Hopefully everyone had a blessed Christmas season. As we being the year 2018, I would like to begin a new study. During the course of this year I would like to go through all of the parables of Jesus. But before going through each of the parables of Jesus each week, one at a time, it would be good to answer a few questions that some might have.
- What exactly is a parable? Is a parable the same as an allegory? Is it the same or related to a fable (e.g., Aesop’s Fables)? How is a parable related to a metaphor or analogy?
Let’s start with the lowest level word: metaphor. A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them. That is, a metaphor is language that directly compares seemingly unrelated subjects. For example, “You are my sunshine.”
An analogy is the inference that if two things agree with each other in some respects, they will probably agree in others. For example, “shells were to ancient cultures as dollar bills are to modern culture.” An analogy is often used to make a difficult idea or an archaic subject easier to understand. For example, the URL of a web site is like the title on the tab of a file folder.
Though it is similar to other rhetorical comparisons, an allegory is sustained longer and more fully in its details than a metaphor, and appeals to imagination, while an analogy appeals to reason or logic. An allegory can be quite long and complex. For example, Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyon, The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighier, George Orwell’s Animal Farm, or a film like Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.
A fable or parable is a short allegory with one definite moral. Fables tend to be longer than parables, e.g., Aesop’s Fables such as The Ox and the Frog, The Bundle of Sticks, The Cat and the Birds, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, The Fighting Cocks and the Eagle, and Jupiter and the Monkey. There are many fables that have similar meanings to Biblical and Jesus’ parables, but many more that present good advice that is not at all Biblical, for example, you can’t please everybody, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, if words don’t suffice then blows must follow, or misery loves company.
An example of a Fable is Aesop’s – The bundle of Sticks
An old man on the point of death summoned his sons around him to give them some parting advice. He ordered his servants to bring in a bundle of sticks, and said to his eldest son: “Break it.” The son strained and strained, but with all his efforts was unable to break the bundle. The other sons also tried, but none of them was successful. “Untie the bundle,” said the father, “and each of you take a stick.” When they had done so, he called out to them: “Now, break,” and each stick was easily broken. “You see my meaning,” said their father.
Union gives strength.
- In what books of the Bible are the parables of Jesus found? Are there similar books that do not have any parables?
Most of the parables of Jesus are found in the three synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke). Only one parable (in three parts) is found in the gospel of John.
- How many parables of Jesus are there?
A difficult question. The Catholic Encyclopedia lists 33 parables. The NIV Study Bible lists 40, although five appear in different gospels in different forms. For example, in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30, one servant was given 5 talents, one was given 2 and another was given 1. It is clear to me that this is not the same parable recorded in Luke 19:12-26 in which the master give ten minas to each to ten servants, yet the NIV considers it the same. Small but similar differences exist with four others as well.
The Catholic Encyclopedia does not recognize several short parables that they apparently consider analogies such as Matthew 13:52 (He said to them, “Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.”) or Matthew 9:16 (new cloth on an old coat). This is understandable, but it is not at all clear why parables such as Matthew 24:45-51 (faithful and wise servant) and Luke 14:16-24 (great banquet) were excluded from it.
Counting analogies such as “the Kingdom of God is like [blank]” one could come up with as many as 60 parables. I lean to the NIV Study Bible list of 40 plus the five additional ones that Jesus told at other times in a different form plus one in John for a total count of 46.
- What is the purpose of a parable? Why not plain text?
Mark 4:10-12, Matthew 13:10-17 and Luke 8:9-10 offer an explanation as to why Jesus would teach in parables. These verses say that whenever Jesus would go off by himself (away from the crowds of followers he attracted), those close to him and the disciples would ask about the parables. He told them that they had been given the secret of the Kingdom of God but that outsiders did not have this secret, so everything to them is given in parables, never to be fully understood, otherwise they might find forgiveness, citing variations of Isaiah 6:9-10. Matthew 13:12 adds: “Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.”
Mark 4:33-34 and Matthew 13:34-35 repeat that Jesus would only speak to the “crowds” in parables, while secretly, in private, explaining everything to his disciples.
Jesus used parables because they provoked thought and coaxed the listeners into participating more actively as they considered the parables’ ambiguous content. Another possible reason for parables is that they are memorable stories that could be transmitted orally for years before being written down.
- When did Jesus stat telling parables? Why then?
After some time into his great Galilean ministry, teaching and performing miracles, Jesus begins to gain great popularity. This posed a threat to the established Jewish leaders and opposition started to build against him. After calling Matthew (Levi) to follow him, Levi holds a great banquet at which time the Pharisees complained that Jesus was not following their customs and he was eating with tax collectors and sinners. He said to them, “Can you make the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.” He then told the parable about patching an old garment with new cloth and the one about putting new wine in old wineskins.
With this basic information we will be able to begin going through each of the 46 parables of Jesus. Next week we will begin with the parable of the “new cloth patch on an old coat”.