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What-Are-They-Saying-About-The-Parables - 2 PDF
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What Are They Saying About
the Parables?
David B. Gowler
PAULIST PRESS
New York/Mahwah, N.J.
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Introduction 1
1. Historical-Critical Approaches to the Parables 3
2. The Emergence of Literary Approaches to the Parables 16
3. Fully Developed Literary Approaches to the Parables 28
4. The Parables and Their Jewish Contexts 41
5. The Parables and Their Hellenistic Contexts 57
6. The Parables and Their Social Contexts 68
7. From Simile and Metaphor to Symbol
and Emblematic Language 85
Conclusion 102
Notes 104
For Further Reading 139
Scripttrrelndex 148
V
For my mother and father,
Betty L Gowler
and
Cedric M. Gowler, Sr.
Introduction
1
2 What Are They Saying About the Parables?
3
4 What Are They Saying About the Parables?
Historical-Eschatological Approaches
Redaction-Critical Approaches
Aesthetic-Rhetorical Criticism
16
The Emergence of Literary Approaches to the Parables 17
Conclusion
28
Fully Developed Literary Approaches to the Parables 29
the ministry of the historical Jesus. Third, Carter and Heil pay
close attention to the intratextual connections between the
parables and the sections in which they are embedded but also
examine their connections with the entire gospel-its plot,
characters, and points of view. This reading is cumulative
because they also make explicit the contribution and influence
of the knowledge that the authorial audience has gained from
reading the earlier sections of the gospel. 27 Finally, they do not
focus on the intent of Jesus the parable teller or of the author of
the gospel; they exhibit what happens as an authorial audience
interacts with the parables, because an audience plays an
"active role in making and living meaning" (8, 210).
These studies constructively examine the interpretive con-
texts the gospels themselves provide for parables, but a word of
caution is in order: Tensions inevitably arise between parables
and the gospel contexts in which they are embedded because no
single narrative context can restrain or complete the parables'
power to communicate meaning. As Bemard Brandon Scott
notes, the gospels are faithful to the parables' original hermeneu-
tical horizon, so they should be analyzed in their contexts. Yet a
dialectic appears because the performances of those parables in
the gospels generate inevitable "distortions" (a term he borrows
from Paul Ricoeur) simply because no single performance can
exhaust a narrative's potential (55-56).
As a rejoinder to Scott's position, I would argue that this rela-
tionship between gospel context and parable is not dialectic; it is
dialogic. The point of departure for any type of study has to be the
text. But once a parable is embedded into a larger narrative, its
sense changes dramatically. The author's voice enters into a dia-
logue with the parable; the author's voice reverberates with the
original utterance of the creator of the parable, and the narrator's
voice reverberates with the utterances of the characters in the para-
ble and other characters in the larger narrative. Yet the dialogic
nature of a parable embedded in a larger narrative is also true for
the "original" parable itself. Jesus' "original" utterance was, in
Fully Developed Literary Approaches to the Parables 39
Conclusion
41
42 What Are They Saying About the Parables?
daily lives. All rabbinic parables have a twofold structure: the nar-
rative proper (mashal) and normative instruction (nimshal).
Although this structural analysis is limited to two parts, Thoma
postulates five major ''elements" involved in the communicative
process of almost all rabbinic parables (27-31 ):
"It is like the son of a king who took to evil ways. The king
sent a tutor to him who appealed to him, saying: Repent my
son. But the son sent him back to his father [with a message],
How can I have the effrontery to return? I am ashamed to
come before you. Thereupon his father sent back word: My
son, is a son ever ashamed to return to his father? And is it
not to your father that you will be returning?"
will also change, and it will change even more when a parable's
mediunlis shifted from oral to literary (1991:17-18).
Stem agrees that it is difficult to trace the "lineage" of para-
bolic narratives that have human characters in ancient Near East-
ern literature: The earliest full-fledged fictional narratives are
found in the Hebrew Bible (e.g., 2 Sm 12:1-14), but these para-
bles seem to be used as legal strategms (1991:186). Few parables
are found in postbiblicalliterature (e.g., 4 Esdras 4:13). Yet para-
bles and fables are very much at home in "traditional cultures"
that still utilize oral traditions, as evidenced best, perhaps, by a lit-
erary form found in the ancient Greek epic: the ainos, a genre that
includes fables and tales (1991:6).
