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lawyer in Mark 12.28-31||Matt 22.34-40. 115 Calling the parable an
example story 116 certainly helps to bolster these two arguments as
it generalises the applicability of the parable. Nevertheless, there
are good grounds for assuming that the frame of the parable is
authentic and has always been joined with the parable.
First of all, the arguments usually cited cannot stand up to
scrutiny. Indeed, the argument that Luke tends to generalise is a
generalisation in itself. Why should it be thought that if Luke
generalised the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18, he was
certainly doing the same with the parable of the Good Samaritan?
Furthermore, the perceived similarities between Mark 12.28-31 and
Luke 10.25-37 have been overdone. It must be pointed out first of
all that the alleged parallel does not contain a parable and for the
objection to stand, it must be presupposed that Luke first found the
parable without a frame and used the alleged parallel as the basis
for the composition of the frame. Postulating that Luke expunged
an original frame and replaced it by that which required
composition from an alleged parallel stretches belief. Moreover, in
the former passage, the answer citing the love command as the
greatest was given by Jesus; in the latter, the lawyer provided that
answer as the one means to eternal life. Again, in the former
passage no debate was envisaged and the lawyer‘s answer was
commended by Jesus; the same cannot be said for the latter
passage. 117 There are just too many discrepancies between the two
periscopes for the hypothesis to be cogent. Indeed, it seems to me
that for Jesus to have engaged himself in discussion on the great
commands on different occasions and with different thrusts should
be regarded as the best explanation of the phenomenon we now
have. 118
115
Witherington, Jesus the Sage, p. 193. Cf. J. Nolland, Luke 9:21 – 18:34, Vol.
35B, WBC, Dallas: Word, 1993, p. 580.
116
E.g, Jülicher, Die Gleichnisreden Jesu, p. 114; R. Bultmann, The History of
the Synoptic Tradition, Oxford: Blackwell, 2 1968, p. 178.
117
Cf. C.A. Evans, Mark 8.27 – 16.20, WBC 34B, Nashville: Nelson, 2001, p.
262.
118
Cf. T.W. Manson , The sayings of Jesus: as recorded in the Gospels
according to St. Matthew and St. Luke, London: SCM Press, 1950, pp. 259-60.