parable Summary and Overview

(Gr. parabole), a placing beside; a comparison; equivalent to the Heb. mashal, a similitude. In the Old Testament this is used to denote (1) a proverb (1 Sam. 10:12; 24:13; 2 Chr. 7:20), (2) a prophetic utterance (Num. 23:7; Ezek. 20:49), (3) an enigmatic saying (Ps. 78:2; Prov. 1:6). In the New Testament, (1) a proverb (Mark 7:17; Luke 4:23), (2) a typical emblem (Heb. 9:9; 11:19), (3) a similitude or allegory (Matt. 15:15; 24:32; Mark 3:23; Luke 5:36; 14:7); (4) ordinarily, in a more restricted sense, a comparison of earthly with heavenly things, "an earthly story with a heavenly meaning," as in the parables of our Lord. Instruction by parables has been in use from the earliest times. A large portion of our Lord's public teaching consisted of parables. He himself explains his reasons for this in his answer to the inquiry of the disciples, "Why speakest thou to them in parables?" (Matt. 13:13-15; Mark 4:11, 12; Luke 8:9, 10). He followed in so doing the rule of the divine procedures, as recorded in Matt. 13:13. The parables uttered by our Lord are all recorded in the synoptical (i.e., the first three) Gospels. The fourth Gospel contains no parable properly so called, although the illustration of the good shepherd (John 10:1-16) has all the essential features of a parable. (See List of Parables in Appendix.)

(The word parable is in Greek parable (parabole) which signifies placing beside or together, a comparison, a parable is therefore literally a placing beside, a comparison, a similitude, an illustration of one subject by another. --McClintock and Strong. As used in the New Testament it had a very wide application, being applied sometimes to the shortest proverbs, #1Sa 10:12; 24:13; 2Ch 7:20| sometimes to dark prophetic utterances, #Nu 23:7,18; 24:3; Eze 20:49| sometimes to enigmatic maxims, #Ps 78:2; Pr 1:6| or metaphors expanded into a narrative. #Eze 12:22| In the New Testament itself the word is used with a like latitude in #Mt 24:32; Lu 4:23; Heb 9:9| It was often used in a more restricted sense to denote a short narrative under which some important truth is veiled. Of this sort were the parables of Christ. The parable differs from the fable (1) in excluding brute and inanimate creatures passing out of the laws of their nature and speaking or acting like men; (2) in its higher ethical significance. It differs from the allegory in that the latter, with its direct personification of ideas or attributes, and the names which designate them, involves really no comparison. The virtues and vices of mankind appear as in a drama, in their own character and costume. The allegory is self-interpreting; the parable demands attention, insight, sometimes an actual explanation. It differs from a proverb in that it must include a similitude of some kind, while the proverb may assert, without a similitude, some wide generalization of experience.--ED.) For some months Jesus taught in the synagogues and on the seashore of Galilee as he had before taught in Jerusalem, and as yet without a parable. But then there came a change. The direct teaching was met with scorn unbelief hardness, and he seemed for a time to abandon it for that which took the form of parables. The worth of parables as instruments of teaching lies in their being at once a test of character and in their presenting each form of character with that which, as a penalty or blessing, is adapted to it. They withdraw the light from those who love darkness. They protect the truth which they enshrine from the mockery of the scoffer. They leave something even with the careless which may be interpreted and understood afterward. They reveal on the other hand, the seekers after truth. These ask the meaning of the parable, and will not rest until the teacher has explained it. In this way the parable did work, found out the fit hearers and led them on. In most of the parables it is possible to trace something like an order. 1. There is a group which have for their subject the laws of the divine kingdom. Under this head we have the sower, #Mt 13:1 ..., Mr 4:1 ..., Lu 8:1|... the wheat and the tares #Mt 13:1| ... etc. 2. When the next parables meet us they are of a different type and occupy a different position. They are drawn from the life of men rather than from the world of nature. They are such as these --the two debtors, #Lu 7:1| ... the merciless servant, #Mt 18:1| ... the good Samaritan, #Lu 10:1| ... etc. 3. Toward the close of our Lord's ministry the parables are again theocratic but the phase of the divine kingdom on which they chiefly dwell is that of its final consummation. In interpreting parables note-- (1) The analogies must be real, not arbitrary; (2) The parables are to be considered as parts of a whole, and the interpretation of one is not to override or encroach upon the lessons taught by others; (3) The direct teaching of Christ presents the standard to which all our interpretations are to be referred, and by which they are to be measured.