Even so, Stem disagrees with Flusser's contention that this
literary form was imported from Hellenistic sources, such as pop-
ular Greco-Roman philosophy. Stem concludes that the scarcity
of extant examples of parables from around the time of the Chris-
tian era may be due to the fact that it was a popular, oral form of
address utilized in teaching and preaching ( 1991: 187).
Stem's work, in spite of these differences from Flusser's
conclusions, thus led him to agree with Flusser's main argument
that the parables of Jesus and rabbinic parables share a common
background and compositional similarities: The parables of Jesus
are our earliest datable evidence "for the tradition of the mashal
that attains its full maturity in Rabbinic literature" (1989:43), 35
where the mashal assumed its "normative, standard form"
(1991:7). Because the rabbinic parables are the closest evidence
for the literary form of parable as Jesus may have used it, they
offer valuable, unique evidence for bow a common literary tradi-
tion has been directed to different ends.
In their present literary forms as ideological narratives,
parables are constructed by design and rhetoric to impress a cer-
tain world view upon their audiences. Stem attempts to ascertain
how these ideological narratives perform that function. He argues
that through the refusal to state its message directly, the mashal
actually becomes more effective in persuading the audience of its
56 What Are They Saying About the Parables?
57
58 What Are They Saying About the Parables?
thesis, Hock cites the Lucian texts Gallus and Cataplus, in which
the poor man Micyllus is compared with rich men. Micy~lus, a
poor, marginalized artisan, goes hungry from early mornmg to
evening, and he must bear the slights, insults, and beatings of the
powerful. At their deaths, Micyllus and the rich tyrant
Megapenthes make the trip to Hades. Megapenthes, like the rich
man in Jesus' parable, tries to strike a bargain to alter his situa-
tion, but to no avail. Finally, Micyllus and Megapenthes face
Rhadamanthus, the judge of the underworld. Micyllus is judged
to be pure and goes to the Isles ofthe Blessed. Megapenthes's
soul, however, is stained with corruption, and he will be appropri-
ately punished (459-60). In Hock's opinion, both this story and
the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus betray Cynic views on
wealth and poverty (463).
Hock argues that many elements of these two parables, such
as the reversal in the fortunes of the characters after death, partake
in the broader arena of the social and intellectual life of traditional
Mediterranean society (461). By limiting the comparative texts
only to Jewish contexts, scholars place artificial blinders on their
eyes, blinders that hinder access to the cultures in which this para-
ble might have arisen and been told in the first century, and cer-
tainly in which it would have been heard. 16
F. G. Downing, in his book Cynics and Christian Origins,
corroborates Hock's conclusions. Downing argues that although
figurative speech occurs in many ancient sources, it was the Cyn-
ics who particularly follow the example of Socrates by frequently
using illustrations, especially those drawn from "ordinary life." 17
The correspondence with the Jesus tradition recorded in the Q
Gospel is substantial, both in general (the sheer quantity of para-
ble, metaphor, and simile) and in particular (in specific refer-
ences).18 Downing asserts that the style of Jesus' teaching displays
a distinctive combination of Cynicism and Judaism, which pre-
supposes a Cynic-influenced Galilean Jewish culture (157). In
addition, since Jesus' parables are an open invitation for his hear-
ers that disturb their perceptions and unsettle their acceptance of
The Parables and Their Hellenistic Contexts 63
what they take for granted, the only close analogies in ancient lit-
erature are the Cynics' use of figurative language that attempted
to subvert cultural norms (157-58).
Other scholars have provided examples from an even
broader spectrum of Hellenistic-Roman culture. For example, the
rather puzzling presentation of Jesus' parables in Mark 4: 1-34
(especially 11-12, 33-34) has proved to be fruitful soil for much
scholarly speculation, both with and without "depth of root." Bur-
ton Mack's analysis is one controversial entry into this discus-
sion, 19 but one that illustrates the fertile nature of various
comparative texts from Hellenistic-Roman traditions.
Mack acknowledges that the images of field, sowing, seeds,
and harvest are standard metaphors in Jewish apocalyptic, wis-
dom, and prophetic traditions for God's dealings with Israel.
