In his own house he drew his sword and stuck it into the wall in order to find out whether his hand could carry through.
They were influenced by parallels with the parables of the tower builder[2] and of the warring king[3] found in the Gospel of Luke (see Counting the cost), and by the "scandalous nature of the image.
"[4] According to Funk (1997), "[a]ttributing a parable to Jesus not attested in the canonical gospels, and known only for a few years, was an act of courage that demanded careful deliberation".
[4] This decision by the Seminar has been criticized for inconsistency, since the parallel parable of the warring king in Luke was not given a pink rating.
According to some of the fellows of the Jesus Seminar, "the story line of the parable originally had to do with Davidic reversal, as in David and Goliath: The little guy bests the big guy by taking the precautions a prudent person would take before encountering the village bully".