The Healing of the Man with Dropsy (Luke 14:1-6) and the Lukan Landscape
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The healing of the man with dropsy is a surprisingly under-noticed passage in Luke. Few commentaries give much attention to it at all. Where attention is given, the passage is usually heard in one of the following ways: (1) in the context of healing stories or Sabbath healings in general, and thus through the lens of form criticism and how this story participates in the larger context of healing stories; or (2) in the context of the symposia or meal stories since this passage introduces such a scene, and the background for understanding the passage is thus the literary topos of meal stories in the Greco-Roman world. In either reading, the fact that the man has dropsy specifically is essentially irrelevant to the story; he might as well have been blind or lame or deaf. Yet this is the only occurrence in the NT of this specific condition, and I would like to suggest that dropsy is not incidental to the story at all. Rather, the dropsy is itself key to the story. Dropsy is used widely in the ancient Greek world, particularly in the writings of philosophers, and it is frequently a metaphor for greed and wealth. Among the commentary tradition, few scholars take notice of the dropsy metaphor. This paper will mine the Greek philosophical tradition for examples of dropsy to build the case for its metaphorical usage, and it will apply that metaphor to this passage in Luke to see how it might serve the Lukan narrative.
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1
Willi Braun, Feasting and Social Rhetoric in Luke 14 (SNTSMS 85; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).
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2
Joseph Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke: Introduction, Translation, and Notes (AB 28A; New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985), p. 1040.
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3
Frederick Danker, Jesus and the New Age: A Commentary on St. Luke’s Gospel (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1988), p. 267.
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4
Scott Spencer, The Gospel of Luke and Acts of the Apostles (Nashville: Abingdon, 2008), p. 169.
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5
John Nolland, Luke 9:21-18:34 (WBC 35B; Dallas: Word, 1993), p. 745.
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6
Luke Timothy Johnson, The Gospel of Luke (SP 3; Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1991), p. 223.
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7
Joel B. Green, The Gospel of Luke (NICNT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), p. 544.
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8
Rudolf Bultmann, History of the Synoptic Tradition (trans. John Marsh; New York: Harper & Row, 1963), p. 12.
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9
Charles H. Talbert, Reading Luke: A Literary and Theological Commentary on the Third Gospel (Macon, Ga: Smyth & Helwys, 2002), p. 171.
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10
Robert H. Stein, Luke (NAC 24; Nashville: Broadman, 1992), p. 386.
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12
Bruce J. Malina and Richard L. Rohrbaugh, Social-Scientific Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2003), pp. 284-85.
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13
Malina and Rohrbaugh, Social-Scientific Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels, pp. 381-82.
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14
John Paul Heil, The Meal Scenes in Luke-Acts: An Audience Oriented Approach (SBLMS 52; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 1999). Heil indexes and exegetes all of the meal scenes, but the dropsy scene specifically is found on pp. 99-113.
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18
Robert C. Tannehill, Luke (ANTC; Nashville: Abingdon, 1996), p. 227.
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25
Malina and Rohrbaugh, Social-Scientific Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels, pp. 284-85.
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28
See especially Heil, Meal Scenes in Luke-Acts, pp. 100 and 113.
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The Healing of the Man with Dropsy (Luke 14:1-6) and the Lukan Landscape
In: Biblical InterpretationSearch for other papers by Chad Hartsock in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
The healing of the man with dropsy is a surprisingly under-noticed passage in Luke. Few commentaries give much attention to it at all. Where attention is given, the passage is usually heard in one of the following ways: (1) in the context of healing stories or Sabbath healings in general, and thus through the lens of form criticism and how this story participates in the larger context of healing stories; or (2) in the context of the symposia or meal stories since this passage introduces such a scene, and the background for understanding the passage is thus the literary topos of meal stories in the Greco-Roman world. In either reading, the fact that the man has dropsy specifically is essentially irrelevant to the story; he might as well have been blind or lame or deaf. Yet this is the only occurrence in the NT of this specific condition, and I would like to suggest that dropsy is not incidental to the story at all. Rather, the dropsy is itself key to the story. Dropsy is used widely in the ancient Greek world, particularly in the writings of philosophers, and it is frequently a metaphor for greed and wealth. Among the commentary tradition, few scholars take notice of the dropsy metaphor. This paper will mine the Greek philosophical tradition for examples of dropsy to build the case for its metaphorical usage, and it will apply that metaphor to this passage in Luke to see how it might serve the Lukan narrative.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 4616 | 239 | 25 |
| Full Text Views | 106 | 12 | 1 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 224 | 29 | 2 |