Mack, however, contends that this precise usage of such tradi-
tions would be conceivable for a later Christian thinker, but not
for the historical Jesus (1988:55).
To cite just one example: The content of the parable of the
Seeds makes one "suspicious," because agricultural images, espe-
cially that of sowing seed, were standard analogies for paideia
during this era. First-century Mediterranean ears would have
heard this analogy/parable and "would have immediately recalled
the stock image" for instruction, especially that of inculcating
Hellenistic culture po These stock analogies utilized the sower
(teacher) who sowed (taught) his seed (words) upon various soils
(students). Therefore, this parable in Mark that illustrates Jesus'
"mysterious" teaching (4: 11) actually was itself an established
image of instruction. Because the imagery and the standard mode
of referencing in the parable would have been quite clear to most
first-century persons, the "mystery" has to reside in the nature of
the culture and/or kingdom the parable seeks to illustrate
(1988: 160). Mack then attempts to show how the entire section
(4:1-34) constructs a cogent and clever rhetorical elaboration of
the parable of the Seeds-one that follows conventional modes of
argumentation ( 1988: 162-65).
64 What Are They Saying About the Parables?
Conclusion
68
The Parables and Their Social Contexts 69
orders the house, raises the children, and assumes many financial
tasks. Most importantly, the woman upholds male honor not only
through her sexual purity but also in acts of hospitality. In addi-
tion, she can subtly manipulate opinion by informal gossip net-
works in the village community-a type of power never
acknowledged in male-authored literature (45).
In her study of the "Q source," Batten readily admits that its
language is androcentric. Women appear hiding yeast in dough,
grinding meal, and being married, but only as men see them. Yet
parables concerning men are paired with parables concerning
women (e.g., Mustard Seed; Leaven), which seems to be a delib-
erate attempt to address both men and women (47-48). Further,
the parables of the Leaven and the Mustard Seed "liberate" these
symbols from their "unclean" status by turning them into
metaphorical ingredients of the kingdom of God. Indirectly, they
place value on both the woman's and man's activity, which is
especially significant because an acknowledgment of women's
labor is unusual in patriarchal societies (48). Thus we catch para-
bolic glimpses of a more inclusive environment for women in a
predominantly patriarchal society. 31
Carol Schersten LaHurd also takes a cautiously optimistic
view of these androcentric texts in her article concerning the "lost
women" in the parables of Luke 15.32 LaHurd rereads the parables
of Luke 15 through the eyes of Arab Christian women in modem
Yemen-a test case to demonstrate the rewards and difficulties
inherent in applying contemporary models from cultural anthro-
pology to New Testament texts. She encounters some striking dif-
ferences in interpretations. In the parable of the Prodigal Son, for
example, the Yemeni women had much more empathy with the
older brother and observed that it was typical for the youngest
child to be lazy and irresponsible. Even more striking was their
interpretation of the father's actions. Most modem commentators
stress the unexpected acceptance of the errant son when he
returns. These women, however, understood the family as the
location of unconditional care and were not surprised at the father
- - - - - - - -
running out to give his son a loving welcome (67). LaHurd sur-
mises that these women see fathers "as they are, not so much as
they wish to be seen" (70). The absence of female characters in
the parable was also of little concern to these women. They
viewed the mother's role as being inside the home, whereas it was
the father's role to be "outside" and welcome the son back home.
LaHurd concludes that the negative assessments of the role
and status of women in Luke's Gospel are significantly guided by
Western cultural assumptions about what constitutes status and
power for both men and women, as well as the modem tendency
to give primacy to the public sphere (71). Peasant societies, in
contrast, see household gender roles as complementary. Orderly
household management and effective raising of children appear
to have a worth equal to the more typically male role of earning
the family income in the public realm. In such cultures women
control some aspects of things most valued by men-honor, chil-
dren, and a happy, well-organized household (72). 33
Diane Jacobs-Malina, in her book Beyond Patriarchy, 34
argues that the image of Jesus presented in the gospels is analo-
gous to the idealized role of the wife/mother (of the absent hus-
band/father) because Jesus' primary role was to create and
maintain the household of God on earth (1-2). The feminine/
domestic aspects of the image of Jesus in the gospels have been
suppressed by the selective inattentiveness of male scholars. A
closer look demonstrates that Jesus found the idealized role of
women to be more amenable to the designs of God: nurture, heal-
ing, and restoration. Thus he chose these values and goals that
support the domestic sphere as the ones around which the (male)
public sphere should be organized in relation to both men and
women (117-118).
