Scholastic Dissection

In today’s world people make a common mistake by making comparisons with the Bible and Aesop’s Fables. In the Bible it is important to which is emphasized more, law or grace. It is just as important to do the same in Aesop’s Fables. Very often a mistake is easily made in reading Jesus’s Parables. Understanding the emphasis of law and grace in both the Bible and Aesop’s Fables and realizing mistakes we make with reading Jesus’s parables can help with reading the parables

Interpretation is dependent on imagination. In order to have an adequate comprehension of the Bible’s teachings, one needs imagination. Brueggemann uses the example of understanding parables as one way an individual uses their imagination. Because parables are mainly symbolic stories that teach a lesson, it is up to the reader to comprehend or imagine what is trying to be taught through the story.

Through the use of the second parable, Tan shows how they use parables to teach kids to

“The Prodigal Son”, “The Boy who Cried Wolf”, or “The Mouse and the Lion” are all stories that are commonly well-known, however few people recognize them as parables. The parable is a figure of speech characterized by a short narrative, in prose or verse, full of symbols, allegory, and analogy to convey a moral or religious message. The word ‘parable’ comes from the Greek language and means ‘comparison, illustration, analogy’. The two thousand years old Buddhist story “The Elephant in the Village of the Blind’ portraying simple story, demonstrating universal moral, and using symbols and analogy is the evident representative of the parable.

Parables are stories written in the Bible for truth and life guidance. We have to understand that parables are implied by God to encourage his written word and carry his truths. God’s words can touch a heart of faith despite their external circumstance. The history of parables started with Jesus writing “the sower and the seed” in the book of Matthew. The sower and the seed was the seed is “the word.” The hard ground represents the person who is hardened by sin. Parables date back as far as

Jesus’ use of parables was to fulfill Old Testament prophecy; Psalm 78:2, “I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter hidden things, things from of old-” (NIV). Additionally, Jesus used parables to teach the truth, basic moral, and spiritual principles using simple down to earth stories to reveal the message of the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven was the heartbeat of Jesus teachings; often his parables began with: the kingdom of God is like…. Jesus used parables to teach not of an earthly kingdom of God but of a spiritual kingdom, and those who chose to accept God’s kingdom would inherit eternal life. It is important to remember, that Jesus used parables not to replace to doctrine but to illustrate and confirm doctrine teachings.

While Jesus was not the first to use parables to teach a message or communicate understanding, Snodgrass (2008) provided insight as to how Jesus parables are unique among the parabolic literature in the ancient world among different cultures. The parables told by the rhetoricians in the Greco-Roman show that Jesus’ parables would not have seemed strange to hear and do not come close to that of Jesus but regularly have explanations and show that parables are effective because of their contexts. According to Snodgrass, (2008) “While there are some similarities such as the Greco-Roman parables in which they are, like Jesus parables, confronting people for their failures” (p. 46). His comparison between the parables of Jesus and those told in the ancient world tells us that Jesus’ use of the parables is the prophetic tradition of the Old Testament. He also mentions some comparisons among Jewish writings.

In all his teaching to the crowds Jesus spoke in parables; in fact he never spoke to them without a parable. This was to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah: I will open my mouth in parables;

The Parable of the Sower is a parable told by Jesus to convey the message of God to the people. To be a parable a story needs to have a message embedded into the words of the story. Jesus used parables to convey his message as they are easy to understand.

A parable is a “simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson, as told by Jesus in the Gospels.” Parables are a form of teaching in Judaism, this is where Jesus made it a point in his ministry to gather common things that could be familiar to everyone and anyone who was wiling to hear him speak, for example bread and sheep. He made sure that the meaning of what was said was very clear in the context of His teachings. Parables in other words are an “earthly form of stories with heavenly meaning”. In Matthew (13: 13) Jesus says “Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.” This quote can be seen as Jesus’ way of communicating with his disciples, because many of them could not fully comprehend his teachings and what was being spoken. Another reason why He spoke in parables was so that “…unbelievers would be without comprehension”. Only those who were willing to follow Him and allow Him into their hearts, trusting in Him would understand His ways. His main deal was to be able to teach people, and hopefully in teaching them they would learn an d pass down what was taught to others. Just like in our society now and when it comes to books, magazines, etc Jesus used such things as words, pictures, and stories to help everyone learn and understand things in a certain way, because everyone learns differently he took that into consideration.

Also, the Bible simply says God speaks through parables, “Then said I, Ah Lord God! They say of me, doth he not speak in parables?” (Ezekiel 20:49). This clearly states Christ uses parables in His teaching readers must look for principles in rather than expecting every parable to reveal its teachings through literal

The direct teachings of Jesus give instructions of how to live as Christians and the Parables were used in the Gospel to immediately confront us with a truth and evoke a change. (Fee & Stuart,2003, p. 152). The five major discourses of Matthew’s Gospel are centred around five lengthy Sermons using parables to make a point and call the people to make a change.

Parables are good because anybody from any religion, ethnic, background, country or upbringing would benefit from listening to them and would find them useful. They are the solution to most world moral issues, however, not everyone wants to listen

‘It is meant to make people think – even think furiously – and to issue in decision and action’ (Hunter 1976, 13) ‘And sometimes such vivid analogies so catch the public mind that they pass into public parlance’ (Etchells 1998, 1) It is no wonder that the reason people still like to use stories to illustrate teaching today is because of these facts. Etchells in particular brings out a very interesting point in that Jesus would surely have wanted his teaching to reach more than just the people directly listening. Stories are easy for people to both remember and remember accurately, making it more likely for his teaching to spread even before it became codified. We can learn greatly from this. If we really want our listeners to engage with the Gospel we need to preach it to them in a way that will help them engage. Telling those parables that force them to think for themselves and remember what they have been taught will help to carry the message of the teacher back into the listeners’ daily lives, rather than just hearing the message and

During Jesus’ life he was teaching in many different ways one of them was telling the parables. Parable is an earthly story with the heavenly meaning. That means that Jesus was making up a story in which there would be a real people, working of doing something that was common at that times. Sometimes he used the values whether material or spiritual, that were valuable in old times. So he was making everything to make the story look more realistic. But under the close of the poor man or woman and under the animal or a subject there was always something mach more complicated, something about his father, himself, and the people that were following the God or not.