Luke’s parables and the purpose of Luke’s Gospel

Abstract

Do the parables of Luke hold the key to an understanding of the overall purpose of Luke’s Gospel? This question is pursued by Greg W Forbes (2000) in a book entitled The God of Old: The role of the Lukan parables in the purpose of Luke’s Gospel. Although the Lukan parables address a variety of subjects of a diverse nature, there is one unifying factor that runs like a golden thread through all the parables: a new vision of God. This vision seems new in-so-far as it presents a challenge to conventional Israelite perceptions regarding God at the time when the parables were written, but in fact, it is not new at all. It is a vision of the God of Old as witnessed in the Hebrew Scriptures. This article presents an overview of Forbes’ book.