In Luke 15:11-32, we read the Parable of the Prodigal Son.
A man demands his inheritance from his father while still alive, then goes off and wastes all his money in a foreign land. Finally, he comes back home to his father to beg for forgiveness, and receives honor and love.
But, why do we call this the story of the Prodigal Son? What does “prodigal” mean?
Well, it means “wasteful” or “wastefully extravagant”.
It comes from the Latin word prodigus, meaning “wasteful”. This, in turn, comes from the Latin verb prodigere, meaning “to use up” or “to get rid of”.
So, this is the story of the “wasteful” son.
We started calling the parable by this name back when Jerome (the man who compiled the Latin translation of the Bible known as the Vulgate back in the late 300s AD) decided to call it the parable of filius prodigus, “the wasteful son”.
Since that’s the Latin word Jerome chose to use, some English speaking Christians eventually decided to call it the parable of “the Prodigal Son”.