Wealth in Things, Wealth in People :

a Materialistic Reading of Luke 16:1-9

Résumé

This paper examines how Luke presents Jesus as a Graeco-Roman orator who employs parables as a rhetorical tool to define a new socioeconomic order for the early Christians. It focuses on wealth and poverty as an interpretive paradigm for the text, Luke 16:1–9. It suggests that this parable mirrors unequal socioeconomic statuses in first-century Roman Palestine, where a few elites created wealth in things (material wealth) via the exploitation and violation of the poor majority. The article argues that Luke’s description of the client’s shrewd action, his master’s commendation, and the narrator’s charge in Luke 16:1–9 reconciles the two opposing sources of wealth in Roman Palestine: wealth in things and wealth in people. The article suggests that the parable portrays wealth as holistic, encompassing both cash/commodities and socioeconomic justice. Thus, the parable aims to challenge the dominant Graeco-Roman values, encouraging a community of mutual dependence between the rich and the poor. The article concludes with some theological and hermeneutical reflections on potential responses to the problem of wealth in Africa.