PAR'ABLE (from a Greek word signifying comparison) is used in the Bible in both a wider and a narrower sense. In the first case it comprises all forms of teaching by analogy and all forms of figurative speech, and is applied to metaphors, whether expanded into narratives, Eze 12:22, or not, Matt 24:32; to proverbs and other short sayings, 1 Sam 10:12; 1 Sam 24:13; 2 Chr 7:20; Luke 4:23; to dark utterances or signs of prophetic or symbolical meaning. Num 23:17-18; 1 Sam 24:3; Eze 20:49; Heb 9:9, etc. In the second case it means a short narrative of some everyday event, by which some great spiritual truth is conveyed to the hearer. In this sense the parable differs - 1. From the fable, by its higher aim to illustrate spiritual truth, and by the intrinsic possibility and probability of its fictitious narrative, which could have happened, though perhaps it did not actually happen; while the fable uses the wonderful, and even the impossible (thinking, talking, acting animals and plants), for teaching maxims of prudence and lower morality, the parables of Christ always keep within the limits of the simple every-day experience. 2. The parable differs from the allegory by its meaning, its idea not being represented, but simply suggested. The allegory is self-interpreting, the imaginary persons being named and performing acts which declare the meaning; while the parable must be interpreted by means of a knowledge of him who speaks it and of those to whom it is spoken. The allegory itself says what it means; the parable receives its whole meaning from the situation which called it forth. For him who knows not Christ the parable of the Sower contains nothing beyond a common every-day experience, but to him who knows the Man sitting there in the boat and speaking to the multitude on the shore this parable reveals a sublime spiritual truth. From this peculiarity of the character of the parable it is easy to understand its signification in the teaching of Christ, and easy to derive the law for its interpretation. "The purpose of our Lord in teaching by parables was twofold - to reveal and to conceal the truth: to reveal to those who really sought the truth, to conceal from those who did not desire such knowledge, thus rewarding the former and punishing the latter." - Schaff. To him who has, the parable gives more; but it takes away from him who has not. No pondering over its details will ever bring out its meaning, for, although the idea may be reflected a thousand times from every turn of the narrative, still it is not present in the words: it is a light thrown upon the words from without, from the situation, from the speaker. Teaching by parables was an ancient method. Striking instances occur in the O.T. - Nathan's address to David, 2 Sam 12:1-4; the woman of Tekoah, 2 Sam 14:6; the rebuke of Ahab, 1 Kgs 20:39; the denunciation of Isaiah, Isa 5:1-7 - and later on, the method found much favor with the Hebrew teachers. But it reached its perfection by the application it found in the teaching of Christ. Matthew gives, in Matt 13, seven parables, which represent the several stages of the kingdom of God and its relation to the world: (1) The parable of the Sower, or the beginning of the kingdom and its reception or rejection by the different classes of men; (2) The parable of the Tares, or the kingdom of heaven in conflict with the kingdom of Satan; (3) The parable of the Mustard-seed and (4) the parable of the Leaven, or the growth of the kingdom of heaven extensively, comprising all nations and intensively pervading all forms of human life; (5) The parable of the Hidden Treasure; (6) The parable of the Pearl of Great Price; and (7) The parable of the Net cast into the Sea, or the relation between the kingdom of heaven and individual man and his efforts to grasp it and to develop it. The parables occurring in the N.T. are: 1. The Sower. Matt 13:3-8; Mark 4:3-8; Luke 8:5-8. 1. The Wheat and the Tares. Matt 13:24-30. 2. The Mustard-seed. Matt 13:31-32; Mark 4:30-32. 3. The Leaven. Matt 13:33. 4. The Seed cast into the Ground and Growing up Secretly. Mark 4:26-29. 5. The Hidden Treasure. Matt 13:44. 6. The Pearl of Great Price. Matt 13:45-46. 