Luke 17 - Introduction

CHAPTER 17.

A COLLECTION OF SAYINGS, INCLUDING THE PARABLE OF EXTRA SERVICE.

This chapter gives the impression of being a group of fragments with little connection in place, time, or topic, and nothing is gained for exegesis by ingenious attempts at logical or topical concatenation. If we view the group of parables in chaps. 15, 16 as a mass which has grown around the parable of the Lost Sheep as its nucleus, and reflect that that parable with the sayings in Luke 17:1-4 is found in Matthew 18, we may with some measure of confidence draw the inference that the discourse on humility at Capernaum was the original locus of at least these elements of Luke's narrative. That they are mixed up with so much matter foreign to Mt.'s record speaks to extensive transformation of the tradition of our Lord's words by the time it reached Lk.'s hands (vide Weizsäcker, Untersuchungen, p. 177).