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The Harvest Time

Data

(1) Thom 21:1-4
(2) Mark 4:26-29

 

Texts

(1) Thom 21:1-4, 8-9

21:1 Mary said to Jesus, "What are your disciples like?" 2He said, They are like little children living in a field that is not theirs. 3When the owners of the field come, they will say, "Give us back our field." 4They take off their clothes in front of them in order to give it back to them, and they return their field to them. 5For this reason I say, if the owners of a house know that a thief is coming, they will be on guard before the thief arrives, and will not let the thief break into their house (their domain) and steal their possessions. 6 As for you, then, be on guard against the world. 7Prepare yourselves with great strength, so the robbers can't find a way to get to you, for the trouble you expect will come. 8 Let there be among you a person who understands. 9When the crop ripened, he came quickly carrying a sickle and harvested it. 10Anyone here with two good ears had better listen! [Complete Gospels]

 

(2) Mark 4:26-29

4:26 He also said, "The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, 4:27 and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. 4:28 The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. 4:29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come."

 

 

Notes

John Dominic Crossan

Item: 75
Stratum: I (30-60 CE)
Attestation: Double
Historicity: +

Crossan [Historical Jesus, 350f] observes that the "same theme of clash and choice, challenge and response" is to be found in the following three parables: 71. The Fishnet [1/2], 75. The Harvest Time [1/2], and 107. The Lost Sheep [1/2]. He then comments:

Nothing could illustrate more clearly the problem of deciding original materials even within the first stratum. Jesus could use a more or less proverbial or parabolic image that is radical only in its application, namely, that his vision, his message, or his challenge is as obvious, ordinary, or necessary as this or that action. It is as clear as a fisherman choosing the better fish or a harvester choosing the right moment to begin reaping. But the transmission could just as easily interpret common sense as sapiential mystery hidden from the dawn of creation or eschatological secret to be revealed at the imminent eschaton. Jesus, like all the Cynics, would claim that their life was simply the wisdom of common sense open to all with eyes to see and ears to hear.

 

Jesus Seminar

Text

Item

 Source

JS Mtg

%Red

%Pink

%Gray

%Black

W Avg

Color
Thom 21:9
45
K, T
86Red
11
50
7
32
0.46
Gray
Mark 4:26b-29
45
K, T
86Red
31
45
7
17
0.63
Pink

 

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