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| Certain General Principles of Parabolic Interpretation. These Applied to the Parables Now Under Consideration, Especially to that of the Prodigal Son.
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Chapter IX.—Certain
General Principles of Parabolic Interpretation. These Applied to
the Parables Now Under Consideration, Especially to that of the
Prodigal Son.
We, however, who do not make the parables the
sources whence we devise our subject-matters, but the subject-matters
the sources whence we interpret the parables, do not labour hard,
either, to twist all things (into shape) in the exposition, while we
take care to avoid all contradictions. Why “an hundred
sheep?” and why, to be sure, “ten drachmas?”
And what is that “besom?” Necessary it was that He
who was desiring to express the extreme pleasure which the salvation of
one sinner gives to God, should name some special quantity of a
numerical whole from which to describe that “one” had
perished. Necessary it was that the style of one engaged in
searching for a “drachma” in a “house,” should
be aptly fitted with the helpful accompaniment of a “besom”
as well as of a “lamp.” For curious niceties of this
kind not only render some things suspected, but, by the subtlety of
forced explanations, generally lead away from the truth. There
are, moreover, some points which are just simply introduced with a view
to the structure and disposition and texture of the parable, in order
that they may be worked up throughout to the end for which the typical
example is being provided. Now, of course the (parable of) the
two sons will point to the same end as (those of) the drachma and the
ewe: for it has the self-same cause (to call it forth) as those
to which it coheres, and the selfsame “muttering,” of
course, of the Pharisees at the intercourse between the Lord and
heathens. Or else, if any doubts that in the land of Judea,
subjugated as it had been long since by the hand of Pompey and of
Lucullus, the publicans were heathens, let him read Deuteronomy:
“There shall be no tribute-weigher of the sons of
Israel.”799
Nor would the
name of publicans have been so execrable in the eyes of the Lord,
unless as being a
“strange”800
name,—a (name)
of such as put up the pathways of the very sky, and earth, and sea, for
sale. Moreover, when (the writer) adjoins “sinners”
to “publicans,”801
| 801 See Bible:Luke.5.29-Luke.5.30">Luke xv. 1, 2; Matt. ix. 10, 11; xi. 19;
Mark ii. 15, 16; Luke v. 29, 30. | it does not follow
that he shows them to have been Jews, albeit some may possibly have
been so; but by placing on a par the one genus of
heathens—some sinners by office, that is, publicans; some by
nature, that is, not publicans—he has drawn a distinction between
them. Besides, the Lord would not have been censured for
partaking of food with Jews, but with heathens, from whose board the
Jewish discipline excludes (its disciples).802
Now we must proceed, in the case of the prodigal
son, to consider first that which is more useful; for no adjustment of
examples, albeit in the most nicely-poised balance, shall be admitted
if it shall prove to be most hurtful to salvation. But the whole
system of salvation, as it is comprised in the maintenance of
discipline, we see is being subverted by that interpretation which is
affected by the opposite side. For if it is a Christian
who, after wandering far from his Father, squanders, by living
heathenishly, the “substance” received from God his
Father,—(the substance), of course, of baptism—(the
substance), of course, of the Holy Spirit, and (in consequence) of
eternal hope; if, stripped of his mental “goods,” he has
even handed his service over to the prince of the world803
—who else but the devil?—and by
him being appointed over the business of “feeding
swine”—of tending unclean spirits, to wit—has
recovered his senses so as to return to his Father,—the result
will be, that, not adulterers and fornicators, but idolaters, and
blasphemers, and renegades, and every class of apostates, will by this
parable make satisfaction to the Father; and in this way (it may)
rather (be said that) the whole “substance” of the
sacrament is most truly wasted away. For who will fear to
squander what he has the power of afterwards recovering? Who will
be careful to preserve to perpetuity what he will be able to lose
not to perpetuity? Security in sin is likewise an appetite
for it. Therefore the apostate withal will recover his former
“garment,” the robe of the Holy Spirit; and a renewal of
the “ring,” the sign and seal of baptism; and Christ will
again be “slaughtered;”804
and he will
recline on that couch from which such as are unworthily clad are
wont to be lifted by the torturers, and cast away into
darkness,805
—much more such
as have been stripped. It is therefore a further step if
it is not expedient, (any more than reasonable), that the
story of the prodigal son should apply to a Christian. Wherefore,
if the image of a “son” is not entirely suitable to a Jew
either, our interpretation shall be simply governed with an eye to the
object the Lord had in view. The Lord had come, of course, to
save that which “had perished;”806
“a Physician” necessary to “the sick”
“more than to the whole.”807
| 807 Matt. ix. 12; Mark ix. 17; Luke v.
