Open AccessThe Function of the Allusion to Aristophanes’ Birds in the Parable of the Unjust Steward (Lk 16:1–8)
Author(s) -
Bartosz Adamczewski
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
collectanea theologica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.139
H-Index - 2
eISSN - 2720-1481
pISSN - 0137-6985
DOI - 10.21697/ct.2021.91.2.02
Subject(s) - allusion , righteousness , economic justice , philosophy , literature , law , meaning (existential) , comedy , rhetoric , covenant , morality , sociology , theology , epistemology , art , political science
The allusion to Aristophanes’ Birds plays an important role in the intertextual-illustrative rhetoric of the Lucan parable of the unjust steward (Lk 16:1–8). People generally assume that good legal systems promote moral honesty and legal justice. Against this background, the Pauline idea of the presence of the law, but also its ineffectiveness in giving righteousness (Gal 3:19b; cf. 3:21), is quite difficult to explain. In order to illustrate this Pauline idea in his sequential hypertextual reworking of the Letter to the Galatians, Luke used the allusion to Aristophanes’ comedy, which presented the classical Athenian legal system as likewise ineffective against the activity of the morally corrupt legal agent, the sycophant. The Lucan unjust steward not only uses the language of the Athenian sycophant, but also engages in similar, apparently legal but morally unjust activity, thus questioning the effectiveness of the whole legal system in promoting righteousness. The reworking of the sequence of Pauline ideas explains the meaning of the enigmatic parable of the unjust steward (Lk 16:1–8).