Cultural Insights ~ Luke 15.13-19 ~ Answers
Gleaned from Kenneth Bailey by Lee Magness
Cultural Insights into Luke 15.13-19
1) What were the cultural implications of the younger son "gathering all that he had"?
Insight ~ Farmers lived in villages, not out on their farmland. The younger son's hasty liquidation of his share of
the property would have been immediately known by everyone in the village. Besides, selling farmland was
considered shameful; property was expected to be kept within the tribe or clan or family.
2) What should we assume about the cultural identity of the people of the "far country"?
Insight ~ The people of the far country were undoubtedly Gentiles, non-Jews. The younger son has not only
abandoned his father and his family but his people.
3) How/why might he had "squandered all his money in spendthrift living"?
Insight ~ Spending money on others was a way to gain status and impress others.
4) When he spent all his money and the famine struck, why didn't he just go home?
Insight ~ a) He had a lingering desire to make it on his own
b) He would have to face his brother's scorn
c) He would have to face up to his father's shame
d) He would be forced to face the villagers' kezazah
If a Jewish boy lost the family's inheritance among Gentiles, he would have to face the Kezazah
ceremony when he returned. The villagers would break a pot in front of him and say "So-and-so is 'cut off'
from his people.
5) What are the implications of "no one gave him anything"?
Insight ~ He had been reduced to begging, a socially shameful occupation.
6) What could we assume about the "citizen" ethnically and economically?
Insight ~ He was surely a gentile ("far country," "pigs").
7) What is the significance of "feeding pigs" and wanting to eat their food?
Insight ~ Pigs were considered unclean, associated with Gentiles, ate garbage in the streets. It was a mark of
her desperation that he wanted to eat carob pods, even though they were undigestible to humans. To put it
another way, he longed to become a pig.
8) Why mention "bread" so prominently?
Insight ~ Bread was the staple food of the Palestinian peasants' diet.
9) What is the significance of his plan to become one of his father's "hired workers" (not slave or servant)?
Insight ~ He may hope to be apprenticed to a craftsman in his hometown, earn money, repay his father, and
regain his social status in the village. If so, he may...
a) ...not be going home to his father but to a job, not to live with his father but with a craftsman.
b) ...hope to pay off his father, not seek his grace.
c) ...anticipate an employee/employer relationship with his father, not father/son.
d) ...is focused on restitution, but not repentance, reconciliation, or restoration of a relationship
1) What were the cultural implications of the younger son "gathering all that he had"?
Insight ~ Farmers lived in villages, not out on their farmland. The younger son's hasty liquidation of his share of
the property would have been immediately known by everyone in the village. Besides, selling farmland was
considered shameful; property was expected to be kept within the tribe or clan or family.
2) What should we assume about the cultural identity of the people of the "far country"?
Insight ~ The people of the far country were undoubtedly Gentiles, non-Jews. The younger son has not only
abandoned his father and his family but his people.
3) How/why might he had "squandered all his money in spendthrift living"?
Insight ~ Spending money on others was a way to gain status and impress others.
4) When he spent all his money and the famine struck, why didn't he just go home?
Insight ~ a) He had a lingering desire to make it on his own
b) He would have to face his brother's scorn
c) He would have to face up to his father's shame
d) He would be forced to face the villagers' kezazah
If a Jewish boy lost the family's inheritance among Gentiles, he would have to face the Kezazah
ceremony when he returned. The villagers would break a pot in front of him and say "So-and-so is 'cut off'
from his people.
5) What are the implications of "no one gave him anything"?
Insight ~ He had been reduced to begging, a socially shameful occupation.
6) What could we assume about the "citizen" ethnically and economically?
Insight ~ He was surely a gentile ("far country," "pigs").
7) What is the significance of "feeding pigs" and wanting to eat their food?
Insight ~ Pigs were considered unclean, associated with Gentiles, ate garbage in the streets. It was a mark of
her desperation that he wanted to eat carob pods, even though they were undigestible to humans. To put it
another way, he longed to become a pig.
8) Why mention "bread" so prominently?
Insight ~ Bread was the staple food of the Palestinian peasants' diet.
9) What is the significance of his plan to become one of his father's "hired workers" (not slave or servant)?
Insight ~ He may hope to be apprenticed to a craftsman in his hometown, earn money, repay his father, and
regain his social status in the village. If so, he may...
a) ...not be going home to his father but to a job, not to live with his father but with a craftsman.
b) ...hope to pay off his father, not seek his grace.
c) ...anticipate an employee/employer relationship with his father, not father/son.
d) ...is focused on restitution, but not repentance, reconciliation, or restoration of a relationship
