I’ve seen the term “prodigal son” used in other ways before, but it’s pretty much always “the prodigal son returns”. I’ve tried to Google it before and that has only confused me more honestly.
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its basically – my friend left; but hes back again and we both choose to move forward happily
often times there was some minor argument in the social group of or pair of friends; causing a drift; but the friends find each other and move forward happily
It’s a biblical reference. The “prodigal son” took his father’s inheritance, wasted it and came home humbled, but accepted by his father anyway, to the consternation of his brother who stayed around taking care of their father. It can be used fairly literally when someone returns home from an extended absence. It can also be used sarcastically.
Edit: Sarcastically in that many people identify with the put-upon brother who feels resentment towards the “prodigal son” who returns home and basically gets rewarded for being an idiot. The moral is supposed to be that being jealous and petty like the brother is a bad look. You should be happy that your brother is back in your life, as the father is. In my opinion, it’s one of the toughest parables in the Bible because it’s just *so* against human nature.
It’s a parable in the Bible. A father rejoices when his wayward son returns home. The son who never went off the rails is not happy with this.
Imagine your parents want you to be a certain way, dress and eat a certain way, worship a certain way, do things their way and so you run away to live your own life, to do your own thing. Only once you’re away, doing your own thing you realize they are right all along, and you feel sorry that you left and so you return home.
It stems from a bible verse about the reconciliation between a repentant son and his father who showed mercy.
In the bible there is a story about a family, one son who is well behaved and does the right thing, and the other son is bad and wastes his money and runs off in a huff at his dad. When the bad son returns, the father has a big feast and celebrates, and the good son feels upset by this. After all, the good son did the good thing and never was celebrated, but the father says the right thing to do is to forgive the bad brother and make him feel welcome in the home again.
It’s a story about the nature of love and forgiveness, and that (from a Christian perspective) it is important to welcome sinners who repent, even if we might personally feel they don’t deserve it.
More broadly, we use the term to mean “someone who left, came back, and now we party”.
That’s interesting then that in the original story the father shows such kindness because typically the phrase is used by a villain in a mocking tone. At least from my experience.
“In the story, a father has two sons. The younger son asks for his portion of inheritance from his father, who grants his son’s request. This son, however, is prodigal (i.e., wasteful and extravagant), thus squandering his fortune and eventually becoming destitute. As consequence, he now must return home empty-handed.”
When they say “the prodigal son returns”, they basically mean that someone who was once close to you and who left in an ungrateful way now comes crawling back.
Its a story in the bible. A father has two sons, one son is spoiled and tired of working, demands his share of the inheritance right away and runs off to spend it in a far off city living the high life, but soon runs out of money and falls into poverty. He returns to his father remorseful of his actions and asks to be taken in as a worker, instead of family, believing his father wouldn’t accept him back after behaving so poorly, but the father celebrates his son’s return and holds a feast. The other brother who always worked hard is jealous that he never got a similar celebration despite always doing the right thing, but his father asks him to still join the celebration, because his brother was essentially dead to them, but has returned.
The moral of the story is that we should be encouraging when someone who has behaved poorly “returns” and tries to correct their bad behaviour. Its tempting to turn away people who have wronged us, but the story preaches that if someone is trying to make amends for their past wrongs, the right thing to do is to be open to it, and be happy for someone who was “lost” to return.
It’s a famous story in the Bible.
Jesus tells about a man who had two sons. One asked for his half of the inheritance early. He went out and wasted all the money (“prodigal” refers to this, also “profligate”). He was living in a foreign land and doing the worst, most humiliating jobs just to survive.
Eventually, he finds his way back home. He begs to be hired by his father as a servant. Instead of hiring him as a servant, his father is overjoyed and throws a big party to celebrate his return.
His brother asks why their father is spending so much on celebrating someone who wasted everything and not on him even though he always did the right thing. Their father explains that it’s because he never lost this son (and besides, he still has hus share of the inheritance coming), while with his other son being off so far away, it was like he was dead, and now has returned.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2015%3A11-32&version=ESV
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