Short didactic story which illustrates one or more instructive lessons or principles
A
parable
is a succinct,
didactic
story, in
prose
or
verse
, that illustrates one or more instructive lessons or principles. It differs from a
fable
in that fables employ
animals
,
plants
, inanimate objects, or forces of nature as characters, whereas parables have human characters.
[1]
A parable is a type of
metaphorical
analogy
.
[2]
Some scholars of the
canonical gospels
and the
New Testament
apply the term "parable" only to the
parables of Jesus
,
[3]
[
need quotation to verify
]
[4]
[
page needed
]
although that is not a common restriction of the term. Parables such as the
parable of the Prodigal Son
are important to Jesus's teaching method.
Etymology
[
edit
]
The word
parable
comes from the
Greek
παραβολ? (
parabol?
), literally "throwing" (
bol?
) "alongside" (
para-
), by extension meaning "comparison, illustration, analogy."
[5]
[6]
It was the name given by Greek
rhetoricians
to an illustration in the form of a brief fictional
narrative
.
History
[
edit
]
The
Bible
contains numerous parables in the
Gospels
of the
New Testament
(
Jesus's parables
). These are believed by some scholars (such as
John P. Meier
) to have been inspired by
mashalim
, a form of Hebrew comparison prominent in the
Talmudic period
(c. 2nd-6th centuries CE).
[7]
Examples of Jesus' parables include the
Good Samaritan
and the
Prodigal Son
. Mashalim from the
Old Testament
include the parable of the ewe-lamb (told by
Nathan
in 2 Samuel 12:1-9
[8]
) and the parable of the woman of Tekoah (in 2 Samuel 14:1-13
[9]
).
Parables also appear in
Islam
. In
Sufi
tradition, parables are used for imparting lessons and values. Recent authors such as
Idries Shah
and
Anthony de Mello
have helped popularize these stories beyond Sufi circles.
Modern parables also exist. A mid-19th-century example, the
parable of the broken window
, criticises a part of
economic
thinking.
Characteristics
[
edit
]
A parable is a short tale that illustrates a universal truth; it is a simple
narrative
. It sketches a setting, describes an
action
, and shows the results. It may sometimes be distinguished from similar narrative types, such as the
allegory
and the
apologue
.
[10]
A parable often involves a character who faces a
moral
dilemma or one who makes a bad decision and then suffers the
unintended consequences
. Although the meaning of a parable is often not explicitly stated, it is not intended to be hidden or secret but to be quite straightforward and obvious.
[11]
The defining characteristic of the parable is the presence of a
subtext
suggesting how a person should behave or what he should believe. Aside from providing guidance and suggestions for proper conduct in one's life, parables frequently use metaphorical language which allows people to more easily discuss difficult or complex ideas. Parables express an
abstract argument
by means of using a concrete narrative which is easily understood.
The allegory is a more general narrative type; it also employs
metaphor
. An allegory may have multiple noncontradictory interpretations and may also have implications that are ambiguous or hard to interpret. As
H.W. Fowler
put it, the object of both parable and allegory "is to enlighten the hearer by submitting to him a case in which he has apparently no direct concern, and upon which therefore a disinterested judgment may be elicited from him, ..."
[10]
The parable is more condensed than the allegory: it rests upon a single
principle
and a single moral, and it is intended that the reader or listener shall conclude that the moral applies equally well to his own concerns.
Parables of Jesus
[
edit
]
Medieval
interpreters of the Bible often treated
Jesus
' parables as allegories, with symbolic
correspondences
found for every element in his parables. But modern scholars, beginning with
Adolf Julicher
, regard their interpretations as incorrect.
[12]
Julicher viewed some of Jesus' parables as similitudes (extended similes or metaphors) with three parts: a picture part (
Bildhalfte
), a reality part (
Sachhalfte
), and a
tertium comparationis
. Julicher held that Jesus' parables are intended to make a single important point.
[7]
Gnostics
suggested that Jesus kept some of his teachings secret within the circle of his disciples and that he deliberately obscured their meaning by using parables. For example, in
Mark 4:11?12
:
And he said to them, "To you has been given the secret of the
kingdom of God
, but for those outside, everything comes in parables; in order that 'they may indeed look, but not perceive, and may indeed listen, but not understand; so that they may not turn again and be
forgiven
.'" (
NRSV
)
The idea that coded meanings in parables would only become apparent when a listener had been given additional information or initiated into a higher set of teachings is supported by
The Epistle of Barnabas
,
reliably dated between AD 70 to 132:
For if I should write to you concerning things immediate or future, ye would not understand them, because they are put in parables. So much then for this.
