The parable of the playing children (Matt. xi. 16–19/Lk. vii. 31–35) is part of one of the passages listed by Farmer as exhibiting ‘the kind of verbal similarity … which suggests the possibility of direct copying’, and it affords a useful starting point for the present discussion. Certainly the verbal agreement here is very close, but the two accounts are by no means identical. However, if Luke is dependent on Matthew alone for his version, then all the differences between the two must be due to LkR. These must therefore be examined in detail.

Although the parable itself forms the end of a much longer section of double tradition material dealing with the Baptist's question to Jesus, attention here will be focussed on the parable and its immediate introduction in each gospel (Matt. xi. 12–19/Lk. vii. 29–35). In what immediately precedes the parable, Matthew and Luke differ widely. If Luke is dependent on Matthew, then the following are the most important changes which Luke must have made: (1) the omission of Matt. xi. 12–15 here, and the transposition of verses 12f. in a significantly different version to Lk. xvi. 16; (2) the insertion of Lk. vii. 29f. presenting a different version of Matt. xxi. 32; (3) the change of‘works’ to ‘children’ in Lk. vii. 35. It is clear that, in the present Lukan version, verse 35 refers to the saying in verses 29f., identifying ‘Wisdom's children’ with ‘all the people and the tax-collectors’.