Pharisees and tax collectors

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The Pharisee (The Bible in Pictures, 1922)
The tax collector (The Bible in Pictures, 1922)

The parable of the Pharisee and tax collector told by Jesus of Nazareth illustrates the correct way of Christian prayer . It is only handed down in the New Testament of the Bible in the Gospel according to Luke ( Lk 18 : 9-14  EU ).

content

A Pharisee and a tax collector go to the temple in Jerusalem to pray. The Pharisee thanks God in his prayer that he is a Pharisee and emphasizes that he behaves in an exemplary manner (in his eyes) - and not like robbers, adulterers or the tax collector next to him. He praises his fasting and tithing achievements and sees no reason to confess himself a sinner before the Most High . The tax collector, on the other hand, hits his chest, does not dare to look up and asks God to be merciful to him, the sinner. In contrast to the Pharisee, he is aware of his sinfulness and full of humility . The parable is concluded with the words of Jesus, who explains that the tax collector, unlike the Pharisee, goes home justified because everyone who exalts himself will be humiliated, but whoever humiliates himself will be exalted.

interpretation

Listener to Jesus

During the 1st century AD, the Pharisees represented a respected group among the Jews and were known to adhere strictly to the laws of Moses and also to the orally transmitted "precepts of the ancestors". Customs collectors, on the other hand, counted as a socially ostracized group, as they collaborated with the Romans as the occupying power and, as tax collectors, pressed money from the population. In this parable, the two groups are portrayed according to the stereotype of their time (Pharisees = pious, tax collectors = unfaithful to the law), but then given an unexpected twist for the audience. However, the Pharisee's prayer was by no means unusual for his contemporaries; on the contrary, it is a righteous Jewish prayer. Why the tax collector's prayer of despair nevertheless favors the judgment of Jesus becomes clear through the connection to the (middle, 4th) penance psalm, which the tax collector prays (Psalm 51,13 EU ) and which ends in the sentence:

The sacrifice that pleases God is a contrite spirit, you, God, will not despise a broken and bruised heart. ( Ps 51.19  EU )

Modern theologians emphasize that it is not an example narrative, but a parable. Therefore this is neither a condemnation of the Pharisees nor an appreciation of the tax collectors; rather, their customary assessment is assumed. The whole point of the story is that even a Pharisee can undermine self-righteousness , and even a tax collector can repent; And it is precisely the ability to repent that matters to Jesus.

Modern interpretations

The traditional interpretation of the parable led to a rather clichéd picture of the Pharisees in which they were generally equated with hypocrites. Newer interpretations emphasize on the one hand that the actual and honest, by no means hypocritical, striving of the Pharisees for a godly life must be appreciated. On the other hand, modern theologians often assume that Jesus is much closer to the Pharisees than to other Jewish groups. The parable warns against sin as a “master of manipulation”. She is able to transform law-abidingness into human despair and insidiously destroy human community. It is important to beware of that - including wanting to feel better than the Pharisee who succumbed to his self-righteousness. The Jerusalem Biblical Lexicon sees the "sinful but repentant tax collector closer to God than the proud and righteous".

liturgy

In the classical pericope order of the Western Church (and to this day in the reading order of the EKD ) the parable is read on the 11th Sunday after Trinity as the Gospel and gives the Sunday its characteristic theme. Johann Sebastian Bach created the cantata My heart floats in blood as a meditation for this . In today's Roman Catholic reading order, the parable is read in reading year C (Luke) on the 30th Sunday of the year . In the Orthodox churches, the reading serves to prepare for Lent and Passion. The Sunday of the Pharisee and Tax Collector is the fifth Sunday before the beginning of Easter Lent.

Popular reception

Eugen Roth wrote the following on this topic:

The somersault
A person once looked more closely at
the fable of the Pharisee who
hypocritically thanked God
for not being a tax collector.
Thank God! he exclaimed in a vain sense
that I am not a Pharisee!

literature

Web links

Commons : Pharisees and Tax Collectors  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Joachim Jeremias : The parables of Jesus (= small Vandenhoeck series. Volume 1500). Short edition. 9th edition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1984, ISBN 3-525-33498-2 , p. 97.
  2. ↑ Luise Schottroff : The parables of Jesus. Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 2005, ISBN 3-579-05200-4 , p. 19f.
  3. ↑ Symptomatic of this is the legend of the origin of the term Pharisee as a drink.
  4. ↑ Many Jewish researchers today also see Jesus very close to Phariseeism, see Walter Homolka : The Jewish Life-Jesus Research from Abraham Geiger to Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich .
  5. ↑ Luise Schottroff: The parables of Jesus. P. 25.
  6. ↑ Jerusalem Biblical Lexicon , p. 957.
  7. ^ Eugen Roth: All people , Sanssouci, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-8363-0102-2 , p. 159.

See also