What Is a Parable?
Readers of the Gospels encounter parables all the time. Some parables are short statements about the kingdom of God, while others are lengthy narratives meant to teach a lesson for Jesus’ audiences. Sometimes these illustrations are accompanied by an explicit interpretation, but other times the moral of the story must be inferred. Based on the variety of parabolic expressions available to Bible readers, perhaps our first question should be: What is a parable?
The word “parable” comes from the Greek παραβολή (parabolē), which is a noun based on the verb παραβάλλω (parabāllo)—literally, “to throw alongside.” Yet, this Greek term doesn’t tell us much. One might say that Yeshua “throws” stories out to his listeners whose content has some parallel to a deeper social or theological reality. But to lean too heavily on the fundamental meaning of “parable” ends up bringing us to what’s called a “root fallacy,” since the wooden definition of Greek terminology can actually confuse, obscure, and narrow the scope of what is achieved through parables.
Perhaps a better approach is to attend to the Hebrew that underlies the Greek. The Hebrew word for “parable” is משל (mashal), which refers to an illustrative or allusive saying or story. As the psalmist proclaims, “I will open my mouth with a parable (בְמָשָׁל; be’mashal); I will utter complex sayings (חִידוֹת; hidot) from old” (Psalm 78:2). Often, these sayings can approximate what English speakers call similes or analogies; the mashal compares two things to illuminate the contours of a specific message. For instance, in the Aramaic paraphrase of Isaiah 5:1, the Targum (c. 2-5th centuries CE) begins, “I will sing now for Israel, which is compared (דמתיל; dimtil) to a vineyard.” The Hebrew equivalent to the Aramaic word for this comparative saying is משל (mashal), “parable.” Similarly, Jesus begins his famous Parable of the Mustard Seed by asking, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it (ὁμοιώσω αὐτήν; homoiōso autēn)? It is like (ὁμοία ἐστὶν; homoīa estīn) a grain of mustard seed…” (Luke 13:18-19).
Alongside the initial illustration of the parable (mashal), ancient Jewish storytellers often included an explicit interpretation called a nimshal (נמשל). Jesus’ Parable of the Sower is a great example: after Yeshua spins a yarn about a farmer sowing seed (Mark 4:2-9), he explains each aspect of the analogy (4:13-20). Or, in the equally famous Parable of the Lost Sheep, Jesus offers his story of the diligent shepherd and recovered sheep and concludes, “Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance” (Luke 15:7). Jesus interprets the story world of the initial mashal by concretizing it in terms of waywardness and repentance. So, to sum up (for now), a parable is an ancient Jewish form of comparative teaching that unpacks social or theological truths through stories and sayings that push either the speaker or the listener to interpret the meaning and message of the narrative.
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