Delightful images of dissipation with some surprises. I didn’t expect Tissot to show a modern prodigal. I thought the prodigal in the Rembrandt looked like Rembrandt. It’s funnier when you realize the harlot is his wife.
An interesting insight is that Jesus said the younger son spent his fortune on ‘riotous living’. But the older brother said he spent it on harlots. It could be he was not a whoremonger, but perhaps kept company with them and his brother believed the worst of him—and spoke the worst of him.
Jesus is speaking these parables to: Luke 15:1 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming to hear him. 2 But the Pharisees and the experts in the law were complaining, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
3 So Jesus told them this parable: (then follow the three redemption parables)
This insult of spending time with harlots was leveled at Jesus from the Pharisees. Thus He puts the Pharisees in the place of the older brother.
Tissot did a modern series: leaving, dissipating, returning....
Not sure whether to make anything of the "riotous living" vs. "harlots" disjoint; after all, it was Jesus who put the words in the brother's mouth. Perhaps He was illustrating the accusations which anger produces.
This insult of spending time with harlots was leveled at Jesus from the Pharisees. Thus He puts the Pharisees in the place of the older brother.
Well-associated! But in recognizing that the angry, insulted older brother represents Israel in Jesus' morality play, we must also notice the part the Prodigal plays: the Gentiles. O what a laugh Jesus must have had!