(1) Thom 73
(2) 1Q: Luke 10:2 = Matt 9:37-38
(3) John 4:35
(1) Thom 73
/73/ Jesus said, "The crop is huge but the workers are few, so beg the harvest boss to dispatch workers to the fields." [Complete Gospels]
(2) 1Q: Luke 10:2 = Matt 9:37-38
/10:1/ After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. /2/ He said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. /3/ Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves.
= Matt 9:37-38
/9:35/ Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. /36/ When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. /37/ Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; /38/ therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.
(3) John 4:35
/4:34/ Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. /35/ Do you not say, 'Four months more, then comes the harvest'? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. /36/ The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. /37/ For here the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.' /38/ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor."
John Dominic Crossan
Item: 50
Stratum: I (30-60 CE)
Attestation: Triple
Historicity: +
Common Sayings Tradition: YesUnlike his peers in the Jesus Seminar (see below) for which he was co-chair, Crossan considers this saying to be authentic and locates it within Jesus engagement in a social program that involved sending his followers out to announce and implement the "open secret" by offering forgiveness and healing in exchange for hospitality and meal. (See Historical Jesus, esp. pp. 332-53)
IQP
The International Q Project reconstructs the original Q saying as follows:
He said to his disciples: The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. So ask the Lord of the harvest to dispatch workers into his harvest.
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Color Thom 73 Luke 10:2 Matt 9:37b-38 John 4:35b,38 The commentary in The Five Gospels suggests that the Fellows voted this saying black for the following reasons. First. the theme of harvest is commonly an eschatological interest, and not something typical of Jesus. Secondly, the saying was judged to come from the early Christian movement where missionary activity was common.
The Seminar's view that Jesus was not an apocalyptic prophet seems to have skewed its capacity to recognize any eschatological element in Jesus' sayings and acts, despite the central place given to the imperial rule of God. Unlike Crossan's more carefully nuanced position (see, for example, Birth of Christianity, 239-89) that distinguished between apocalyptic eschatology, ascetical eschatology, and ethical eschatology, the Seminar as a whole seemed unable to integrate an eschatological dimension into their view of Jesus. As noted above, Crossan also located the missionary activity of the earliest Jesus communities in the conscious social program of Jesus as an indigenous healer.
Samuel T. Lachs
Lachs [Rabbinic Commentary on the New Testament, 178] notes the following parallel from M. Avot 2.15:
R. Tarfon said: 'The day is short, the work is great, and the laborers are sluggish,
and the wages are great and the householder is urgent.'
Luedemann [Jesus, 164] judges the saying to derive from the early community and not from Jesus.
Meier does not comment on this saying in the first three volumes of A Marginal Jew.