7. The Net cast into the Sea. Matt 13:47-48. 8. The Lost Sheep. Matt 18:12-13; Luke 15:4-6. 9. The Merciless Servant. Matt 18:23-34. 10. The Two Debtors. Luke 7:41-42. 11. The Good Samaritan. Luke 10:30-35. 12. The Importunate Friend. Luke 11:5-8. 13. The Rich Fool. Luke 12:16-20. 14. The Return from the Wedding. Luke 12:35-40. 15. The Fig Tree. Luke 13:6-9. 16. The Great Supper. Luke 14:16-24. 17. The Lost Piece of Money. Luke 15:8-9. 18. The Prodigal Son. Luke 15:11-32. 19. The Unjust Steward. Luke 16:1-8. 20. The Rich Man and Lazarus. Luke 16:19-31. 21. The Unjust Judge. Luke 18:2-5. 22. The Pharisee and the Publican. Luke 18:10-13. 23. The Pounds. Luke 19:12-27. 24. The Laborers in the Vineyard. Matt 20:1-16. 25. The Two Sons. Matt 21:28-30. 26. The Vineyard let to Husbandmen. Matt 21:33-39; Mark 12:1-9; Luke 20:9-15. 27. The Marriage-Feast. Matt 22:2-14. 28. The Wise and the Foolish Virgins. Matt 25:1-13. 29. The Talents. Matt 25:14-30. 30. The Sheep and the Goats. Matt 25:31-46. The number of parables in the Gospels differs according to the range given to the application of the term. Greswell reckons 27; Trench, 30; Plumptre, 31; others, 50. Matthew and Luke give us most of the parables. Mark dwells more on the acts than the discourses of Christ. John has no parables proper. He took them for granted from the earlier Gospels, and gives us instead those higher discourses of our Lord respecting his relation to the Father. The best special works on the parables are by Lisco, Greswell, Trench, Arndt, Arnot, Stier. Our Lord has himself explained the parable of the Sower and the parable of the Wheat and the Tares. His explanation must be the standard by which our interpretations are to be regulated and measured.

Hebrew maashaal, Greek parabolee, a placing side by side or comparing earthly truths, expressed, with heavenly truths to be understood. (See FABLE.) The basis of parable is that man is made in the image of God, and that there is a law of continuity of the human with the divine. The force of parable lies in the real analogies impressed by the Creator on His creatures, the physical typifying the higher moral world. "Both kingdoms develop themselves according to the same laws; Jesus' parables are not mere illustrations, but internal analogies, nature becoming a witness for the spiritual world; whatever is found in the earthly exists also in the heavenly kingdom." (Lisco.) The parables, earthly in form heavenly in spirit, answer to the parabolic character of His own manifestation. Jesus' purpose in using parables is judicial, as well as didactic, to discriminate between the careless and the sincere. In His earlier teaching, as the Sermon on the Mount, He taught plainly and generally without parables; but when His teaching was rejected or misunderstood, He in the latter half of His ministry judicially punished the unbelieving by parabolic veiling of the truth (Matthew 13:11-16), "therefore speak I to them in parables, because they seeing see not ... but blessed are your eyes, for they see," etc. Also Matthew 13:34-35. The disciples' question (Matthew 13:10), "why speakest Thou unto them in parables?" shows that this is the first formal beginning of His parabolic teaching. The parables found earlier are scattered and so plain as to be rather illustrations than judicial veilings of the truth (Matthew 7:24-27; Matthew 9:16; Matthew 12:25; Mark 3:23; Luke 6:39). Not that a merciful aspect is excluded even for the heretofore carnal hearers. The change of mode would awaken attention, and judgment thus end in mercy, when the message of reconciliation addressed to them first after Jesus' resurrection (Acts 3:26) would remind them of parables not understood at the time. The Holy Spirit would "bring all things to their remembrance" (John 14:26). When explained, the parables would be the clearest illustration of truth. The parable, which was to the carnal a veiling, to the receptive was a revealing of the truth, not immediate but progressive (Proverbs 4:18). They were a penalty era blessing according to the hearer's state: a darkening to those who loved darkness; enshrining the truth (concerning Messiah's spiritual kingdom so different from Jewish expectations) from