[13]
Another important component of the parables of Jesus is their participatory and spontaneous quality. Often, but not always, Jesus creates a parable in response to a question from his listeners or an argument between two opposing views.
To the educated
Greco-Roman
audience, Jesus’ use of parables was reminiscent of many famous oratory styles like the
Socratic method
. As a literary work, the
Gospel authorship
depict the various groups that question Jesus about his teachings, to the role an interlocutor has in the
Socratic Dialogues
of
Plato
.
Similarly, the rhetorical style of the
Roman Senator
and lawyer
Cicero
(which remained highly regarded after his death by many famous orators
[14]
) was known for its use of a seemingly unrelated
anecdote
that demonstrates in its conclusion some insight pertaining to the current topic of the discussion.
Quranic parables
[
edit
]
The
Quran
's
Q39:28-30
boasts "every kind of
parable
in the Quran". The
Quranic verses
include parables of the good and evil tree (
Q14:32-45
),
of the two men
, and
of the spider's house
.
Q16:77
contains the parable of the slave and his master, followed by the parable of the blind man and the sighted.
[15]
Other figures of speech
[
edit
]
The parable is related to
figures of speech
such as
metaphor
and
simile
. A parable is like a metaphor in that it uses concrete, perceptible phenomena to illustrate abstract ideas. It may be said that a parable is a metaphor that has been extended to form a brief, coherent narrative. A parable also resembles a simile, i.e., a metaphorical construction in which something is said to be "like" something else (e.g., "The just man is like a tree planted by streams of water"). However, unlike the meaning of a simile, a parable's meaning is implicit (although not secret).
Examples
[
edit
]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Difference Between Fable and Parable"
.
DifferenceBetween.com
. Difference Between. 6 November 2012
. Retrieved
13 June
2015
.
- ^
David B. Gowler (2000).
What are they saying about the parables
. Paulist Press. pp. 99, 137, 63, 132, 133.
ISBN
9780809139620
.
- ^
Julicher, Adolf
(1888).
Die gleichnisreden Jesu
[
The parables of Jesus
] (in German). Vol. 1. Tubingen: J.C.B. Mohr (P. Siebeck)
. Retrieved
8 November
2019
.
- ^
Meier, John P.
(1994).
A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus
. The Anchor Bible reference library. Vol. 2: A Marginal Jew: Mentor, message, and miracles. Doubleday.
ISBN
9780385469920
. Retrieved
8 November
2019
.
- ^
"parable | Origin and meaning of parable by Online Etymology Dictionary"
.
www.etymonline.com
.
- ^
παραβολ?
, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott,
A Greek-English Lexicon
, on Perseus
- ^
a
b
John P. Meier
,
A Marginal Jew
, volume II, Doubleday, 1994.
- ^
"oremus Bible Browser : 2 Sam 12:1-9"
.
bible.oremus.org
.
- ^
"oremus Bible Browser"
.
bible.oremus.org
.
- ^
a
b
Fowler, H.W. (1965).
A Dictionary of Modern English Usage
. London: Oxford University Press. p.
558
.
See entry at
simile and metaphor
.
- ^
George Fyler Townsend
, in his translator's preface to
Aesop's Fables
(Belford, Clarke & Co., 1887), defined the parable as being "purposely intended to convey a hidden and secret meaning other than that contained in the words themselves, and which may or may not bear a special reference to the hearer or reader." However, Townsend may have been influenced by the 19th century expression, "to speak in parables", connoting obscurity.
- ^
Adolf Julicher,
Die Gleichnisreden Jesu
(2 vols; Tubingen: Mohr [Siebeck], 1888, 1899).
- ^
"The Epistle of Barnabas (translation J.B. Lightfoot)"
.
www.earlychristianwritings.com
. Retrieved
2021-10-20
.
- ^
"Plutarch's Lives (Clough)/Life of Cicero - Wikisource, the free online library"
.
en.wikisource.org
. Retrieved
2024-05-02
.
- ^
Wherry, Elwood Morris
(1896).
A Complete Index to Sale's Text, Preliminary Discourse, and Notes
. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, and Co.
External links
[
edit
]
Look up
parable
in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Wikiquote has quotations related to
Parable
.
|
---|
Canonical Gospels
| |
---|
Non-canonical / disputed
| |
---|
Related
| |
---|