THE PARABLE OF THE FIG TREE
(Lk xiii, 6-9)
Like the preceding, the parable is given as part of the conversation on the Samaritan journey. But it seems to be Luke’s version of the story told by Mark of the cursing of the fig tree; and this latter Mark places in Jerusalem. This may be taken as another hint of the origin of this section in a Jerusalem tradition.
“GO TELL THAT FOX”
(Lk xiii, 31-33)
Mr. Streeter[114] remarks of this section that it is so “un-Lucan in its rough vigor that it is certainly original”; in other words, that it certainly stood in Luke’s source. This source Mr. Streeter maintains is Q, not only for this brief section, but for the solid block of Lk ix, 51-xiii, 59 (with the possible exception of the two parables of the Good Samaritan, the Rich Fool, and perhaps the story of Martha). The passage, xiii, 1-17, he suggests may have been interpolated into Q before Q came to Luke.
The primary character of the section now under consideration cannot be doubted. The fact that Luke has apparently left his Q material by itself, instead of mingling it with his Marcan and other matter, would argue for Mr. Streeter’s position. Yet Luke has not altogether followed this general rule of his; and he has made some very notable transpositions of Marcan material. This saying, also, is not quite like most of the sayings that are by common agreement to be ascribed to Q. It is neither a general rule of conduct, like the sayings in the Sermon on the Mount, nor has it to do with the kingdom of God, like the brief parables of Q. If Luke inserted it from another source, his reason for inserting it in just this place may have been the fact of its closing with the word “Jerusalem.” Yet the lament over Jerusalem which immediately follows is evidently wrongly placed by Luke, in the midst of his Perean journey. We are inclined to assign these verses, tho with some uncertainty, to a special source. The words were apparently spoken neither on the Perean journey (assuming such a journey to have taken place) nor at its close in Jerusalem, but in Galilee.
THE HEALING OF THE DROPSICAL MAN
(Lk xiv, 1-6)
The only saying in this section is that paralleled in Lk xiii, 15-16, and duplicated in Mt xii, 11. The incident is somewhat similar to that recorded in Mk iii, 1-6; and it is noticeable that Matthew, in taking over that incident from Mark, inserts in the midst of it this saying of Jesus about the ox or ass falling into the pit on the Sabbath. If the saying occurred in Q, Matthew has thus taken it out of its original context and made it a part of a Marcan story; but he would hardly have done this if it already, in his copy of Q, constituted part of another and equally good story. In view of the general character of Q as a collection of “sayings,” with as little mixture of incident as possible, it seems better to say that this saying about the ox or ass falling into the pit occurred once in Q, unconnected, and that Luke found it again in the story before us, in some other source.