the jeer of the scoffer, and leaving something to stimulate the careless afterward to think over. On the other hand, enlightening the diligent seeker, who asks what means this parable? and is led so to "understand all parables" (Mark 4:13; Matthew 15:17; Matthew 16:9; Matthew 16:11), and at last to need no longer this mode but to have all truth revealed plainly (John 16:25). The truths, when afterward explained first by Jesus, then by His Spirit (John 14:26), would be more definitely and indelibly engraven on their memories. About 50 out of a larger number are preserved in the Gospels (Mark 4:33). Each of the three synoptical Gospels preserves some parable peculiar to itself; John never uses the word parable but "proverb" or rather brief "allegory," parabolic saying (paroimia). Parabolic sayings, like the paroimia) in John (John 10:1; John 10:6-18; John 16:25; John 15:1-8), occur also in Matthew 15:15; Luke 4:23; Luke 6:39; Mark 3:23, "parable" in the sense "figure" or type, Hebrews 9:9; Hebrews 11:19 Greek Fable introduces brutes and transgresses the order of things natural, introducing improbabilities resting on fancy. Parable does not, and has a loftier significance; it rests on the imagination, introducing only things probable. The allegory personifies directly ideas or attributes. The thing signifying and the thing signified are united together, the properties and relations of one being transferred to the other; instead of being kept distinct side by side, as in the parable; it is a prolonged metaphor or extended simile; it never names the object itself; it may be about other than religious truths, but the parable only about religious truth. The parable is longer carried out than the proverb, and not merely by accident and occasionally, but necessarily, figurative and having a similitude. The parable is often an expanded proverb, and the proverb a condensed parable. The parable expresses some particular fact, which the simile does not. In the fable the end is earthly virtues, skill, prudence, etc., which have their representatives in irrational creation; if men be introduced, they are represented from their mere animal aspect. The rabbis of Christ's time and previously often employed parable, as Hillel, Shammai, the Gemara, Midrash (Lightfoot, Hor. Hebrew, Matthew 13:3); the commonness of their use was His first reason for employing them, He consecrated parables to their highest end. A second reason was, the untutored masses relish what is presented in the concrete and under imagery, rather than in the abstract. Even the disciples, through Jewish prejudices, were too weak in faith impartially to hear gospel truths if presented in naked simplicity; the parables secured their assent unawares. The Pharisees, hating the truth, became judicially hardened by that vehicle which might have taught them it in a guise least unpalatable. As in the prophecies, so in parables, there was light enough to guide the humble, darkness enough to confound the willfully blind (John 9:39; Psalm 18:26). A third reason was, gospel doctrines could not be understood fully before the historical facts on which they rested had been accomplished, namely, Jesus' death and resurrection. Parables were repositories of truths not then understood, even when plainly told (Luke 18:34), but afterward comprehended in their manifold significance, when the Spirit brought all Jesus' words to their remembrance. The veil was so transparent as to allow the spiritual easily to see the truth underneath; the unspiritual saw only the sacred drapery of the parable in which He wrapped the pearl so as not to cast it before swine. "Apples of gold in pictures (frames) of silver." The seven in Matthew 13 represent the various relations of the kingdom of God. The first, the relations of different classes with regard to God's word. The second, the position of mankind relatively to Satan's kingdom. The third and fourth, the greatness of the gospel kingdom contrasted with its insignificant beginning. The fifth and sixth, the inestimable value of the kingdom. The seventh, the mingled state of the church on earth continuing to the end. The first four parables have a mutual connection (Matthew 13:3; Matthew 13:24; Matthew 13:31; Matthew 13:33), and were spoken to the multitude on the shore; then Matthew 13:34 marks a break. On His way to the house He explains the parable of the sower to the disciples; then, in the house, the tares (Matthew 13:36); the three last parables (Matthew 13:44-52), mutually connected by the thrice repeated "again," probably in private. The seven form a connected totality. The mustard and leaven are repeated in a different connection (Luke 13:18-21). Seven denotes "completeness"; they form a perfect prophetic series: the sower, the seedtime; the tares, the secret growth of corruption; the mustard and leaven, the propagation of the gospel among princes and in the whole world; the treasure, the hidden state of the church (Psalm 83:3); the pearl, the kingdom prized above all else; the net, the church's mixed state in the last age and the final separation of bad from good. The second group of parables are less theocratic, and more peculiarly represent Christ's sympathy with all men, and their consequent duties toward Him and their fellow men. The two debtors (Luke 7:41), the merciless servant (Matthew 18), the good Samaritan (Luke 10:30), the friend at midnight (Luke 11:5), the rich fool (Luke 12:16), the figtree (Luke 13:6), the great supper (Luke 14:16), the lost sheep, piece of silver, son (Luke 15; Matthew 18:12), the unjust steward (Luke 16:1), Lazarus, etc. (Luke 16:19), unjust judge (Luke 18:2), Pharisee and publican (Luke 18:9), all in Luke, agreeable to his Gospel's aspect of Christ. (See LUKE.) Thirdly, toward the close of His ministry, the theocratic parables are resumed, dwelling on the final consummation of the kingdom of God. The pound (Luke 19:12), two sons (Matthew 21:28), the vineyard (Matthew 21:33), marriage (Matthew 22:2); the ten virgins, talents, sheep and goats (Matthew 25). Matthew, being evangelist of the kingdom, has the largest number of the first and third group. Mark, the Gospel of Jesus' acts, has (of the three) fewest of the parables, but alone has the parable of the grain's silent growth (Mark 4:26). John, who soars highest, has no parable strictly so-called, having reached that close communion with the Lord wherein parables have no place. For a different reason, namely, incapacity to frame them, the apocryphal Gospels have none. INTERPRETATION. Jesus' explanation of two parables, the sower and the tares, gives a key for interpreting other parables. There is one leading thought round which as center the subordinate parts must group themselves. As the accessories, the birds, thorns, heat, etc., had each a meaning, so we must in other parables try to find the spiritual significance even of details. The mistakes some have made are no reason why we should not from Scripture seek an explanation of accessories. The fulfillment may be more than single, applying to the church and to the individual at once, both experimental and prophetic. But (1) The analogies must be real, not imaginary, and subordinate to the main lesson of the parable. (2) The parable in its mere outward form must be well understood, e.g. the relation of love between the Eastern shepherd and sheep (2 Samuel 12:3, an Old Testament parable, as the vineyard Isaiah 5 also) to catch the point of the parable of the lost sheep. (3) The context also introducing the parable, as Luke 15:1-2 is the starting point of the three parables, the lost sheep, etc.; so Luke 16:14-18 (compare John 8:9) introduces and gives the key to the parable of the rich man and Lazurus. (4) Traits which, if literally interpreted, would contradict Scripture, are coloring; e.g. the number of the wise virgins and the foolish being equal; compare Matthew 7:13-14. But there may be a true interpretation of a trait, which, if misinterpreted, contradicts Scripture, e.g. the hired laborers all alike getting the penny, not that there are no degrees of rewards (2 John 1:8) but the gracious gift of salvation is the same to all; the key is Matthew 19:27-30; Matthew 20:16. So the selling the debtor's wife and children (Matthew 18:25) is mere coloring from Eastern usage, for God does not consign wife and children to hell for the husband's and father's sins.