Parables
Textual features of parables
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 doubt about its precise application to tease it into active thought (Parables, CH Dodd).
The English word "parable" comes from the Greek word parabole (para, "alongside of" and ballein “to cast, place or throw"). A parable can be described as one thing being understood in juxtaposition or comparison with another; e.g. "The Kingdom of God is like…."
New Testament scholars use the word parable to translate the Hebrew masal, which is much broader than mere comparisons and includes proverbs, allegories and sayings such as "Physician Heal Thyself".
A parable usually has three components:
The Unknown that is being illustrated - e.g. the Kingdom of God.
The Known that is compared for illustration - e.g. the Sower, Mustard seed etc.
The Point of Comparison between the Known and Unknown.
This point of comparison can be expressed as:
a simile using "like" or "as": e.g. The disciples are "as lambs in the midst of wolves". A parable is an extended simile with one point of comparison, usually at the beginning.
a metaphor - e.g. "You are the salt of the earth" Here only one thing is named and the proper contextual information is needed to fill in the full meaning. An allegory is an extended metaphor with several points of comparison, which need to be decoded in order to be fully understood.
Parables are drawn from nature or common life
The parables of Jesus give a glimpse of 1st century life in Palestine, a world of subsistence farming, land owners, travellers and the plight of widows and those on the margins of society. They feature things, such as mustard seeds and fig trees, wineskins and oil lamps, money and treasure, stewards, workers, judges and homemakers, wedding parties and children's games. Jesus' audience would have been very familiar with these illustrations of everyday life.
Parables arrest the hearer
Familiar reality is quickly disrupted in the unfolding parable; expectations are turned upside down; initial sympathy is quickly dissipated and desire to draw moral conclusions and ethical paradigms for living begins to take second place to a vision of the Kingdom of God.
Parables tease the mind into active thought
A parable allows for different interpretations and meanings. In the parable of the Lost Sheep (Mt 18:12-14 and Lk 15:4-7). Matthew presents the parable as exhorting leaders to care for the weak in their flock, while Luke sees it as justifying Jesus’ mission to the lost.
The parables are open enough to allow the hearer to identify with each and any of the characters; to grumble with the vineyard workers; to feel the resentment of an older brother or the indifference of the unjust judge.
Jesus' parables often involve an element of surprise or an unexpected twist. We are taken off-guard by the progression of the story. This is called the “discombobulating shift”. It is that part of the story that disrupts the listener's thoughts.
Parabolic stories
Jesus made use of a genre which was already of long tradition and which was familiar to all throughout the Mediterranean world. In Greece and Rome, parables were employed by rhetoricians, politicians and philosophers. Socrates and Aristotle used parables. In Israel, parables were often used by Jewish rabbis who were contemporaries of Jesus.
The parables which most closely resemble those of Jesus, are those in the Old Testament and rabbinic literature. These Semitic parables (as distinct from the classical) are no doubt the predecessors of the ones we find preserved in the Synoptic Gospels.