Prodigal Son

The Prodigal Son is the customary name for the parable in Luke 15 about a father and his two sons, told by Jesus after the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin. The word "prodigal" is not in the biblical text; it comes from Latin prodigus, "wasteful," and describes the younger son, who, as the text says, "gathered all of this together and traveled into a far country" and "wasted his property with riotous living" (Luke 15:13). Because the title is a later label rather than a phrase from the Gospel, it names the story by its most vivid figure rather than by its full subject.

In the narrative as Scripture reports it, the younger son squanders his inheritance, comes to want, and "came to himself" (Luke 15:17), resolving to return and say, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight" (Luke 15:18-19). The father sees him "while he was still far off," is "moved with compassion," runs, embraces and kisses him (Luke 15:20), and answers the son's confession not with conditions but with the best robe, a ring, sandals and the fattened calf (Luke 15:21-23), saying, "this, my son, was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found" (Luke 15:24). The story then turns to the elder brother, who protests that he has served for years without so much as a goat while the returning son receives a feast (Luke 15:29-30); the father's final words in the passage are addressed to him: "this, your brother, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found" (Luke 15:32).

Historically, the parable belongs to a trio in Luke 15 that the Gospel frames as answers to criticism of Jesus for receiving sinners, and interpreters have long noted that the story ends without resolving the elder brother's response, leaving the father's appeal hanging. Linguistically, "prodigal" has drifted in popular use toward "runaway" or "returned wanderer," though its original sense is simply extravagant squandering.

Christian traditions read the parable with different centers of gravity. Many read it primarily as a parable of repentance and divine mercy, with the son's return in Luke 15:18-20 as the model of penitence; the Eastern Orthodox lectionary places it in the pre-Lenten cycle for exactly this reason. Reformation-era interpreters often stressed the father's unearned acceptance in Luke 15:22-24 as an illustration of grace apart from merit. Others, noting that the elder brother's protest occupies the latter half and receives the last word (Luke 15:29-32), read it as directed at religious insiders as much as at outsiders. Readings emphasizing the inclusion of Gentiles, or the cost of the son's self-imposed exile, are also common. These are differences of emphasis rather than disputes over what the text says.

AI-generated reference entry, grounded in the passages where this term appears — history and Scripture stated as such, interpretation labeled as interpretation. Not a substitute for the text itself.