PARABLES OF ADVENT: CROSSAN'S IN PARABLES (Chapter Two)

Parables of Advent: Parables functioning to describe the coming of the Kingdom of God.

1. Discovery and Joy: The Parable of the Hidden Treasure (Matt. 13:44); The Lost Sheep (Matt. 18:12-13; Luke 15:4-6; Gos. Thom. 98:22-27); The Lost Coin (Luke 15:8-9). "These parables imagine what we must find even if it is true that it is a finding of that by which we were already and always found."
2. Hiddenness and Mystery: The Parable of the Fig Tree (Mark 13:28; Matt. 24:32; Luke 21:29-30); The Leaven (Matt:13:33; Luke 13:20-21; Gos. Thom. 97:3-6). One cannot see the leaven (hidden) "but the swelling of the bread makes it evident to all that it was there."
3. Gift and Surprise: Parable of the Sower (Mark 4:3-8; Matt. 13:3-8; Luke 8:5-8; Gos. Thom. 82:3-13).

The Parable of the Sower (Matt. 13:3-8; Luke 8:5-8; Mark 4:3-8; Gos. Thom. 82:3-13)

• Note the singular 'seed' in vss. 4,5,7, and the plural 'seeds' in vs. 8.
• Best to translate this distinction as "some ... other ... other ... the others (=the rest)."
• The contrast of singular and plural is underlined by the phrase 'it yielded no grain,' reflecting back on the seed amongst the thorns as well as the wasted seed in 4:3-7. This is in comparison to the fruit yeilding  seed in 4:8. "There is even a third formal feature of contrast in that three degrees of loss lead to three degrees of gain. All of this means that there is not an even emphasis on four situations (path, rocks, thorns, good ground), but a formal balance and contrast between three situations of waste and failure and three situations of gain and success."
• "The major problem will be to determine if the Markan text shows any signs of expansion over a pre-Markan earlier version."

Five Elements in the Sower

1. The Opening (4:3)
2. The Path (4:4)
3. The Rocks (4:5-6): Longest section, triple repetition of the lack of ground, two conflicting images are presented. In 4:6 the seed does not survive the scorching of the sun, but in 4:5,6b, the image is of a seed that grows and then withers.
4. The Thorns (4:7)
5. The Good Ground (4:8)

Reactions of Matthew and Luke

• Matt. 13:5-6 - Matthew accepts Mark's version of the parable.
• Matt. 13:4,5,7,8 - Provides a consistent plurality of seeds with 'others seeds.'
• Luke 8:6 - Luke makes revisions. Luke replaces the redundancy of the lack of soil with, "because it had no moisture." He has the seed fall on the rock, removing the need of the sun to scortch it. Crossan argues that Luke 'prunes' Mark's version back to a pre-Markan version. The insertion of the sun in 4:6 is evidenced by the redactor's use of "since it had no ..." as a frame for the insertion.  
• Luke 8:5,6,7,8 - Provides a consistent singularity of seeds with 'some.' 
• The second expansion in Mark 4:8 'growing and increasing' is omitted in both Matt. 13:8 and Luke 8:8.

The Interpretation

1. "The insertion of the sun in 4:6a with the attendant litarary dislocutions in 4:5-6 can be explained as an effect of the interpretation's presence within the situation of the Markan community The one who inserted the sudden arrival of the scorching sun in 4:6a wished to underline most forcibly what the advent of 'tribulation or persecution.'" In comparison with Luke 8:6,13 wherein the sun is removed and only 'time of temptation' is mentioned, the imagery changes; "temptation withers, persecution scorches."
2. Differences in Markan text with Gos. Thom. 82:3-13: 1) No mention of the sun; 2) No mention of growth and increase as in Mark 4:8; 3) Gos. Thom does not have the twofold contrast of wasted seed and the frutiful seed, but retains the fourfold division of singularity and plurality of 'seed' as in Mark; 4) In Mark, the yield of the harvest (30,60,100) and in Gos. Thom. (60, 120). Mark's yielding of the fruit is more original being more poetic, providing a closural effect with a round 100, instead of the 120 in Gos. of Thom.
3. The original version of the Parable of the Sower is best reflected in the pre-Markan text, that is, in Mark 4:3-8 without the insertions in 4:5-6 and 4:8. It contrasts three degrees of waste (path, rocks, thorns) with three degrees of fruitfulness (30,60,100). What does this parable mean for Jesus?

Conclusion

"We tend to think of sowing and harvesting, or of seed and shrub, in terms of organic growth and normal biological development. The biblical mind knew also about growth and development but, more importantly, it took very seriously the God who gave them both as gift."

For example, 1 Cor. 15:35-44, wherein Paul utilizes the sowing image to express the mystery of continuity, "and also a paradox of discontinuity between the body one has here on earth and the body one will have in heaven." The change Paul describes is not done through normal growth processes, but through a miracle of God.

Likewise the Sower juxtaposes two states: 1) Three instances of sowing losses; 2) Three instances of harvest gain. "[T]he diptych of juxtaposition does not wish to emphasize growth but miracle, not organic and biological development but the gift-like nature, the graciousness and the surprise of the ordinary, the advent of bountiful harvest despite the losses of sowing, the large shade despite the small seed [in reference to the Mustard Seed]. It is like this that the Kingdom is in advent. It is surprise and it is gift."

"It is one thing to communicate to others conclusions and admonitions based on one own's profound spiritual experience. It was this that Pharisaic theology did so admirably at the time of Jesus. It is quite another thing to try and communicate that experience itself, or, better, to assist people to find their own ultimate encounter. This is what Jesus' parables seek to do: to help others into their own experience of the Kingdom and to draw from that experience their own way of life."

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