Page 122 - A Dissertation for Doctor of Philosophy

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percent of all logia belong to what were assigned to the disciples. Furthermore, when the
disciples lacked understanding concerning his message and mission, Jesus took on the most

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didactic form in all his preaching: he told them series of parables and expounded for them.
The paradigmatic example of Jesus teaching through parable is located in the pericope of the

Parable of the Tare (Matt. 13:24-30, 36-43). When Jesus finished telling the series of the

Kingdom parables to the multitude a people, including his disciples, the disciples came to Jesus

and asked, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field” (Matt. 13:36). Jesus then

expounded the parable for them to understand. It was not uncommon for Jesus to use other

techniques to teach his disciples such as Aramaic poetry that is characterized by “rhyme, rhythm,

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parallelism of verse structure, and pun or alliteration.” These techniques were obviously
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intended for easy remembrance. As noted from the example, Jesus’ methodology of the
preaching to the disciples was didactic in its nature and inductive in its movement.

When Jesus saw the multitudes, he expressed compassion for them. Mark records, “As he went

ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep

without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things” (Mark 6:34). Out of this

compassion, Jesus preached to them. In his address to this crowd, he exhibits accommodation of

his message to their life experience and situation. The predominant form he used for the public

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was parable. Manson even insists that “when he speaks to the mass of people he always uses

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Baird, Audience Criticism, 124.

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For example, see Luke 12:41-48, 16:1-8, Matt. 13:18-23, 18:21-35.
72 John Wick Bowman, Jesus’ Teaching in its Environment (Richmond, VA: John Knox
Press, 1963), 71.

73 Ibid. He explains that “All of the Beatitudes (Matt. 5:3-12) are synthetic in type, that is,
the second part of each verse completes the meaning of the first part.” For an example of
synonymous parallelism, see Matt. 7:7. For an antithetical parallelism, see Luke 13:30.

74 Bowman, Jesus’ Teaching, 69.