On Angry and Depraved Sons: Processes of Social and Religious Othering in Early Rabbinic and New Testament Parables

Description

The present paper aims to contribute to scholarly discussions about how Jesus’ attitude towards children in the Gospels should be assessed in light of Greek, Roman, and Jewish views on, and practices regarding, children in antiquity. In these discussions the parables attributed to Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels (as well as those in the Gospel of Thomas) have received limited attention. In my view, this is a lost opportunity, for the frequent appearance of children in rabbinic parables provides a very specific case study for comparing the construction of childhood in Jesus’ parables with that in a similar genre of his fellow Jews in antiquity. In this presentation, I will take some first steps in carrying out such a comparative study, focusing on Luke’s parable of the prodigal son and his angry brother (Luke 15:11-32) and on selected Tannaitic parables. My presentation shows that in both Luke’s parable and the Tannaitic parables children function as a social other who have to comply with (or have to be brought in compliance with) the prevailing norms and values associated with the position and perspective of the adult male head of the household. This social othering may have coincided with a process of religious othering in the application, regarding contemporary Jews or Jews in the past who did not live up to the social and religious standards of the early Christian and early rabbinic communities.

Period	24 Jun 2019
Event title	Power of Parables: Narrative and Religious Identity in Late Antiquity
Event type	Conference
Location	Utrecht, NetherlandsShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International