Reviewed by:

• The Parables in Q by Dieter T. Roth
• Llewellyn Howes

On Monday, 19 November 2018, I was fortunate enough to attend a session of the SBL Annual Meeting jointly hosted by the Q Section and the Social Scientific Criticism of the New Testament Section, during which two landmark books on the parables of Jesus were discussed. The first book was The Parables of Jesus the Galilean by Ernest van Eck (see my 2016 review of this book in Acta Theologica 37[1]:135–138), and the second was the current book by Dieter T. Roth. The books were first discussed and reviewed [End Page 153] by notable scholars like Paul Foster, Erin Vearncombe and Douglas Oakman, after which Roth and Van Eck deliberated on their own and each other's works. Apart from being a very stimulating and worthwhile session, during which attention shifted at some stage to the parable of the mustard seed in particular, what stood out clearly at the end was the unmistakable impact of preliminary judgments on the direction and outcome of a study. This is particularly true for contested areas of research like the parables of Jesus and the Sayings Gospel Q, where scholars disagree about issues like the existence and nature of Q, the definition of a parable and the layering of the Jesus tradition. No study demostrates this more clearly than the monograph by Dieter T. Roth being reviewed here. It is a real strength of the book that presuppositions and preliminary verdicts are explained at the outset.

The Parables in Q is a revised version of Roth's Habilitationsschrift, which was submitted in 2016 at the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz under the supervision of Ruben Zimmermann. Although there have been articles and chapters on the parables in Q, this is the first book-length publication on the subject, which is surprising given the importance of these two fields in historical Jesus studies and NT research in general. The first three chapters lay the foundation for the rest of the book. The first chapter is a general introduction. Chapters two and three are respectively titled Q Parables and Q Parables, with the italicised word indicating the emphasis of each chapter. Roth follows the parable definition provided by the Kompendium der Gleichnisse Jesu (2007, edited by Ruben Zimmermann; Gütersloh: Gütersloher):

A parable is a short narratival (1) fictional (2) text that is related in the narrated world to known reality (3) but, by way of implicit or explicit transfer signals, makes it understood that the meaning of that which is narrated must be differentiated from the literal words of the text (4). In its appeal dimension (5) it challenges the reader to carry out a metaphoric transfer of meaning that is steered by contextual information (6).

(p. 17 in Roth; p. 25 in Zimmermann)

The most significant consequence of using this definition is that Roth includes much more Q material under the umbrella of "parable" than tends to be the case in Q scholarship. For example, Roth includes in his list of Q parables sayings attributed to both John the Baptist and the centurion who asked Jesus to heal his son. It is in the definition and scope of parables in Q that Zimmermann's influence on Roth is most visible. [End Page 154]

Chapter three begins by identifying the two most important questions when it comes to reconstructing the parables in Q: "First, there is the question of which parables, as defined in the previous chapter, were part of the Q document. Second, there is the question related to how one envisions, reconstructs, and 'accesses' the text of those parables" (23). Regarding the first question, Roth considers it most prudent to disregard any Sondergut material that might have been part of Q (e.g., Luke 11:5–8; 12:16–20; 15:8–10). Regarding the second question, Roth expresses considerable doubt about the ability of scholars to reconstruct the precise wording of Q. As a way forward...

审核人：

• Dieter T. Roth在Q中的寓言
• 勒韦林·豪斯

2018年11月19日，星期一，我很幸运地参加了由Q科和新约社会科学批评协会共同主办的SBL年度会议，会议期间讨论了两本有关耶稣寓言的里程碑式著作。第一本书是欧内斯特·范·埃克（Ernest van Eck ）的《加利利耶耶稣的寓言》（请参阅我2016年在《生物学学报》 [37] [1]：135–138中对这本书的评论），第二本书是Dieter T. Roth的最新著作。这些书首先进行了讨论和审阅[End Page 153]由Paul Foster，Erin Vearncombe和Douglas Oakman等著名学者组成，之后Roth和Van Eck分别研究了自己和彼此的作品。除了是一次非常刺激和有价值的会议以外，在此会议期间，人们的注意力特别转移到了芥菜种子的寓言上，最后明确指出的是初步判断对研究方向和结果的明确影响。对于有争议的研究领域，例如耶稣的寓言和俗语福音Q，尤其如此，学者们对Q的存在和性质，寓言的定义以及耶稣传统的层次性等问题持不同意见。没有任何研究比Dieter T. Roth的专着在这里进行评论更清楚地说明了这一点。

Q中的寓言是罗斯的Habilitationsschrift的修订版，该版本于2016年在鲁本·齐默尔曼（Ruben Zimmermann）的监督下在约翰内斯·古腾堡大学-美因茨分校提交。尽管已经有关于Q中寓言的文章和章节，但这是有关该主题的第一本书，这是令人惊讶的，因为这两个领域在历史耶稣研究和新约研究中都具有重要意义。前三章为本书的其余部分奠定了基础。第一章为概述。第二章和第三章分别称为“ Q寓言”和“ Q寓言”，斜体字表示每一章的重点。罗斯遵循Kompendium der Gleichnisse Jesu（2007年，鲁本·齐默尔曼（Ruben Zimmermann）编辑；居特斯洛（Gütersloh）：居特斯洛厄（Gütersloher））：

寓言是简短的叙事（1）虚构的（2）文本，在叙述的世界中与已知的现实（3）相关，但通过隐式或显式的传递信号，使人们理解被叙述的事物的含义必须区别于文字的文字（4）。在其吸引力方面（5），它挑战读者进行由上下文信息（6）指导的隐喻意义转移。

（罗思（Roth）第17页；齐默尔曼（Zimmermann）第25页）

使用此定义的最重要的结果是，与“ Q奖学金”中的情况相比，罗斯在“寓言”的保护下包含了更多的“ Q”材料。例如，罗斯在他的Q寓言清单中包括了归因于施洗约翰和要求耶稣医治他儿子的百夫长的俗语。在Q寓言的定义和范围中，齐默尔曼对罗斯的影响最为明显。[结束第154页]

第三章从确定Q中的比喻时最重要的两个问题开始：“首先，存在上一章中定义的哪些比喻是Q文档的一部分的问题。其次，还有Q的一部分。这个问题与人们如何设想，重构和“访问”这些寓言的文本有关”（23）。关于第一个问题，罗斯认为最明智的做法是不考虑任何可能属于Q的Sondergut材料（例如路加福音11：5-8; 12：16-20; 15：8-10）。关于第二个问题，罗斯对学者们重构Q的精确措词的能力表达了相当大的怀疑。作为前进的方向...