Zur Erforschung frühchristlicher Gleichnisse 2013–2023

In this review of editions, monographs, and essays devoted to the study of parables from the early Christian period and published between 2013 and 2023, the findings are presented in various thematic sections. It shows that recent research literature focuses not only on the interpretation of parable texts from the Synoptic Gospels, but equally on Johannine, extra-canonical, and post-canonical parable texts. The wealth of observations on the linguistic and narrative designs of parable texts, accompanied by source-based findings on how these texts reflect ancient reality, is commendable. Points of criticism include the loss of reconstructed text quality in Q research, the classification of parable texts as »early Christian« up to the third century AD, disregarding the onset of ecclesiastical canonization, and the lack of historical-literary differentiation in the presentation of parable texts at the level of macro-texts (e. g., the Gospels) and their interpretation at the accessible Jesus level.