Parable of the Prodigal Son

Text and Plot

This is one of Jesus' parables, recorded in Luke 15:11-32. When tax collectors and sinners drew near to Jesus, the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, "This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them" (Luke 15:1-2). In response, Jesus told the Parable of the Lost Sheep and the Parable of the Lost Coin, followed by this parable as the third. It is distinct from the Parable of the Two Sons in Matthew 21.

The younger son asks his father for his share of the estate in advance, travels into a far country, and "wasted his substance with riotous living." When a famine comes, he is reduced to feeding swine and would gladly fill his belly even with the husks (carob pods) that the swine eat. Then he "came to himself" and resolves to return to his father. While the son is still a great way off, the father sees him, runs to him, embraces him, and kisses him. The father gives him the best robe, a ring, and shoes, and has the fatted calf killed for a feast. The elder son, returning from the field, becomes angry and refuses to go into the house. The father comes out and entreats him, saying that it is fitting to rejoice, "for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found." The story ends without saying what the elder son did afterward.

Background

• Under Old Testament law, the firstborn received a double portion (Deuteronomy 21:17). For this reason, many interpreters hold that the younger son's share would have been about one third of the estate.
• Swine were unclean animals under the law (Leviticus 11:7). For a Jewish audience, tending swine signified that one could sink no lower.
• "Prodigal" is not a word used in the text but a name given later. The phrase "with riotous living" in verse 13 renders the Greek asōtōs ("dissolutely, wastefully").
• Sermons frequently explain that demanding one's inheritance while the father was still alive, and an elderly head of household running, would have been highly unusual in the culture of the time. This interpretation draws on studies of Middle Eastern culture, and scholars differ in how much weight they give it.

Significance in the Whole of Scripture

The three parables of Luke 15 share a common structure: something lost is recovered, and there is shared rejoicing. They are also tied to the statement that there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:7, 10). The younger son is commonly read as representing the tax collectors and sinners who came to Jesus, and the elder son as representing the Pharisees and scribes who objected. Accordingly, many interpreters hold that the parable focuses not only on the sinner who repents but also on the elder son who cannot accept his brother.

Interpretation and Points of Discussion

• Name: Some have proposed calling it "the Parable of the Waiting Father," to focus on the father's love, or "the Parable of the Lost Sons," to consider both sons together.
• Repentance and grace: The younger son had prepared to say, "make me as one of thy hired servants" (v. 19), but in his actual confession he never gets to say these words (v. 21). The Calvinist tradition sees in the father's running to receive his son before the confession is even finished an emphasis on the priority of grace. The Wesleyan tradition emphasizes as well the son's own response in "coming to himself" under prevenient grace. The Catholic Church often reads this parable in connection with the sacrament of penance.
• Atonement: Some interpreters in the tradition of liberal theology have noted that no mediator or sacrifice appears in the parable and have taken this as evidence that forgiveness is possible without substitutionary atonement. Conservative theologians counter that a single parable does not contain an entire soteriology and that the focus of this parable is its message to the Pharisees.
• Additions not in the text: Depictions of the father waiting every day at the edge of the village, endings in which the elder son finally joins the feast, and the presence of a mother are not found in the text. Allegorical interpretations that match the robe, ring, and shoes one by one with things such as baptism or the Holy Spirit likewise go beyond what the text directly states.

In the Korean Church

This passage is frequently used to proclaim repentance and God's forgiveness at revival meetings, evangelistic rallies, and in sermons for newcomers. People who left the church and later returned commonly describe themselves as a "returning prodigal" in their testimonies. The expression is also used idiomatically outside the church to refer to someone who has left and come back.