Meanwhile, the people of Israel, including toll collectors and sinners, are given the good judgment to recognize in the works of the Baptist and Jesus the wisdom of God.145 In the parable of the children in the marketplace, the “people of this generation” are indicted for not heeding the call to conversion of the Baptist nor the message of jubilation of Jesus.146 They are the unhappy children of the parable. Schürmann proposes for this parable a post-Easter scenario in which Israel has collapsed and its recovery is hopeless; there is only hope for the “children of wisdom.”147
I. Howard Marshall dedicates a substantial portion of his remarks on the passage in his commentary on Luke to questioning whether particular verses of the passage should be regarded as interpolations or authentic.148 Marshall acknowledges that Luke, like Matthew, relied on a common source (Q), which Luke has expanded. He finds no serious reasons to question the historicity of the account. For Marshall, John has doubts about whether Jesus is the expected “coming one” because the final judgment is absent from Jesus’ ministry. In response, Jesus replies with a combination of OT allusions that depict him as the eschatological prophet who ushers in a new era of salvation. “The saying is thus an invitation to John to consider the scriptural significance of Jesus’ ministry, and hence to attain to a deeper, and lasting, faith in him.”149 Correspondingly, Jesus praises John as the “greatest among those born of women” only to restrict his importance in relation to the kingdom and in doing so subordinate the Baptist to him.150 The parable of the children in the marketplace is a verdict upon those who have not responded to the ministries of both John and Jesus, who nonetheless are vindicated by those who are wise, i.e., the children of wisdom.151
In his commentary on the Gospel of Luke, Joseph A. Fitzmyer points out that the pericope delineates the relationship between John and Jesus in relation to God’s plan of salvation as well as the reaction of the disciples of John and their contemporaries to Jesus.152 Fitzmyer discusses the modifications, omissions, and transpositions of the Lukan redaction that at times makes him more faithful than Matthew and at other times less so to the Q source. For Fitzmyer the question of the Baptist and the answer of Jesus reflect a historical statement recalled within the context of a later controversy between the disciples of John and Jesus.153 According to Fitzmyer, the Baptist’s view of Jesus as Elijah redivivus is reversed by Jesus, who casts John in that role as someone greater than a prophet.154 For him, the testimony of Jesus about the Baptist serves to support the Lukan portrayal of John as the precursor of the Lord.
The parable of the children in the marketplace, which Fitzmyer derives from Jesus’ own ministry, represents the Baptist, Jesus, and their followers, who have called their Palestinian contemporaries to join them only to be rejected.155 Wisdom is personified, and John and Jesus are the children of that wisdom whose divine message is vindicated by all the people and toll collectors.
For John Nolland the historicity of the account is beyond doubt, even though he is aware of the redactional work of Luke, the diversity of its elements, and the secondary setting of some of its parts.156 According to Nolland, Jesus’ answer has an eschatological orientation but is not as cataclysmic as John may have had expected. He notes that Jesus responds to the question of the Baptist affirmatively, but with an emphasis on the graciousness of God rather than on his vengeance.157 The final beatitude in Jesus’ reply is a challenge that presumes a positive answer from the Baptist even when there is a potential for stumbling.
In Jesus’ testimony about John, the Baptist is presented with unprecedented importance and unsurpassed greatness. Yet, the arrival of the kingdom, which he has heralded, has overshadowed his status.158 Nolland finds that Jesus both exalts the Baptist as the supreme figure of human history and sets limits on his greatness with respect to the little ones of the kingdom, a view that agrees with Jesus’ preference for the lowly and the poor members of society.159 In the parable of the children in the marketplace, Jesus presents John and himself as signs of the coming kingdom of God and criticizes the lack of comprehension of their contemporaries. He also proclaims the final vindication of God in those who are open to his wisdom.160
Another author who in his commentary on the Gospel of Luke looks at the passage is François Bovon. He notes that Luke has arranged his sources (Mark, Q, and his special material) to alternate between words (6:20–49; 7:18–35; 8:4–18) and deeds (7:1–17; 36–50).161 Regarding the history of transmission of the pericope, Bovon highlights the secondary character of many of its parts: 7:23, an early Christian prophetic saying; 7:27, a later effort to clarify the cryptic answer of Jesus; 7:28, evidence of a cultic activity of an early Christian prophet; 7:29–30, an editorial introduction; 7:33–34, an early interpretation of a parable (7:31–32); and 7:35, an independently circulating saying. He mentions that the passage has an interest in clarifying the role of the Baptist but not necessarily a polemical intent. Historically, John searched for a precise knowledge of the eschatological salvation (cf. 1 Pet 1:10–11) and Jesus answers with an implicit “yes” that actualizes the prophecy-fulfillment scheme of Isaiah.162 But the question of the Baptist also reflects the uncertainty of the followers of John toward the emerging Christian movement. The absence of the Baptist’s reaction, which has generated so much discussion, means for Bovon that the disciples of John remained distant from the emerging movement and were not able to rise above their reservations.
For Bovon, Jesus’ testimony about John emphasizes the relationship of the crowd to him.163 The status of John as the forerunner is restricted by being at the threshold of the reign of God. With a redactional summary (7:29–30), Luke prepares a final prophetic accusation against the “people of this generation” for having missed a historical moment.164 They have rejected the benevolence of God, which, however, has been recognized by a contrite remnant of Israel among whom the Baptist and Jesus are included as children of wisdom.
Joel B. Green’s commentary on Luke is one of the commentaries that look at the entire Gospel from a narrative-critical perspective.165 For Green the pericope revolves around the ministry of Jesus, his identity, and the reaction he generates. It also recapitulates and interprets how Jesus is God’s agent of salvation.166 Green indicates that John, whose character had been cultivated in previous parts of Gospel, is brought to the fore once again to emphasize his role in the salvific plan of God. Green underscores the importance of John’s question, which deals with the “fault line between his eschatological expectation and the realities of Jesus’ performance,” in relation to the host of negative reactions that Jesus has received up to this point in the narrative.167 Jesus’ response is a redefinition and confirmation of his messianic role.
