Question: The Sower is in all three synoptics. Is there any significance in the comparisons between the three?
Also, doesn't this slightly undermine the form critics assertion that the interpretation and all the hidden/allegorical stuff is EC addition since the interpretation has multiple attestation. Then again (possibly answering my own question here), do they explain this by saying it was added by Mark's church and then used directly (with a bit of lenghtening/shortening) by Luke and Mark?
Also, Dodd talks about Jesus being disappointed by the seeming failure of his message to get through to the people, but being assured that there will be a "bumper harvest". Surely, in Dodd's reckoning, this harvest should be now not at some time in the future - he seems to suggest that Jesus looks forward to a future harvest? Confused.
There are, I suppose, lots of ways in which you could use this parable in the exam, but I suggest you concentrate on the issues raised by the Marcan version of the parable, which largely centre around (a) the perceived inconsistency between the parable proper and its allegorical interpretation and (b) the impications of the link verses which suggest that Jesus used parables to CONCEAL rather than ENLIGHTEN his meaning to his listeners.
The Webmistress replies:
Yes, it IS in all three Gospels, and therefore is generally viewed as being one of those parables that Mt & Lk used from Mark. So it has a single, not multiple source in Biblical Critical terms - see Jeremias p 77-8. Jeremias argues that on linguistic grounds, the interpretation is demonstrably from a different source than the parable itself.
I think that Dodd would accept (along with Jeremias) that the harvest is an ongoing process, not a one-off event. It may not look successful to Jesus at the moment, as the Seed (a Jewish eschatological symbol, often found in the context of the Vineyard - cf Isa 5) seems to fall on unfruitful ears. But it is bearing fruit and will continue to do so more and more. So his view of realised eschatology - which is that there is no future decisive intervention by God in human history, as all the purposes of the interventions have been fulfilled would still stand.