Jacobs-Malina's study provides an essential critique of the
traditional, androcentric theological interpretations of Jesus' life
and message. Similar assessments can be seen in the work of some
of the male scholars mentioned above. Halvor Moxnes's investi-
gation of the patron-broker-client relationship notes that Jesus
The Parables and Their Social Contexts 83
Conclusion
We utilize models that give us partial glimpses of these
ancient cultures-important glimpses that sometimes include the
"voices of the silenced"-and these insights demonstrate the
great cultural differences that divide us from ancient Mediter-
ranean peoples. Such knowledge is instructive but can be destruc-
tive in the sense that previous suppositions and "certainties" are
tom down. But what then? The gap between then and now has
widened, and as Carolyn Osiek states, "the bridge is not long
enough" to cross the interpretive chasm (113).
On the other hand, as Osiek also notes, for non-Western per-
sons the cultural and social contexts may suddenly become more
familiar now that the Western, postenlightenment framework
undergirding most New Testament study is illuminated and
(partly) dismantled. We do not have to anachronize Jesus' para-
bles to make them relevant. The challenge is to modernize them
authentically.
Social-scientific criticism allows us to understand better the
first-century social, cultural, and historical contexts of the para-
bles, but part of what it also teaches us, as do recent literary
approaches, is that achieving the status of an "objective observer"
is an elusive chimera that can never be captured by any inter-
preter. Pieces of the puzzle will still be missing; parables remain
recalcitrant and delightfully enigmatic. But armed with the
knowledge gained from social-scientific criticism, we can begin
to understand the writings from other cultures and ages more fully
and can avoid much of the patronizing interpretations that have
pervaded many studies in the past.
7
From Simile and Metaphor to
Symbol and Emblematic Language
85
86 What Are They Saying About the Parables?
to the divine wil1. 9 Dodd believes that all the "eschatological para-
bles" originally were told during a time of stress inherent in the
ministry of Jesus. They were intended as an appeal for people to
recognize that the kingdom of God was "present in all its momen-
tous consequences." It was their conduct in the presence of this
"tremendous crisis" by which they would judge themselves as
either faithful or unfaithful, wise or foolish (130). Thus, although
Jesus employed the "traditional symbolism of apocalypse" to
indicate the absolute character of the kingdom of God, he used
parables to express the idea that the kingdom of God "had come
upon [them] there and then" (147). 10
Brad Young also speaks of God's reign as a present reality
among those who have accepted the call to obey the divine will,
but he rejects the kingdom of heaven (God) as an eschatological
concept designed to forewarn of an imminent catastrophe. 11 Young
stresses that Jesus felt the dynamic force of God's reign as a pres-
ent reality in his ministry. Like the rabbis, Jesus connected the
"yoke of the kingdom" to repentance and obedience to God's com-
mands. In the parables, however, the connection of this present
reality to the secondary theme of the kingdom of a "future monar-
chy" to be established by God "does not appear to have originated
with Jesus" (221). Jesus' message of the kingdom of heaven
focused primarily on the power of his ministry of liberation, obe-
dience to the divine will, and the people who became his disciples.
The demands of the kingdom are simple yet difficult: complete
surrender to the will of heaven. Like the parables of the Mustard
Seed and the Leaven, this dynamic power will continue to grow
when people respond to this call for total obedience (221).
