{"id":10404,"date":"2024-02-18T18:13:30","date_gmt":"2024-02-18T12:43:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/18\/how-does-the-parable-of-the-two-sons-display-the-genius-of-jesus\/"},"modified":"2024-02-18T18:13:30","modified_gmt":"2024-02-18T12:43:30","slug":"how-does-the-parable-of-the-two-sons-display-the-genius-of-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/18\/how-does-the-parable-of-the-two-sons-display-the-genius-of-jesus\/","title":{"rendered":"How Does the Parable of the Two Sons Display the Genius of Jesus?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<div class=\"video\">\n<div class=\"graphic alt-ratio\">\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"1. How Does the Parable of the Two Sons Display the Genius of Jesus-_1\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PXEvKfx6cfY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<h2>Layers of Meaning<\/h2>\n<p>The parable of the two sons is Jesus\u2019s longest story, and it\u2019s remarkable in so many ways. I always keep finding new things in there. The setting in Luke\u2019s Gospel is that it\u2019s told to tax collectors and sinners and to Pharisees and scribes. Pharisees and scribes are people you\u2019d expect to know the Bible very well, particularly the scribes whose job it is to actually copy out the Bible, and sinners\u2014you wouldn\u2019t expect them to know the Bible quite so well. They might, but not necessarily. And tax collectors, they\u2019re more interested in money than the Bible.<\/p>\n<p>For a start, Jesus seems to be able to teach both groups simultaneously. He can teach people with no Bible background. It\u2019s a simple story that will captivate people from just about any culture. At the same time, Jesus loads up the story with layers of meaning which are available to those who have studied the Scriptures very hard. For instance, he talks about the ring and the robe, which are offered to the younger son when he returns, that seems to be a reference back to Genesis where there\u2019s a ring and a robe given to Joseph. But it\u2019s not the only reference there is to the Joseph story because, of course, there\u2019s a great famine in Jesus\u2019s story as there is in the time of Joseph.<\/p>\n<div class=\"product-placement list-item clear\">\n<div class=\"product-placement-image\">\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crossway.org\/books\/the-surprising-genius-of-jesus-tpb\/\"><\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.crossway.org\/studio-files\/media\/07e67afe06f3cebaeb2a2fb4fe5e502fd0b19d55.jpg\" alt=\"The Surprising Genius of Jesus\"\/><\/p>\n<p>    <\/a>\n  <\/div>\n<div class=\"post-excerpt\">\n<h3>\n          <em><\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crossway.org\/authors\/peter-j-williams\/\">Peter J. Williams<\/a><\/p>\n<p>          <\/em><br \/>\n        <\/h3>\n<p class=\"copy-excerpt\">In <em>The Surprising Genius of Jesus<\/em>, Peter J. Williams examines the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15 to show the genius, creativity, and wisdom of Jesus\u2019s teachings.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>But most importantly, Joseph is the son who the father thought was dead and is alive again. And that\u2019s the theme that comes up through this story. And so you have that at the same time as I think you\u2019ve got references to the Jacob and Esau story.<\/p>\n<p>When Jesus begins the story, a man has two sons. Who\u2019s the person in the Old Testament who is most famous for having two, and only two, sons? Well, it\u2019s Isaac. And, of course, there the younger son cheats the older son out of the inheritance. And then the older son is so upset that he has to go off into a far country. The younger son goes out into a far country, looks after animals, and then comes back. And then the surprising thing in Genesis is that Esau runs, embraces, and kisses Jacob. And it\u2019s the most surprising reaction in the entire Old Testament because Jacob is expecting his older brother to be so mad. He\u2019s coming towards him with 400 armed men. He\u2019s expecting to have a very difficult time. And Esau, who\u2019s been cheated out of everything, accepts him. <\/p>\n<p>And then in Jesus\u2019s story, there\u2019s a twist there because it\u2019s not the older brother who receives him; it\u2019s the father who runs, embraces, and kisses. It\u2019s a very precise phrase, and it\u2019s actually part of the scribal training to focus on that particular phrase, and I think we can demonstrate that.<\/p>\n<p>So Jesus has the dramatic high point of his story\u2014something that the scribes particularly know about. And there are other aspects of the story that are explained in the book. So it\u2019s just very clever to be able to teach two groups simultaneously, and it shows Jesus\u2019s deep knowledge of the Scriptures and even the sort of things that the scribes trained at.<\/p>\n<p><em>Peter J. Williams is the author of<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crossway.org\/books\/the-surprising-genius-of-jesus-tpb\/\">The Surprising Genius of Jesus: What the Gospels Reveal about the Greatest Teacher<\/a>.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"clear\"\/>\n<div class=\"blog-post-author clear\">\n<p>          <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"left\" src=\"https:\/\/static.crossway.org\/authors\/small\/1926.jpg\" alt=\"Peter J. Williams\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"author-bio\">\n<p><strong>Peter J. Williams<\/strong> (PhD, University of Cambridge) is the principal of Tyndale House, Cambridge, the chair of the International Greek New Testament Project, and a member of the ESV Translation Oversight Committee. He is the author of <em>Can We Trust the Gospels?<\/em> and <em>Early Syriac Translation Technique and the Textual Criticism of the Greek Gospels.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<hr class=\"clear\"\/>\n<h2>Related Articles<\/h2>\n<hr class=\"clear\"\/>\n  <\/div>\n<p><script>\n        !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n        n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\n        n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n        t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\n        document,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n        fbq('init', '506435969522616');\n        fbq('track', 'PageView');\n      <\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crossway.org\/articles\/how-does-the-parable-of-the-two-sons-display-the-genius-of-jesus\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Layers of Meaning The parable of the two sons is Jesus\u2019s longest story, and it\u2019s remarkable in so many ways. I always keep finding new things in there. The setting in Luke\u2019s Gospel is that it\u2019s told to tax collectors and sinners and to Pharisees and scribes. Pharisees and scribes are people you\u2019d expect to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[]},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10404"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}