A parable of Jesus in which a younger son demands his inheritance early, squanders it in a distant country, and returns home destitute expecting only servant status, but is met by his father while still far off, who runs to embrace him, restores him as a son and holds a feast. The older brother, who stayed and served faithfully, refuses to join the celebration, and the father pleads with him that everything he owns was always his, but that his brother who was dead is alive again and was lost and is found.
Facts
Controversy
Point in DisputeInterpreters debate whether the parable's real center of gravity is the younger son's repentance and welcome, or the older son's unresolved resentment, since the text ends with the father's appeal to the older son and never states how, or whether, he responds. 2 Canonicity (class) Literary form (class) Identity
Position in the CanonChapter 15 of 24 in the Gospel of Luke. 1 Canonical Reference Sources
Textual NoteUnique to Luke's Gospel among the four canonical Gospels; no parallel version appears in Matthew, Mark or John. 2 Meaning
ThemeUnconditional forgiveness and a father's welcome, set against an older sibling's unresolved resentment at a sense of earned merit gone unrewarded. 2 Text
Literary FormParable, the third and longest of a set of three, following the lost sheep and the lost coin, told in response to Pharisees and scribes complaining that Jesus welcomes and eats with sinners. 2 Connections
Associated With
Jesus, Figures Source The New Testament, Gospel of LukeAnonymous
Belongs to Tradition
Source The New Testament, Gospel of LukeAnonymous
Contained In
Source The New Testament, Gospel of LukeAnonymous
Sources
1. The New Testament, Gospel of Luke
Anonymous
2. The Gospel According to Luke X-XXIV (Fitzmyer, Anchor Bible)
Joseph A. Fitzmyer, Doubleday and Company, Garden City, New York (The Anchor Bible, vol. 28A), 1985Luke 15:11-32Quote, Luke 15:11-32
The Gospel According to Luke X-XXIV (Fitzmyer): a parable, a short didactic narrative told by Jesus.
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