THE WHAT; WHY; AND HOW OF PARABLES

How to Read the Bible: Week Three

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What? What is a Parable?

Transliteration of Gk parabolḗ, used in the NT to identify a variety of literary forms. Literally the word signifies something cast alongside another thing to clarify it. However, literary units identified as parables in the NT themselves generally require clarification and are frequently, but not always, accompanied by explanations provided by the Evangelist.

From the Eerdman’s Dictionary of the Bible

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Why Did Jesus Use Parables? Parables are used because of the

natural interest in stories. Parables are used because of the

fact that parables “slip past the defense mechanism of listeners.”

Note that parables were used in the OT as well (Nathan and David).

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How Does one Understand a Parable?

The Finest book on parables in English is by Klyne Snodgrass, Stories With Intentent

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Suggestions for Parable Interpretation:

1. Analyze each parable thoroughly, particularly if it occurs in different gospels and in different contexts.

See, for example, the parable of the lost sheep.

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See, for example, the lost sheep ““What do you think? If

any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying? “If it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray. ” (Matthew 18:12–13, NASB95)

““What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? “When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. ” (Luke 15:4–5, NASB95)

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Suggestions:

2. Remember that Jesus’ parables would have been told many times and thus could be different in nature at different times.

3. Strive to hear the story as a first-century Jewish person would have heard it. “Any analysis of the story that does not breath the air of the first-century is not correct.”

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Suggestions

4. Determine the function of the story in the teaching of Jesus in the particular Gospel in which it occurs.

The context of any passage is important and becomes more important the closer it is to the particular passage

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Suggestions:

5. Interpret what is in the story, not what is missing. Any attempt to interpret a parable based on what is not there is almost certainly wrong.

Be careful about over-interpretation. Every single item in the story does not have theological value, some are just a part of the story (e.g. the shoes in the story of the prodigal son).

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Clement’s “Allegorical” View So, the robe that the father gave

to the returned prodigal represents immortality; the shoes represent the upward progress of the soul; and the fatted calf represents Christ as the source of spiritual nourishment for Christians. Klein, W. W., Blomberg, C., Hubbard, R.

L., & Ecklebarger, K. A. (1993). Introduction to biblical interpretation (3839). Dallas, Tex.: Word Pub.

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Suggestions:

6. Pay particular attention to the rule of “end stress.”

Almost all longer parables have some sense of shock at the end of the story.

Luke 10-the Samaritan is the good one Luke 18-The Tax Collector was justified Matt. 18-The man is turned over to the

torturers

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Suggestions:

7. Try to make the parables as shocking today as they were in the first-century.

This may turn out to be offensive, but it was offensive in the first-century.

Note that several times the parables caused some members in the crowds to want to kill Jesus.

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The Parable of the Good Samaritan-Cotton Patch Ver. This is a version that was

paraphrased in the 1070’s and was intended to cause those who read the text to feel the shock of the parable.

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25. One day a teacher of an adult Bible class got up and tested him with this question: “Doctor, what does one do to be saved?”

Jesus replied, “What does the Bible say? How do you interpret it?”

The teacher answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your physical strength and with all your mind; and love your neighbor as yourself.”

“That is correct,” answered Jesus. “Make a habit of this and you’ll be saved.”

But the Sunday school teacher, trying to save face, asked, “But … er … but … just who is my neighbor?”

Then Jesus laid into him and said, “A man was going from Atlanta to Albany and some gangsters held him up. When they had robbed him of his wallet and brand-new suit, they beat him up and drove off in his car, leaving him unconscious on the shoulder of the highway.

“Now it just so happened that a white preacher was going down that same highway. When he saw the fellow, he stepped on the gas and went scooting by.

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“Shortly afterwards a white Gospel song leader came down the road, and when he saw what had happened, he too stepped on the gas.

“Then a black man traveling that way came upon the fellow, and what he saw moved him to tears. He stopped and bound up his wounds as best he could, drew some water from his water-jug to wipe away the blood and then laid him on the back seat.

He drove on into Albany and took him to the hospital and said to the nurse, ‘You all take

good care of this white man I found on the highway. Here’s the only two dollars I got,

but you all keep account of what he owes, and if he can’t pay it, I’ll settle up with you

when I make a pay-day.’

All the while his thoughts may have been along this line: Somebody’s robbed you; yeah, I know about that, I been robbed, too. And they done beat you up bad; I know, I been beat up, too. And everybody just go right on by and leave you laying here hurting. Yeah, I know. They pass me by, too.

“Now if you had been the man held up by the gangsters, which of these three—the white preacher, the white song leader, or the black man—would you consider to have been your neighbor?”

The teacher of the adult Bible class said, “Why, of course, the black—I mean, er … well, er … the one who treated me kindly.”

Jesus said, “Well, then, you get going and start living like that!” Jordan, C. (2004). The cotton patch gospel. Macon, Ga.: Smyth &

Helwys Pub.

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Rembrandt's “Prodigal Son”

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Note about this picture

1. The prodigal’s face is unseen. So our sin is as far as the east is from the west.

2. The hand’s seem to be both masculine and feminine. God’s grace is both a picture of justice and mercy.