Parables – What are?

Parables are figurative sayings in a form of simile, similitude or story. It is different from an allegory in that it has only one central meaning while the later may has several. Parables also are life like but allegory may be imagination.

There are about 60 Parables in Jesus’ teachings. The Synoptic Gospels contain about 30 of these stories. John’s Gospel contains no parables but uses other figure of speech. Jesus used the situation from the real world surrounded as a tool to teach His disciples. The idioms used in the Parables are traceable to the Palestinian-Aramaic history. The authoritative teachings of Jesus in the parables are self authenticating. They are indeed trust worthy.

All great Biblical pundits in the early church period (Irenaeus 130-200; Clement 150-215; Tertullian 160-220; Origen 185-254; Augustine 354-430) interpreted Parables in an allegorical way. They were all influenced by the Greek philosopher Plato and Homer. It has been said that “We find the allegorical method of Greek philosopher baptized in to the Parables.”

Martin Luther 1483 – 1546 disagreed deeply with the church’s allegorical interpreting of the Parables as ‘worthless as dirt’ and ‘clerical jugglers performing monkey’s tricks’. Yet, he himself committed many “monkey tricks’ in his exposition of the Good Samaritan allegorically.

John Calvin 1509 – 1564 initiated the concept of theme interpretation of Parables. He felt that the details are merely decorative and require no special interpretation. We need to find no hidden meanings in Jerusalem or Jericho in the Good Samaritan.

However, this phenomenon did not last very long. A new era of theologians known as ‘Historical – Prophetical’ brought back the interpretation of the Parables to the allegorical scene.

It was Adolf Julicher who sounded the death – knell in allegorizing the Parables that had bedeviled their interpretation throughout the centuries.

Dodd and Jeremius refined Julicher further by putting the Parables of Jesus back to the true eschatological setting. Dodd pointed to the concept of the Gospel is the Kingdom of God. He inserted that Kingdom of God came with Christ, the idea we know as the ‘realized escapology.’

Modern theologians and scholars have come up with a new approach to the interpretation of the Parables. It is simply to study the original setting of the Parables before we establish the theme. We then apply that theme to our daily life situation as a teaching with an aim for a life change. This is what Jesus did when He shared the parables to His disciples.