Young's discussion of the kingdom of heaven and the para-
bles is limited to a carefully-selected number of parables that
accentuate the present reality of the kingdom and, like Dodd, Dal-
man, and others, his use of rabbinic literature is anachronistically
suspect. Rabbinic traditions are often very difficult to date, and
we cannot assume that they accurately portray beliefs contempo-
rary with Jesus. 12
From Simile and Metaphor to Symbol 89
Growing Secretly also includes the assurance that what has begun
with Jesus will inexorably lead to the final culmination of the
kingdom of God. But Jesus emphatically states in these parables
that the kingdom is not in the future only: God's sovereign action
is even now operative in Jesus' words and actions. 19
Yet all of the above parables, Beasley-Murray argues, also
reflect Jesus' belief in the coming of the kingdom of God in the
future. Other parables primarily focus on this future aspect. The
parable of the Burglar (Mt 24:43--44/Lk 12:3~0) sets forth the
unexpectedness of the parousia, and it calls for "readiness" on the
part of all (209-12). The parable of the Wise and Foolish Maidens
(Mt 25: 1-13) sends a similar message: The people of God must
be prepared for the Lord's coming (212-15). The parable enjoins
readiness for an event of which the time is not known but may be
very near. 20 As the parable of the Talents illustrates, for example,
the proclamation of the kingdom challenges God's people to
become what they were meant to be: the salt of the earth and the
light of the world. Although Beasley-Murray allows for the sig-
nificant amount of redaction evident in the two versions of this
parable in Matthew and Luke, he argues that the plot itself-
specifically the absence of the master and his return-demands
that the "rendering of accounts" is essential to this parable. So the
separation of the master from the servants means that the picture
of the parable is not possible at all apart from a certain parousia
expectation (218).
the nature of faith: Specifically, the eight true narrative parables are
metaphors of the kingdom of God and give a vision of existence as
transacted by the surprising incursion of the kingdom." 28 John
Dominic Crossan asserts that parables present the kingdom of God
as "permanent eschatology," the permanent presence of God as the
one who challenges world and repeatedly shatters its complacency.29
Bernard Brandon Scott's first book explores the relationship
between parables and the kingdom of God. 30 Scott argues that
parables are generated from Jesus' experiential world and give his
fundamental vision of reality. To enter the world of parable is to
enter a new horizon that seeks to orient one to the kingdom of
God. Through a metaphorical "insight"-which cannot be
reduced to discursive speech or propositions-one understands
that the "referent of the symbol kingdom of God is an ultimate
who makes ultimate claims upon human experience" (175).
Jesus' language creates for its receiver a perspective that "impels
faith"-a faith in Yahweh and implicitly a faith in Jesus as the
symbol maker for Yahweh, and the presiding symbol of this per-
spective is kingdom of God (177).
Scott's Hear Then the Parable returns to the subject of
"Parable and Kingdom" (56-62). He claims that "kingdom of
God," as symbol, is nebula, indistinct, unformed content that can-
not be coded with specificity (58). But people try to "domesti-
cate" this content nebula through such things as allegory, an
"overcoding of a symbolic text to establish authority over the text
so that its content will not be nebula but known" (58). In a similar
way, interpreting Jesus' use of kingdom of God as an apocalyptic
concept is also an "overcoding" of the symbol; it can be used that
way, but it actually opens onto a much wider spectrum (i.e., it is,
as symbol, "polyvalent"). Jesus' use of the term does conjure up
the metaphor "God is a king" in its "structural network," but in
the Jesus tradition, the relation is frequently "diaphoric": Jesus'
discourse changes or challenges the implied structural network of
associations (61). Scott closes by alluding to Midrash Rabbah on
the Song of Songs: Parables are handles on the symbol of the
From Simile and Metaphor to Symbol 93
102
Conclusion 103
Introduction
1. Note, for example, Origen's explanation of the parable of the
Good Samaritan (Lk 10:30-37). He declares that the man traveling
down the road represents Adam, and the Good Samaritan signifies
Christ. The priest and the Levite symbolize the Law and the Prophets,
respectively. Jerusalem is "paradise," and Jericho is "the world." The
robbers symbolize the hostile influences of the world, and the man's
wounds represent sins. The inn and its innkeeper represent the church
and the angels in charge of the church, whereas the return of the Samari-
tan symbolizes the Second Coming of Christ (Origen, Commentary on
Luke 10:30-35, Homily XXXIV). For a discussion of early allegorical
interpretations of the parables, see Warren S. Kissinger, The Parables of
Jesus: A History of Interpretation and Bibliography (London: The
Scarecrow Press, 1979), l-33; Robert H. Stein, An Introduction to the
Parables of Jesus (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1981), 42-47;
and Lane C. McGaughy, "A Short History of Parable Interpretation (Part
I)" Forum 8:3-4 (1995) 229-45.
2. Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment, trans. Richard
Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (New York: Vintage Books, 1993).
104
Notes 105
untranslated: Die Gleichnisreden Jesu (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche
Buchgesellschaft, 1969).
In addition to my own reading of the scholarship mentioned in this
analysis, I have utilized, in chapters 1, 2, and 3, the insights of the following
discussions: Warren Kissinger, The Parables of Jesus (Metuchen, NJ:
Scarecrow Press, 1979); Norman Perrin, Jesus and the lAnguage of the
Kingdom (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1976), 89-205; Wtlliam A. Beard-
slee, "Recent Literary Criticism," in The New Testament and its Modem
Interpreters (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1989); Tnnothy NoeL "Parables
in Context: Developing a Narrative-Critical Approach to Parables in Luke,"
~.D. dissertation, Louisville, KY: The Southern Baptist Theological Sem-
mary, 1986; James C. Little, "Parable Research in the Twentieth Century,"
ExpT87:12 (1976) 356-60; 88:2 (1976) 40-43; 88:3 (1976) 71-75.
2. M. J. Lagrange ("La Parabo1e en dehors de I'Evangile," Revue
Biblique 6 [1909] 198-212, 342~7) and Denis Buzy (Introduction aux
paraboles evangeliques [Paris: Editions de I 'Ecole, 1961 ]), for example,
argue that this "essential" difference is not supported by Aristotle him-
self, nor by such rhetoricians as Quintillian.
3. C. H. Dodd, The Parables of the Kingdom, rev. ed. (Glasgow:
Collins, 1961).
4. In Matthew it is one of the parables appended to the apocalyptic
discourse taken from Mark (Mt 25: 15-30). Luke, on the other hand, pro-
vides a brief but explicit introduction about the disciples thinking that the
"kingdom of God was to appear immediately" (Lk 19:11; Dodd, 108-9).
5. Dodd insists that parables retain their imaginative and poetical
quality: ''They are works of art, and any serious work of art has signifi-
cance beyond its original occasion .... Their teaching may be fruitfu1ly
applied and re-applied to all sorts of new situations which were never
contemplated at the time when they were spoken. But a just understand-
ing of their original import in relation to a particular situation in the past
will put us on right lines in applying them to our new situations" (146).
6. At a more complex literary level, Dodd's definition also con-
veys an important element that would later be used by literary cri~cs
such as Robert Funk: The parable as simile or metaphor "teases the mmd
into active thought" (see chapter 2 below).
7. I am using the eighth edition: The Parables of Jesus (Ne~
York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1972). An abridged edition makes hts
work available to a wider circle of readers by omitting "the book's
106 What Are They Saying About the Parables?
(parole) of the parable's structure. It is not a search for the actual words
(ipsissima verba) of the historical Jesus.
17. Here Scott also affinningly quotes Wolfgang Iser: "The
implied reader designates a network of response-inviting structures,
which impel the reader to grasp the text" (75). In this way, Scott hopes to
encounter the "phenomenological world" reflected in the text-first-
century Palestine-which forms part of the nexus in which the narrative
operates, as well as informing the repertoire, conventions, worldview,
ideologies, and stereotypes active in a text (76).
18. As Jeremias before him, Scott also assumes that the
"expected triad" was priest, Levite, and Israelite (or "layman"; 198).
19. John Drury, The Parables in the Gospels: History and Allegory
(New York: Crossroads, 1985). He dedicates his book "for those who are
not content with the status quo in gospel criticism." Already in 1979, Mary
Ann Tolbert had considered the pros and cons concerning whether parables
should be interpreted in their gospel contexts in light of their polyvalency
(Perspectives on the Parables, 51-66). The pros included having an
"actual text" as a context instead of a postulated historical setting in the
ministry of the historical Jesus, and a canonical context instead of one
invented by the scholar. The cons included the fact that parables appear in
different settings in different gospels, many of which do not "ftt" the
embedded parable. She finally decided that polyvalency was necessary so
that the Christian community today could relate scripture to its contempo-
rary concerns (62). Tolbert takes a different approach in her book Sowing
the Gospel (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1989), in which she analyzes the
parables as parables ofthe gospels, not as parables ofJesus (128).
