Luke 15:11

11-32. The Son lost and found.

11. had tzuo sons The primary applications of this divine parable, which is peculiar to St Luke, and would alone have added inestimable value to his Gospel are (1) to the Pharisees and the -sinners" i.e. to the professedly religious, and the openly irreligious classes; and (2) to the Jews and Gentiles. This latter application however only lies indirectly in the parable, and it is doubtful whether it would have occurred consciously to those who heard it. This is the Evangelium in Evangelio.How much it soars above the conceptions of Christians, even after hundreds of years of Christianity, is shewn by the -elder- brotherly spirit" which has so often been manifested (e.g. by Tertullian and all like him) in narrowing its interpretation.