Interpretation Paper of Luke 15

Interpretation Paper Luke 15
First Impressions. What are your first impressions of this text? Forgiveness, repentance, and diligence. In the Prodigal of the Lost Son, the farmer celebrates the return of his son from a life of sin. Son’s sins are not what is celebrated rather his acknowledgement of his own sins and his repentance to his father. His father (the farmer) with a celebration forgives the son.  Both the Parable of the Lost Sheep and the Parable of the Lost Coin reflect repentance, diligence, and a form of forgiveness. In the Lost Sheep, the man loses one sheep out of ninety-nine and searches for the one until it is found and rejoices in it. In the Lost Coin, a woman loses 1 coin out of 10 in her home. She cleans and sweeps until she finds the one coin and rejoices. What sounds interesting or strange to you? What do you think a 21st human being might hear in all this?  In this day and age, the majority of people would search and work for the ninety-nine sheep and not the lost one, not for the one coin but for the nine others, and would reward the hardworking son over the lost son. Faith is usually not in God/Bible/Jesus but in making a profit of some sort. Can you immediately think of a situation for which this story or these words might be helpful?  I read these words and I think of myself, my relationship with my family. The hard-working, reliable daughter, who is reliable to a fault is finally able to do something with her life, received very little support. Compared to what they have done for my siblings with addiction issues. It makes me question my faith. Are there any important textual footnotes that apply to this text?  The footnotes name the parables and where each one is started and ended.
Translation Study. Which of the three translations did you find the most readable to you? Printed out the New International Version, the English Standard Version, and the American Standard Version. The New International Version was and is the most readable to me. What significant differences do you see in the text? Punctuation, grammar, the order of the words, and language

Word Study. Which word do you think are most important to this text? Lose/Lost, Rejoice/Rejoicing, Found/Find, Repent, Gathering, Joyfully What makes you think these words are important? Many of the words are repeated and one is found in the title of the parables. What did you find out about each of these terms?  “Lost” – G622 – Apollymi – perish, destroy, lose, be lost, lost. The word lost is used forty-five times in forty-four different verses in the NIV.
Grammatical Analysis. Who are the principal subjects of the important verbs of this text? Tax collectors, sinners, Pharisees, scribes Are those verbs active or passive? Active and passive Are they past, present, or future tense? Present and future Who are the direct objects? Lost sheep, lost coin, and lost son
Thought Progression/Content. Summarize the thought progression of the text.  Lost and Found – A man loses one sheep out of ninety-nine and goes in search of this lost sheep until he finds it. A woman loses one coin out of ten in her home. She cleans and searches until she finds this one coin. A father welcomes home a son who has sinned much to the dismay and anger of the older brother the sinful son is welcomed home. Each parable builds off of the other in-depth and meaning. Have faith in the Lord and live a righteous life. Do this for each of the three sections of Luke 15. The Parable of the Lost Sheep – A man loses one of the sheep out of ninety-nine. He leaves his faithful flock behind in order to find the one that is lost. When he finds the lost sheep he takes its home and celebrates it with his friends. Find joy in the one who repents than in the others who do not need to repent. The Parable of the Lost Coin – A woman has ten coins and loses one in her home. This woman cleans and searches until she finds the missing coin and when she finds it she celebrates with her friends. The Parable of the Lost Son – A man with two sons is requested by the youngest to give him his share of an inheritance. The youngest son spends and loses all that was given to him and lives in poverty. After working for another he realizes that if he returns home to his family he will be cared for. The youngest son returns home to his family and asks his father for forgiveness while admitting that he has sinned. His father welcomes him home with open arms and celebrates. The father’s oldest son is angered by this and questions the actions of his father. He, the oldest son, who has been loyal feels as if his father doesn’t love him, appreciate him. The father then states that because he has been so loyal to him that he the oldest son will receive all that has belonged to his father.
Immediate Contextual Study. Summarize the chapters and verses that immediately precede these? Parable of the unfruitful fig tree. Healing of the crippled women on the Sabbath. Parable of the mustard seed. Parable of the yeast. Healing of a man with dropsy on the Sabbath. Humility Parable. Great dinner parable. The costs of discipleship What, if any impact does this text have upon their meaning or thought progression of this text? These chapters are supportive of the thought progression in chapter
Summarize the chapters and verses which immediately follow this text.  The dishonest manager parable. Sayings. Parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Biblical Contextual Study. Does the author deal with this subject anywhere else in this book or if he wrote another book, in that book? In chapters 13, 14, and 16. Stories and parables of forgiveness, patience, and faithfulness How does this author deal with this same event or subject matter in other places? With the retelling of stories and parables. If the message of the whole Bible really is about God saving people, how do you think this fits in? In order to “save” someone, anyone, a tremendous amount of love, patience, and faith is needed. Love, patience, and faith in yourself as well as the one being saved.
Reference

Blue Letter Bible. “Dictionary and Word Search for ‘”lost”‘ in the NIV”. Blue Letter Bible. 1996-2012. 13 Oct 2012.
http://www.blueletterbible.org/search/translationResults.cfm?? Criteria=lost&t=NIV > * “Rejoice”.
http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?? Strongs=G4796&t=NIV >
http://www.lueletterbible. org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?? strongs=G2147&t=NIV&page=3 >
Blue Letter Bible. 1996-2012. 13 Oct 2012.
< http:// www. blueletterbible. org/lang/lexicon/lexicon. cfm?? Strongs=G3341&t=NIV > * “Gathering” – G1448 – Eggizo – to bring near, to join one thing to another – to draw or come near to, to approach.
This word is used forty-two times in forty-one verses. Blue Letter Bible. “Dictionary and Word Search for Reggio (Strong’s 1448)”. Blue Letter Bible. 1996-2012. 13 Oct 2012.
http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon. cfm?? Strongs=G1448&t=NIV >