HERMENEUTICAL CONSIDERATION IN READING THE ZACCHAEUS NARRATIVE AND THE PROCESS OF PERSONAL RESTORATION

Abstract

This study assessed and evaluated the Zacchaeus narrative in the Gospel of Luke 19:1-10 in light of hermeneutical consideration and personal restoration. The study has proposed by inquiry a critical-narrative interpretive process against the background of 'the system of relevance' of the first century C.E., taking into consideration the research object's behavioral aspects concerning the restoration phenomenon. Zacchaeus got the 'derogatory' social label of a 'sinner,' earning him the status of a ‘religious’ and social outcast by his zealous collection of taxes. Consequently, he lost his place in the Abrahamic covenant community of Jericho. Jesus met and restored him to his proper place as a 'son of Abraham.' This study revealed that the restoration was all-encompassing as it engulfed the Zacchaeus household. Thus, the restoration phenomenon, if socially constructed hermeneutically, the place of those whom society has estranged, ostracized, isolated, discriminated against, alienated, left on the margin, ruled out of bounds, labelled, and deviants would be history.