The debate regarding the identity of the κύ ριoς at the conclusion of the parable of the Prudent Steward (Lk 16.8a) has not been satisfactorily resolved. Gérard Genette's study of narrative level, which helpfully illuminates the relationship between parables and their embedding narratives, provides a fresh perspective. Luke frequently employs a narrative trope that Genette calls metalepsis: the transgression of the boundary between narrative levels. An understanding of the puzzling denouement of the parable, as well as the morals appended to it (vv. 9-13), emerges from an appreciation of Luke's employment of metalepsis, which effects a collision between the cultural mores of stewardship that are operative within the parable and the very different understanding of faithful stewardship promoted on Luke's primary narrative level. The surprising intrusion into this parable of a κύ ριoς who approves of debt relief compels the parable's audience to reconsider their own loyalties and vindicates the debt relief scheme of a prudent steward.
It is generally agreed that one key factor in the deterioration of Paul’s relationship with the Corinthian assembly was his refusal to accept an offer of material support. In fact, however, there is no solid textual basis for this putative datum. None of the three passages taken as evidence (1 Cor. 9.1-18; 2 Cor. 11.5-15; 12.11-18) makes explicit reference to such an offer. In each case, interpreters have inferred from Paul’s heated rhetorical questions that he is defending his decision to reject Corinthian support. But a closer look at both the syntax and the context of these questions, and at the logic of rhetorical questions more generally, shows this inference to be unlikely. When Paul boasts that he has not burdened the Corinthians, what he means is not that he has refused to accept their support, but that he has refrained from demanding it. Reconstructions of his relationship with the Corinthian assembly must be modified accordingly.
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