20. Robert C. Tannehill, The Na"ative Unity of Luke-Acts: A Lit-
erary Interpretation, vol. 1 (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986). Cf.
Mikeal C. Parsons and Richard I. Pervo, Rethinking the Unity of Luke
and Acts (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993).
21. See Ched Myers, Binding the Strong Man (Maryknoll, NY:
Orbis, 1988). Cf. especially pages 169-74. For an similar view, but from
a much different perspective, see Birger Gerhardsson, "If We Do Not
Cut the Parables out of Their Frames," New Testament Studies 37 (1991)
321-35. Cf. Charles Talbert's treatment of the parable of the Good
Samaritan in Reading Luke (New York: Crossroad, 1982), 122-24.
22. David B. Gowler, Host, Guest, Enemy, and Friend: Portraits
of the Pharisees in Luke and Acts (New York, Bern, Frankfurt, Paris:
Notes 115
Peter Lang Press, 1991). See also David B. Gowler, "Hospitality and
Characterization in Luke 11:37-54: A Socio-Narratological Approach,"
Semeia 64 (1993) 213-51.
23. In literary tenns, this relation, a mise en abyme, is established
between the "hypodiegetic" level (of the parable) and "diegetic" level
(of the greater narrative) by means of an analogy (251 ).
24. John R. Donahue, The Gospel as Parable (Philadelphia:
Fortress Press, 1988).
25. For a literary-critical assessment of the parables in Luke pre-
dating Donahue's book, see Timothy Noel, "Parables in Context: Devel-
oping a Narrative-Critical Approach to Parables in Luke," Ph.D.
dissertation, Louisville, KY: The Southern Baptist Theological Semi-
nary, 1986.
26. Warren Carter and John Paul Heil, Matthew s Parables. The
Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series 30 (Washington, DC:
The Catholic Biblical Association of America, 1998).
27. Carter and Heil make an important distinction between the
"authorial audience" (their construct of the audience the author has ••in
mind") and the "actual audience" (the audiences who actually read the
work). Actual audiences, of course, do not always respond positively or
actively to the role envisioned for them by the author (210-14).
28. This "rejoinder" is a simplistic version of my "Bakhtinian"
perspective on the nature of the parables. See Mikhail Bakhtin, "The
Problem of the Text," in Speech Genres and Other lAte Essays (Austin:
University of Texas Press, 1986), 103-31.
29. As W. C. Smith argues, ••scripture" is in actuality a dialogue
between the text, the interpreter, and the divine: What Is Scripture (Min-
neapolis: Fortress, 1993).
30. Charles Hedrick notes: "The problem encountered in the
study of parables is not unique to parables' study; it is endemic to lan-
guage itself. Language, all language, is subject to ambiguity and a
potential range of meanings-including even language that aims at clar-
ity." See his Parables as Poetic Fictions (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson,
1994), 29. I would add, however, that some language tends to be more
dialogic, and some language tends to be more monologic.
116 What Are They Saying About the Parables?
23. The Pharisees in Luke should not be confused with the histor-
ical Pharisees. Luke's Gospel, to a large extent, presents a caricature of
the Pharisees, which includes a range of four basic responses to Jesus
and his followers. See the analyses in David B. Gowler, Host, Guest,
Enemy, and Friend: Portraits of the Pharisees in Luke and Acts, Emory
Studies in Early Christianity 1 (New York, Paris, Bern: Peter Lang
Press, 1991), and "Hospitality and Characterization in Luke 11:37-54:
A Socio-NarratologicalApproach," Semeia 64(1994) 213-51.
24. What Braun does not mention is that this peer exclusion is a
classic example of hubris, the deliberate infliction of dishonor and
shame upon another. The insults of the host by the invited guests were
thus grievous assaults on his person or honor. See my review of Braun's
book in Toronto Journal of Theology 13/1 (1997) 97-98.
25. As noted by Mikhail M. Bakhtin, The Dialogic Imagination,
ed. Michael Holquist (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981), 64. On
the next page is a scientific analogy that in the context of the present
book turns into a pun: "Where languages and cultures interanimated
each other, language became something entirely different, its very
nature changed: in place of a single unitary sealed-off Ptolemaic world
of language, there appeared the open Galilean world of many languages,
mutually animating each other'' (65).
