DID LUKE'S GREAT INTERPOLATION ORIGINALLY EXIST AS A SEPARATE DOCUMENTARY SOURCE? The material of Luke's "great interpolation," after the comparatively small amount of matter common to Luke and Matthew is subtracted from it, has a decided homogeneity of its own. It consists of nine sayings, one incident (the occurrence in the Samaritan village) which might with almost equal propriety be reckoned as a saying, three healings, all of which have the appearance of being introduced, not for the sake of the cure, but of the appended saying, and thirteen parables. These thirteen parables have not only a striking similarity among themselves, but an equally striking _dis_similarity to those parables which Luke has in common with one or both of the other evangelists. Matthew's parables are usually brief sayings, beginning with the phrase, "The kingdom of heaven is like," etc. The parables peculiar to Luke (there are fourteen in all and thirteen of them occur in this section) are stories rather than parables in the strict sense. Some of them are introduced by the brief formula, "And he said unto them," or "And he said to his disciples," etc. Others are given a more definite setting, like the story of the Good Samaritan, which is introduced as an answer to the question "Who is my neighbor?" However introduced, they usually contain a more or less elaborated conclusion, easily distinguished from the parable proper. Thus in the story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus asks the lawyer which of the three men he considers to have been neighbor to him who fell among the thieves. The lawyer makes his reply, and upon the basis of it Jesus dismisses him with a word of pointed advice. In the same manner the story of the Rich Fool is introduced as a rebuke to the man who asks Jesus to help him secure his portion of an estate, and closes with the reflection that whoever has the riches of this world but is not "rich toward God" is like this man. So the stories of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin are introduced with the statement that the Pharisees objected to Jesus' eating with "sinners," and close with the statement, "Likewise there is joy in the presence of the angels of God,"[123] etc.