Example Stories

Yesterday’s blog suggested that the story of the widow who provided sanctuary to Elijah was intended by Luke as an example to the people of Israel. In writing the blog, I undoubtedly was influenced by a book I have not read but is on my reading list.[i] Example Stories give the perspectives on four parables unique to Luke but I suspect the genre should include even the two-verse example story of the widow. Tucker has limited his study to the treatment of these four parables: The Good Samaritan, The Prodigal Son, The Rich Fool, The Rich Man and Lazarus and The Pharisee and the Toll Collector. I have said before that Luke employs the step-progression method wherein something he says serves to introduce the next topic. Tucker’s “study contains the story of the transformation of four parables in the Gospel of Luke into ‘example stories. . . .’”[ii]

[i] Tucker, Jeffrey T., Example Stories: perspectives on four parables in the Gospel of Luke, (Sheffield, JSNT, 1998).
[ii] Tucker, 397.

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