Matthew 22.1-14 | Luke 14.15-24 | Thomas 64 |
1 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: 2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. | 15 When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.” 16 Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. | Jesus said, "A man had received visitors. And when he had prepared the dinner, he sent his servant to invite guests. |
3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. 4 “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’ 5 “But they paid no attention and went off, one to his field, another to his business. | 17 At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ 18 “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ 19 “Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’ 20 “Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’ | He went to the first one and said to him, "My master invites you.' He said, 'I have claims against some merchants. They are coming to me this evening. I must go and give them my orders. I ask to be excused from the dinner.' He went to another and said, 'My master has invited you.' He said to him, 'I have just bought a house and am required for the day. I shall not have any spare time.' He went to another and said to him, 'My master invites you.' He said to him, 'My friend is going to get married, and I am to prepare the banquet. I shall not be able to come. I ask to be excused from the dinner.' He went to another and said to him, 'My master invites you.' He said to him, 'I have just bought a farm, and I am on my way to collect the rent. I shall not be able to come. I ask to be excused.' |
6 [A] The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. 7 [B] The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. | - | - |
8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9 So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. | 21 “The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’ 22 “‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’ 23 “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. 24 I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’” | The servant returned and said to his master, 'Those whom you invited to the dinner have asked to be excused.' The master said to his servant, 'Go outside to the streets and bring back those whom you happen to meet, so that they may dine.' Businessmen and merchants will not enter the places of My Father." |
11 [C] “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless. 13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.” | - | - |
If you read only the green text from each gospel (the Lucan and Thomasine versions in their entirety and the Matthean version stripped of the two sections in blue), the parable makes a lot of sense. A feast is held, the invitees are summoned, they make excuses, and others are then invited in their stead.
Those blue sections in Matthew, however, are highly problematic.
First (A), the notion of the slaying of the servants in verse 6 appears to derive from the parable of the tenants from the previous chapter:
Second (B), the king actually wages war against the murderers and razes their city, and then goes back to the little matter of issuing alternate wedding invitations; the feast is apparently still there, waiting, even after the war! (This motif, I suspect, is an infiltration from the fall of Jerusalem.)
Third (C), one of the wedding guests (only one??) happens to have arrived without the proper attire and is summarily given the maximum penalty, despite having been literally dragged in off the streets. How many people would be wearing wedding attire in such an impromptu situation?
It is possible, I imagine, that Matthew composed this mess all on his own, and Luke and/or Thomas saw the trouble spots and avoided them. But it certainly looks to me as if the likelihood is that the parable was once fairly straightforward (the green text) and accumulated thematic additions (the blue text) which sullied things a bit. If we ignore these additions, I can see Luke and/or Thomas changing a wedding feast into just a feast just as easily as I can see Matthew changing an ordinary feast into a wedding feast; I think that duel may be a draw. But, once the additions are taken into account, it looks to me as if the Lucan/Thomasine version is the more original.
Thoughts?
Ben.
PS: Here are a few parallels from other texts:
Matthew 19.30: 30 “But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.”
Matthew 20.16: 16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
Mark 10.31: 31 “But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
Luke 13.28-30: 28 “There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. 29 People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. 30 Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.”
Thomas 23: Jesus said, "I shall choose you, one out of a thousand, and two out of ten thousand, and they shall stand as a single one."
Barnabas 4.14: 14 Moreover understand this also, my brothers. When ye see that after so many signs and wonders wrought in Israel, even then they were abandoned, let us give heed, lest haply we be found, as the scripture saith, many are called but few are chosen.