21. | This fact
He was in the habit both of typifying in parables and preaching in
direct statements. Who among men “perishes,” who
falls from health, but he who knows not the Lord? Who is
“safe and sound,” but he who knows the Lord? These
two classes—“brothers” by birth—this parable
also will signify. See whether the heathen have in God the Father
the “substance” of origin, and wisdom, and natural power of
Godward recognition; by means of which power the apostle withal notes
that “in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom knew not
God,”808
—(wisdom) which,
of course, it had received originally from God. This
(“substance”), accordingly, he “squandered;”
having been cast by his moral habits far from the Lord, amid the errors
and allurements and appetites of the world,809
where, compelled by hunger after truth,810
he
handed himself over to the prince of this age. He set him over
“swine,” to feed that flock familiar to demons,811
| 811 See Matt. viii. 30–34; Mark v.
11–14; Luke viii. 32, 33. | where he would not be master of a supply of
vital food, and at the same time would see others (engaged) in a divine
work, having abundance of heavenly bread. He remembers his
Father, God; he returns to Him when he has been satisfied; he receives
again the pristine “garment,”—the condition, to wit,
which Adam by transgression had lost. The “ring” also
he is then wont to receive for the first time, wherewith, after being
interrogated,812
he publicly seals the
agreement of faith, and thus thenceforward feeds upon the
“fatness” of the Lord’s body,—the Eucharist, to
wit. This will be the prodigal son, who never in days bygone was
thrifty; who was from the first prodigal, because not from the
first a Christian. Him withal, returning from the world to the
Father’s embraces, the Pharisees mourned over, in the persons of
the “publicans and sinners.” And accordingly to this
point alone the elder brother’s envy is adapted: not
because the Jews were innocent, and obedient to God, but because they
envied the nation salvation; being plainly they who ought to have been
“ever with” the Father. And of course it is
immediately over the first calling of the Christian that the Jew
groans, not over his second restoration: for the former
reflects its rays even upon the heathen; but the latter, which takes
place in the churches, is not known even to the Jews. I think
that I have advanced interpretations more consonant with the
subject-matter of the parables, and the congruity of things, and the
preservation of disciplines. But if the view with which the
opposite party is eager to mould the ewe, and the drachma, and the
voluptuousness of the son to the shape of the Christian sinner, is that
they may endow adultery and fornication with (the gift of) repentance;
it will be fitting either that all other crimes equally capital should
be conceded remissible, or else that their peers, adultery and
fornication, should be retained inconcessible.
But it is more (to the point) that it is not
lawful to draw conclusions about anything else than the subject which
was immediately in hand. In short, if it were lawful to transfer
the parables to other ends (than they were originally intended for), it
would be rather to martyrdom that we would direct the hope drawn
from those now in question; for that is the only thing which, after all
his substance has been squandered, will be able to restore the son; and
will joyfully proclaim that the drachma has been found, albeit among
all (rubbish) on a dungheap; and will carry back into the flock on the
shoulders of the Lord Himself the ewe, fugitive though she have been
over all that is rough and rugged. But we prefer, if it must be
so, to be less wise in the Scriptures, than to be wise
against them. We are as much bound to keep the
sense of the Lord as His precept. Transgression in
interpretation is not lighter than in conversation. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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