Parable Documentation

1. Read; note every detail, look up vague or unknown words.
- Landowner has a large vineyard.
- Each hour, he went out to the marketplace to get workers.
- In the 1st hours, he bargained with the workers on wage, - one denerious.
- After the 3rd hour, he then says"whatever is right I will give you" .
- 11th hour- he questions then men who were standing around in the marketplace. Then he sends them to work in the vineyard.
-The landowner tells his steward to pay the laborers their wages, starting from last to first.
- Landowner gave each laborer the same amount of denarius .
- The ones who were hired 1st complained, thinking they were going to get more wages since they worker longer.
- He tells them to take what us theirs and go.
- He implies that it is his land and money and his decision to do what he wants with it. He implies that he is already being generous giving them their wages.
- The 11th hour when the landowner hires workers is purely gratuitous.

2. Understanding historical context- research, the time period, politics, society and time period.
- A lot of unemployment- states keep expanding, kicking off lower class people, making them "expendables" ; evident in how there are so many workers hanging around in the market each time the landowner comes.
- Expendable class- low-class peasants living at substinence level; life- span was 5-7 years.
- Landowners usually stayed out affairs of the laborers and usually had their stewards do the bulk of the work for them to avoid direct conflict and issues regrading policies.
- One denarius- a day's wage .
- No elite would perform such a choir that the workers do.
- Strategy of Roman Landowners who hired day laborers only for a day at a time so as to kepp them in the weakest position possible.

3. General Context; who is the audience- who is it directed to or about. if you don't fully understand the parable fully refer to the previous lines.
- The audience was more likely peasants farmers or the lower class people.
- Directed to / about the manipulation and corruption of the elites and the falsehoods that they tell to try to keep the large lower-class under control.
- Jesus designs a confrontation between the groups that normally would not confront it in reality. In this way he stretches the truth in order to reveal it.

4. Character Analysis: break down who they are, example behavior/ ask questions of motives and their role in society. who is the main character.
- Landowner- wealthy and owns the vineyard, therefore showing that he is part of the elite class, since the vineyard produces a luxury item that is profitable. - It also shows that he is wealthy because he was able to leave his land fallow for the four years that the grapes were producing. Therefore he had enough money to support himself and other things during that time. This vineyard is also vast because of the amount of times the landowner has to go out to find workers.

Q.- Why does he bargain in the beginning, but in the later hours, he just sends laborers to his vineyard?
A. - In the beginning of the day, the landowner needed workers to work for his vineyard more. Therefore, he needed to bargain in order to obtain these workers. However, in the later hours of the day, the workers are desperate because they have no jobs. The landowner recognizes this and just sends them to his vineyard to work. By then, he probably already has a sufficient amount of workers in the vineyard.

Q. - Why does the landowner ask his steward to pay the laborers from last to first as opposed to paying from first to last groups?
A. - The landowner does this to ensure that the first workers see that the last workers receive the same pay.

Q. Why does the landowner pay the laborers the same wages, even though the first workers worked longer than the last?
A. This is an act of humiliation on the laborers because this shows that in effect, the laborers who worked more were worth as much as the laborers who didn't work as much. This shows that the workers were worthless to the landowner and this also degrades the laborers, keeping them in their low state.

Laborers- poor expendables most likely do not have families because they cannot support them. most are lucky to find jobs and many are unemployed. - The workers are also probably single because they didn't have enough money to support anyone else, but themselves.
- Had no bargaining power. ( herzog)
- one denarious would supply 3-6 days of food for a family.

Stewards- a steward supervised the numerous servants of a great property while the wealthy owner lived in the city or was absent travelling in the pursuit of business. (herzog)

Q. Why do the laborers complain? Aren't they lucky to get wages anyway?
A. As explained above, the workers have been shamed when the landowner does this. However, the landowner dismisses them, showing even more their low class. Complaining could save their lives. They are fighting to survive because these wages are important to them.

5. Anomalies: unanswered cracks in the story, and ask questions to why those details were put there.
Q. Why does the landowner address only one of the workers regarding the complaint?
A. This separates them and is an act of intimidation. Intimidating and answering one person sends the answer and feeling throughout the group.

6. Conflict: what is causing the drama. what issue does the parable revolve around/why is the parable told? what is the purpose?
- The parables revolves around the issue of exploitation and power. The landowner does something different than most in his society do- paying laborers from last to first.
-At the time, most landowners pay laborers from first to last, but the landowner's action further humiliates the laborers and also shows the power that he has to be able to do this action in itself.

7. Formulate question that unlocks the parable, which opens other doors and clarifies the parable, putting everything together to make sense of it.
Q. How does this relate to the kingdom of Heaven? In the beginning, this story is said to be like the Kingdom of Heaven. How?
A. The Kingdom of Heaven reveals the truth and enables the powerless to be empowered. In the parable, two class groups confront. The Kingdom of Heaven will expose the truth and have social classes and groups confront in the end.
- If God was represented as a man, he would be a different man than any ever encountered(209).
- Kingdom and its standards are the reverse of the world and it's ways(219).
- Remember Jesus delivered parables orally which is a style of delivery(220).
- "Conditions which are just not those of everyday life total the relationship between men and God(209).


8. Application to current event- how does it relate. list connections between the two.

9. Solution- what could we do to help? what should happen in the situation?


Note: This journal didn't help our group that much at all. We already stated info. The journal also only talked a little about our parable and did not help us that much.

Magenta= info we got out of the journal.

Purple= my own thought of interpretation of certain details.

Orange= other (including Herzog)