story is significant, I argue, precisely for the economic unreality it portrays. What is more, the Entrusted Money gives access to the kind of economic knowledge that informed it and other parables, particularly those found in the gospels attributed to Matthew and Luke as well as in their common source Q.

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Credo quia absurdum?