Counting the cost: Difference between revisions
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==Narrative== |
==Narrative== |
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The two parables are as follows: |
The two parables are as follows: |
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{{quotation|For which of you, |
{{quotation|For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.'<br/><br/> |
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Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.|Luke 14:28-33, [[English Standard Version]]}} |
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==Interpretation== |
==Interpretation== |
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Revision as of 20:52, 25 September 2010
Counting the cost is a name often given to a pair of parables told by Jesus in the New Testament, and found in Luke Luke 14:28–33. The name comes from the phrase "count the cost" which occurs in the King James Version of the passage, as well as some other versions.
Narrative
The two parables are as follows:
For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.'
Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.— Luke 14:28-33, English Standard Version
Interpretation
Joel B. Green suggests that it is unclear what kind of tower is being referred to in the first parable,[1] but notes that the message is that a "thoroughgoing fidelity to God's salvific aim"[1] is required, "manifest in one's identity as a disciple of Jesus."[1] This involves putting family and possessions second,[2] as in 8:18-22 Matthew 8:18–22 and 9:57-62 Luke 9:57–62.
References
- ^ a b c Joel B. Green, The Gospel of Luke, Eerdmans, 1997, ISBN 0802823157, pp. 566-567.
- ^ Charles McCollough, The Art Of Parables: Reinterpreting the Teaching Stories of Jesus in Word and Scripture, Wood Lake Publishing, 2008, ISBN 1551455633, pp. 94-95.