Page 404 - ILIAS ATHANASIADIS AKA RO1

In Luke 15:4–7 the same story is directed at the Pharisees, this time to instruct
them not to grumble because Jesus has attracted repentant sinners.

Both applications of the parable were useful homiletically and were therefore

preserved. The context in which Jesus originally used the parable, however, is
unknown.

Another example is the saying “love your enemies” (Matthew 5:44).

Homiletically, it may be applied to numerous circumstances, which makes it very
useful for sermons and teaching.

Historically, however, it is not known to whom Jesus referred when he spoke

those words. The lack of firm knowledge of original context makes the precise
interpretation of individual passages difficult.

Further, not all the sayings and deeds in the Synoptic Gospels are reports of

things that Jesus actually said and did.

Believing that Jesus ascended into heaven, the early Christians spoke to him in
prayer and sometimes he answered (2 Corinthians 12:8–9; cf. 1 Corinthians 2:13).

Those early Christians did not distinguish between “the historical Jesus” and “the

heavenly Lord” as firmly as most modern people do, and some sayings heard in
prayer almost certainly ended up in the Gospels as sayings uttered by Jesus during
his lifetime.

Since both the original context of Jesus’ sayings and deeds and those passages in
the Gospels that go back to the historical Jesus are unknown, there are substantial
difficulties in attempting to reconstruct the Jesus of history.

Of these two difficulties, the lack of immediate context is the more serious. It
must be admitted that, on many points, precision and nuance in describing the
teaching and ministry of Jesus cannot be achieved.

There are, however, tests of authenticity that make it possible to acquire good

general information about Jesus’ teachings. One of the most important of these is
“multiple attestation”: a passage that appears in two or more independent sources

is likely to be authentic