Page 130 - A Dissertation for Doctor of Philosophy

go beyond the merely discursive stretch of conventional metaphysics and theology.” 106

Consequently, the parables need to be understood not as illustrations, but rather as points unto

themselves, “story events.” 107 Jesus invited his listeners to the metaphorical world of the story

and in doing so ushered them to new understanding of the truth. Jesus knew the power of parable

and used it masterfully.

Use of Aphorism

The other literary form Jesus favored in his preaching is aphorism. Aphorisms are virtually

ubiquitous in Jesus’ teaching, even numbering “far more than the parables.” 108 John Dominic

Crossan calculates their number as more than one hundred and thirty. 109 Aphorisms display

similarities to proverbs and are defined as “a terse pithy saying that contains in a striking manner

106
David Stern, “Jesus’ Parables from the Perspective of Rabbinic Literature: the
Example of the Wicked Husbandmen,” in Parable and Story in Judaism and Christianity, eds.
Clemens Thoma and Michael Wyschogrod (Manwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1989), 49.

107 Graves, The Sermon, 42. He provides five general characteristics of Jesus’ parables.
First, the parables are vivid, concrete stories rooted in real-life experience that shrine spiritual
reality. Second, they are full of surprises, ushered by familiarity, that they provide an
iconoclastic experience at their conclusion. Third and fourth features are their open-ended and
polyvalent tendency, enough to lead listeners to make identifications and applications for
themselves. The fifth mark is a range of miscellaneous techniques that may increase the impact
on listeners: interior monologue, end stress, and law of repetition.

108
Ronald A. Piper, Wisdom in the Q-tradition: The Aphoristic Teaching of Jesus,
Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series 61 (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1989), 1. See also David Aune, “Oral Tradition and the Aphorisms of Jesus,” in Jesus and
the Oral Gospel Tradition, ed. Henry Wansbrough, Journal for the Study of the New Testament
Supplement Series, 64 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1991), 211-12. // 211-65. He says
that it is extremely problematic to pin down the number of the aphorisms due to “their
connection with other aphorisms and sayings in clusters and collection, their setting within more
comprehensive literary form (e.g. pronouncement), and the fluidity.”

109 John Dominic Crossan, In Fragments: The Aphorisms of Jesus (San Francisco: Harper
& Row, Publisher, Inc., 1983), 330-41. He lists 133 aphorisms located in Mark and Q-tradition.