Search

The parable of the widow and the judge (Luke 18.2-5) is frequently considered so weak that it requires its commentaries for any meaningful message, while the idea of a judge finally giving in to a pestering widow is hardly profound. The widow's frequent visits together with her brief and abrupt command to the judge combine to convey the image for a feisty widow rather than the conventionally meek and subservient role assumed for her.

Advocates of a metaphorical approach to the parable of the tenants in Mark 12.9 and some who argue that Jesus spoke in realistic fiction have assumed that Mark 12.9 is an original part of parable, but an examination of Greek, Roman, Graeco-Egyptia and biblical legal rulings indicates that resorts to self-help were discouraged and criminalized. Mark 12.9 is not a realistic component of the parable but is a part of its secondary allegorization.