Page 128 - A Dissertation for Doctor of Philosophy

At its simplest the parable is a metaphor or simile drawn from nature or common life,
arresting the hearer by its vividness or strangeness, and leaving the mind in sufficient
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doubt about its precise application to tease it into active thought.
This definition draws much attention to various traits of parables such as “their metaphorical

character, their vivid realism, and their surprising and ambiguous features that engage the

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listener and prompt active participation in the story.”

Bernard Brandon Scott updates the scholarly understanding of parable by identifying it as

one particular type of mashal that “employed a short narrative fiction to reference a transcendent

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symbol.” The Greek word parabole was used forty eight times in the Synoptic Gospels. The
Hebrew word mashal that was translated into the Greek word parabole in the Septuagint

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includes numerous literary forms such as the epigram, proverbs, fables, and allegory. Stein

points out the six types of parabole in use in the Synoptic Gospels following the rabbinic usage

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of mashal: “metaphor or figurative saying, proverb, similitude, story parable, 100 example

92 C.H. Dodd, The Parables of the Kingdom, rev. ed. (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons,
1961), 5.

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James L. Bailey and Lyle D. Vander Broek, Literary Forms in the New Testament: A
Handbook (Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1992), 106.

94 Scott, Hear Then the Parable, 8.

95 Richard N. Longenecker, ed., The Challenge of Jesus’ Parable (Grand Rapids, MI:
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2000), xi. He reports that it appears seventeen times
in Matthew, thirteen in Mark, and eighteen in Luke.

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Friedrich Hauck, “parabole,” TDNT, vol. 5, 750. Or // Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard
Friedrich, ed., Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Vol. V, trans. Geoffrey W.
Bromiley (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm E. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1964), s.v. “parabole”. ????

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For example, Mark 7:14-17.
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For instance, Luke 4:23 says, “He said to them, ‘Doubtless you will quote to me this
proverb (parabole), ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown
the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’” The parenthesis is added for clarity.