Page 127 - A Dissertation for Doctor of Philosophy

Use of Parable

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In a technical sense, parable is one of the most favorite forms in Jesus’ preaching. Mark even
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accounts that Jesus did not preach to the people “except in parables”(Mark 4:34). Though

Mark’s statement is a bit hyperbolic, “it does emphasize his [Jesus’] most characteristic way of

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instructing.” David Aune estimates that “[t]he sixty-five parables of the Synoptic Gospel
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constitute 35 percent of the teaching of Jesus.” Parable, as a literary form in the Gospels, is

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described as “metaphorical narrative sayings of Jesus which make one central point.” Dodd

also furnishes a classic oft-quoted definition of it, as follows:

87 J. M. Price, Jesus the Teacher (Nashville, TN: Sunday School Board, 1946), 99,

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Matt. 13:34 says the same thing, “Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables;
without a parable he told them nothing.”

89 William E. Phipps, The Wisdom & Wit of Rabbi Jesus (Louisville, KY:
Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993), 70.

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David E. Aune, The New Testament in Its Literary Environment (Philadelphia, PN: The
Westminster Press, 1987), 51.

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Aune, New Testament, 51. Important works on Jesus’ parable includes: Brad H. Young,
Jesus and His Jewish Parables (New York: Paulist Press, 1989); Bernard Brandon Scott, Hear
Then the Parable (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1989); Madeline I. Boucher, The Parables
(Wilmington, DL: Michael Glazier Inc., 1981); and Robert H. Stein, Introduction to the Parables
of Jesus (Philadelphia, PN: The Westminster Press, 1981) . For the preaching and parables, see
Eugene L. Lowry, How to Preach a Parable: Designs for Narrative Sermons (Nashville, TN:
Abingdon Press, 1990). David Buttrick, Speaking Parables: A Homiletic Guide (Louisville, KY:
Westminster/John Knox Press, 2000). Ronald E. Pate, “Preaching the Parables of Jesus: An
Analysis of Selected Twentieth Century Sermons,” Th.D. diss., New Orleans Baptist Theological
Seminary, 1988. Koo Young Na, “The Parables of Jesus as a Paradigm of Preaching,” Ph. D.
diss., Drew University, 1984.