Jesus' Parable of the Rich Fool

Rindge reads Luke s parable of the Rich Fool (12:16 21) as a sapiential narrative and situates this parable within a Second Temple intertextual conversation on the interplay of death and possessions. A rich analysis of Jewish (Qoheleth Ben Sira 1 Enoch Testament of Abraham) and Greco-Roman (Lucian Seneca) texts reveals a web of disparate perspectives regarding how possessions can be used meaningfully given life s fragility and death s inevitability and uncertain timing. Departing from standard interpretations of Luke s parable as a simple critique of avarice Rindge explicates the multiple ways in which the parable and its immediate literary context (12:13 34) appropriate reconfigure and illustrate this contested conversation and shows how these themes are chosen and adapted for Luke s own existential ethical and theological concerns.