Abstract:
This article attempted to read the parable of the minas in a 30 CE context, employing a social
scientific reading. The integrity of the parable was delimited to Luke 19:12b–24 and 27. It was
argued that this version of the parable (that stems from Q) goes back to the earliest layer of
the historical Jesus tradition and is a realistic version of the historical background, political
background and socioeconomic background of 30 CE Palestine. In this reading of the parable,
attention was given to an aspect much neglected in previous scholarship regarding the
interpretation of the parable, namely that the third slave in the parable is not condemned. It
was argued that this neglected aspect is important for the strategy of the parable. The reading
concluded that the parable has two foci; it shows how, in the time of Jesus, the elite exploited
the nonelite and how to protest in a situation where the peasantry (the exploited) had no
legitimate way of protesting against the exploitative practices of the elite.
