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Luke is not it. The Lukan setting fits this eminently. It seems to me
that the rationale for denying its authenticity lay elsewhere. Once we
do not buy into the scholarly categorisation of the parable as an
example story, 134 we are on the high road of making sense of the
meaning of this parable in its original context. There are then no
good grounds for denying authenticity to the frame but very strong
reasons for treating it as originally joined to the parable. Indeed, it is
the severance of the parabolic frame from the parable itself which
vitiates many popular and scholarly interpretations found today and
denudes the parable of its important message.
The Covenantal Horizon of the Shema‘
If the frame belonged originally to the parable, what should not
be missed is the covenantal horizon of the discussion between Jesus
and the lawyer. In much of popular Christianity, the connection
between the Old and the New Testaments is not an item of interest
or concern but if we treat seriously the fact that Christianity arose
from the matrix of Judaism, seeking to interpret the parable from the
covenantal angle becomes a necessary task.
The pericope begins with a question that is thoroughly Jewish
(v. 25). How may one obtain and be assured of eternal life, i.e., the
life of the age to come? The reply of Jesus draws the questioner back
to the Torah, the charter of the covenant (v. 26). Life is certainly the
gift of being in covenantal relationship with Yahweh (Lev 18.5; Deut
30.15-19) but the Torah defines what it means to be in that
relationship. So, if there is one way to gain the life of the age to come,
this would be found in the Torah, and thus, the Jesus’ question takes
this form: ‘What has been written in the Torah?’
The answer given by the lawyer connects the whole discussion
to the Shema‘ in that the great commandment, cited by the lawyer,
was originally given in the context of confessing Yahweh as the only
true God (Deut 6.4-5). In using the words of the Shema‘ the lawyer
supported what many Jews were saying in different situations and this
134 Cf. Nolland, Luke 9:21 – 18:34, p. 591; Wright, Victory of God, p. 306.