Parable of the assassin
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The parable of the assassin, also known as the parable of the killer, is a parable attributed to Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas.
- Jesus said, "The kingdom of the father is like a certain man who wanted to kill a powerful man. In his own house he drew his sword and stuck it into the wall in order to find out whether his hand could carry through. Then he slew the powerful man." [1]
[edit] Authenticity
The scholars of the Jesus Seminar gave the parable of the assassin a "pink" rating, indicating that it is in their opinion probably an authentic saying of Jesus. They were influenced by parallels with the parables of the warring king [2] and of the tower builder [3] found in the Gospel of Luke, and by the "scandalous nature of the image" [4]. According to Robert Funk, "[a]ttributing a parable to Jesus not attested in the canonical gospels and known only for a few years was an act of courage that demanded careful deliberation" [5]. This decision by the Seminar has been criticized for inconsistency, since the parallel parable of the warring king in Luke was not given a pink rating [6]. The authenticity of this parable has been attacked on the grounds that Jesus would not use a parable that glorifies murder, and because of its use of the phrase "the kingdom of the father" which is not found in the canonical gospels [7].
[edit] Meaning
Like the Lucan parables of the warring king and the tower, this parable seems to concern "estimating the cost of an act or the capability to perform it successfully" [8]. According to some of the fellows of the Jesus Seminar, "the story line of the parable originally had to do with reversal: the little guy bests the big guy by taking the precautions a prudent person would take before encountering the village bully"[9]. A similar message can been found in the parable of the strong man.
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/gthlamb.html G. Thomas 98
- ^ Luke 14:28-30
- ^ Luke 14:31-32
- ^ Robert Walter Funk and Roy W. Hoover, The Five Gospels: What Did Jesus Really Say? the Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus, HarperCollins, 1997, pp. 524-5
- ^ Robert Walter Funk and Roy W. Hoover, The Five Gospels: What Did Jesus Really Say? the Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus, HarperCollins, 1997, p. 525
- ^ Craig A. Evans, Bruce D. Chilton, Authenticating the Words of Jesus, Brill Academic Publishers, 2002, p. 411
- ^ http://www.tektonics.org/qt/thomasgospel.html
- ^ http://www.bibletexts.com/texts/parables.htm#assassin
- ^ Robert Walter Funk and Roy W. Hoover, The Five Gospels: What Did Jesus Really Say? the Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus, HarperCollins, 1997, p. 525
