The Tax Collector and the Pharisee
Exploring the Plausible Origin of the Parable’s Justification Theme
- Biblical Studies & Commentaries
- Publisher: Pickwick Publications (Wipf and Stock)
- Published: 2022
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Publisher's Description
The idea of "justification by faith" is noticeably illustrated in narrative form in the parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee (Luke 18:9-14). Did Luke the evangelist copy or import this idea from the apostle Paul? Or is there a better likelihood that Luke derived the theme from the teachings of Jesus himself? The answers to these questions have implications on the likely origin of this central Christian theme, and the connection between Jesus and Paul. In The Tax Collector and the Pharisee, Peter Tan-Gatue builds a plausible case that this notion of "justification by faith" comes from material sources that already exist in the Jesus tradition. Through biblical exegesis, critical use of authenticity criteria, and contributions in ancient and current historical-cultural studies, this work challenges the idea that justification is a Pauline innovation and also affirms the intrinsic authenticity of the Lukan parable.
Endorsements (5)
“In arguing that the idea of justification found in the Lukan parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector might stem from the historical Jesus, Peter Tan-Gatue . . . illuminates the significance and the possible origins of Luke’s special parables while demonstrating the coherence of their ideas of repentance, justification, and forgiveness with other parts of the synoptic tradition.”
“Did Jesus ever teach anything like Paul’s doctrine of justification by faith? If so, how often? . . . Peter Tan-Gatue tackles these and related questions in a wide-ranging doctoral dissertation that takes the parable of the Pharisee and tax collector as its jumping-off point. His findings are appropriately modest, but all the more worthy of scrutiny as a result.”
“I am pleased to commend this fine book. It makes . . . significant contributions toward demonstrating the origin of the Pauline doctrine of justification from Jesus’s teachings and establishing ‘coherence’ as a more suitable criterion in the studies of Jesus tradition than the more narrowly conceived criteria that have commonly been used in the critical scholarship.”
“More than a few scholars have concluded that it is implausible to think that the justification theme found within the Lukan parable of the pharisee and the tax collector derives not from Pauline-influenced redaction but from Jesus himself. Tan-Gatue renders this claim not only plausible, but downright compelling. Tan-Gatue constructs an impressive cumulative case by weaving together detailed exegesis, critical reflections on authenticity criteria, and historical-cultural insights drawn from first-century Judaism and oral-tradition studies. The result serves as an important contribution to Lukan and Pauline studies, and to historical-Jesus research.”
“Peter Tan-Gatue’s dissertation on the parable in Luke 18:9–14 . . . effectively shows the coherence of the idea of justification by faith, explicit in this parable, with Jesus’s wider teaching. This has implications both for the basic authenticity of the substance of such Lukan parables and for the continuity between Jesus and Paul. As such, this dissertation is important for Jesus research, for Christian origins, and for New Testament theology.”
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