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What is the problem?

Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
in Kerygmania
The Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids.

This has always been a difficult story for me. It was the Gospel lesson for today? The preacher gave me an different way of looking at it.

But I am not going to answer the question directly--I am giving it to the hive to discuss.

Is the problem about the oil? Or is it something else?

Comments

  • Gamma GamalielGamma Gamaliel Shipmate
    Their lack of preparation and alertness?

    We were always told the oil symbolised the Holy Spirit.

    Remember the old chorus, 'Give me oil in my lamp, keeping me burning ...'?

    I've always thought of it as a warning against complacency and getting too embroiled with 'worldly cares'.
  • Lamb ChoppedLamb Chopped Shipmate
    Those lamps are pretty tiny in terms of capacity. i can see why the other girls didn't want to share--not sure they could have. We had a retired seminary prof in class who said that, as so often, Jesus' parables have something outrageous in them, and here it might be the idea of anyone, however foolish, coming out without a flask of extra oil. You wouldn't be ordinarily forgetful if you did that--you'd be on a level with the Boy Scout who went to summer camp with no clothes or sleeping bag, nothing at all.
  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    I think it has something to do with relationships more than the oil.
  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    I am going to argue there is something deeper than not having enough oil. I mean. where does it say the bridesmaids would have been rejected if they had just stayed at the house even though their lamps were dark.
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    Lamb Chopped wrote: »
    You wouldn't be ordinarily forgetful if you did that--you'd be on a level with the Boy Scout who went to summer camp with no clothes or sleeping bag, nothing at all.
    Funny you should use that example, as I always think of the Boy Scout motto—Be Prepared—with this parable.

    And now I have “Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning” running through my head.


  • mousethiefmousethief Shipmate
    It always seemed unfair to me.
  • LatchKeyKidLatchKeyKid Shipmate
    OTTOMH,
    It is one of a group of parables (at least in Matthew) that are about keeping steadfast in the Christian living.

    I will read the contexts in the other gospels and post again.
  • Lamb ChoppedLamb Chopped Shipmate
    Nick Tamen wrote: »
    Lamb Chopped wrote: »
    You wouldn't be ordinarily forgetful if you did that--you'd be on a level with the Boy Scout who went to summer camp with no clothes or sleeping bag, nothing at all.
    Funny you should use that example, as I always think of the Boy Scout motto—Be Prepared—with this parable.

    And now I have “Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning” running through my head.

    I do hope if you fall asleep, you remember to put out your lamp first!

    ...
    I was told (possibly in error, nobody gave me a footnote on this) that the way it worked was kind of like trick or treat in the States--young women could get into to any wedding feast whether you knew the family or not, provided you showed up at the appropriate time carrying a lamp or torch to light the bridegroom in to his bride. Show up after that ceremony and no wonder he says, "I don't know you." That ceremony is over, and given the bridegroom in the story apparently comes from some other village and isn't likely to know the girls (though his bride would).
  • jay_emmjay_emm Kerygmania Host
    It's always seemed harsh to me also.
    I guess partly because it is at least partly the bridegrooms fault, they did have oil, just not spare oil.

    It is a parable not an event, but of course it is also a parable about a future event). So in some senses it is like and unlike the text saying "and Jesus, the good shepherd said get lost"

    I do like lamb choppeds explanation. Aside from taking the sting out of it, it feels culturally very believable.
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    Lamb Chopped wrote: »
    Nick Tamen wrote: »
    Lamb Chopped wrote: »
    You wouldn't be ordinarily forgetful if you did that--you'd be on a level with the Boy Scout who went to summer camp with no clothes or sleeping bag, nothing at all.
    Funny you should use that example, as I always think of the Boy Scout motto—Be Prepared—with this parable.

    And now I have “Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning” running through my head.

    I do hope if you fall asleep, you remember to put out your lamp first!
    :lol:

    And fwiw, I’ve heard the same thing you have about young women getting into the wedding feast, but like you I have no citation.

    But doesn’t Jesus tell us what the problem was? “So you, too, must keep watch! For you do not know the day or hour of my return.”

    The foolish bridesmaids weren’t shut out because they didn’t have enough oil per se. They were shut out (or left behind), because they weren’t ready when the bridegroom was coming, and in their scramble to get ready they missed his arrival.


  • The_RivThe_Riv Shipmate
    Where were these 10 girls' parents? Just letting them run wild in these streets well after dark? Cavorting?!

    Was one of them supposed to end up as the bride, or was the bridegroom going to marry any/all virgins who managed to get inside before the door was locked?

    Would they consummate their marriages together in some kind of deflowering assembly line?

  • Gamma GamalielGamma Gamaliel Shipmate
    Parable. Not literal event.

    Although there is a context of cultural practices and so on, of course.

    Oh, I know the Church Fathers came up with elaborate allegorical interpretations of the Parable of The Good Samaritan and so on.

    Generally, though, there's a simple, single point - in this case like the Scouting motto.

    'Be prepared!'

    Trim your wicks. Ensure you have oil.
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