The Parable of the Prodigal Son is one of the best known parables in the Gospels. But how well do you really know it? Do you, just for starters, even know what the word “prodigal” means? (Warning: it might not mean what you think it means!) And if you do, doesn’t it seem like an odd summary of what the younger brother was all about in this story?
The word “prodigal” doesn’t actually appear in the text, of course. It was a section heading inserted by the translators of certain versions of the Bible to help make the text clearer. Not all versions of the Bible have section headings, but a comparison of the ones that do yields a variety of takes on the meaning of the younger brother.
The English Standard Version and New American Standard Version use Prodigal. The New International Version and the Good News Translation, among many others, use Lost. (This is the most common adjective, especially in newer translations, and also my personal vote, as it puts this parable in line with the parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin that immediately precede it.) The New English Bible sides with John in my play by focusing on the Compassionate Father. The New Revised Standard Version is one of the few that expands the title beyond just a single character, calling it “The Parable of the Prodigal and his Brother.”
Three relatively recent translations, The New Century, Easy-To-Read, and Contemporary English versions, published respectively in the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s, take great pains not to commit to any specific interpretation or value judgment, calling this parable “The Son Who Left Home,” “Story About Two Sons,” and “Two Sons.”
Given the variety of section headings, and (I hope you’ll agree) the very poor fit of “prodigal” to any of the more important lessons that might be derived from this parable, why do we all seem to know it as the Parable of the Prodigal Son? Well, the earliest modern English translation I can find where section headings were used at all is the Revised Version of the 1890’s, which, as the first major update of the King James Version (the Mother of All Bible Translations) would have had an enormous effect on what people thought about the various passages of the Bible, as well as how future translators might label them. And the heading supplied in this translation was…The Parable of the Prodigal Son.
Leave it to those Victorians to read this multifaceted story of rebellion, impatience, escape, independence, adventure, disaster, servitude, repentance, desperation, resentment, jealousy, sibling rivalry, forgiveness, and/or celebration, and to think first and foremost, “What a terrible spendthrift that younger son was!”