16. For succinct definitions of emic and etic, see Elliott, What is
Social-Scientific Criticism?, 129. No modem interpreter, of course, can
truly take a fully emic perspective.
17. This chapter title is a reference to Henry J. Cadbury's impor-
tant critique of interpreters' anachronizing tendencies in The Peril of
Modernizing Jesus (London: Macmillan, 1937).
18. Halvor Moxnes, ''Patron-Client Relations and the New Com-
munity in Luke-Acts," in The Social World ofLuke-Acts, 241-68.
19. Douglas E. Oakman, Jesus and the Economic Questions of
His Day (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, 1986). See also his "The
Ancient Economy in the Bible," BTB 21 (1991) 34-39.
20. An elite, on the other hand, would consider such labor as
shameful.
21. Oakman cites several sources (176-93) that seem to indicate
that Jesus, before his public ministry, would have been under great pres-
sure to travel to nearby urban areas, such as Sepphoris or Tiberias, to
find enough work to provide for his family (i.e., mother and siblings).
22. Douglas E. Oakman, "Was Jesus a Peasant?: Implications for
Reading the Samaritan Story (Luke 10:30-35)," BTB 22 (1992) 117-25.
23. Douglas E. Oakman, "'The Countryside in Luke-Acts," in The
Social World ofLuke-Acts, 151-79.
24. Richard L. Rohrbaugh, "A Peasant Reading of the Parable of
the Talents/Pounds: A Text of Terror?," BTB 23 (1993) 32-39.
25. See also Rohrbaugh's intriguing reading of the Prodigal Son
in his "A Dysfunctional Family and Its Neighbors (Luke l5:llb-32)"
found in the collection of various essays in Jesus and His Parables
(141-64). Rohrbaugh envisions this parable, as he does many parables
of Jesus, as a story where people break all the conventional rules of
honor: A foolish father divides his estate while alive, runs to rescue a
shameless son, and begs another son bent on humiliating him in public.
Because of peasant society's exaltation of social conformity, the well-
being and future of the entire extended family is at stake.
26. Noted by Nicola Slee, "Parables and Women's Experiences,"
Religious Education 80 (1985) 232-45. Domestic affairs are also rarely
mentioned.
27. John H. Elliott, "Temple Versus Household in Luke-Acts: A
Contrast in Social Institutions," in The Social World of Luke-Acts,
211-40.
128 What Are They Saying About the Parables?
28. Stuart L. Love, '"The Household: A Major Social Component
for Gender Analysis in the Gospel of Matthew," BTB 23 (1993) 21-31.
29. Stuart L. Love, '"The Place of Women in Public Settings in
Matthew's Gospel: A Sociological Inquiry," BTB 24 (1994) 52-65.
30. Alicia Batten, "More Queries for Q: Women and Christian
Origins," BTB 24 (1994) 44-51.
31. The Q community was not unique in this inclusion (e.g.,
other groups such as the Jewish Therapeutae were similar in this
regard), but it is unusual.
32. Carol Schersten LaHurd, "Rediscovering the Lost Women in
Luke 15," BTB 24 (1994) 66-76.
33. Women have ''informal power," but LaHurd agrees with
Kathleen Corley that their power was ultimately derivative in nature and
more a matter of influence rather than direct control (71). See Kathleen
Corley, Private Women, Public Meals (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson,
1993), 454-56. LaHurd concludes, however, that the parables of Luke
15 bring together both public and private, male and female realms into
one narrative of celebration.
34. Diane Jacobs-Malina, Beyond Patriarchy (Mahwah, NJ:
Paulist, 1993).
35. See the categorization of the four basic approaches to women
and the New Testament in scholarship by Carolyn Osiek in ''The Femi-
nist and the Bible: Hermeneutical Alternatives," in Feminist Perspec-
tives on Biblical Scholarship, ed. Adela Yarbro Collins (Chico, CA:
Scholars Press, 1985), 93-105.
36. See Jacobs-Malina, Beyond Patriarchy, 9.
37. Elizabeth Schussler-Fiorenza, In Memory of Her: A Feminist
Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins (New York: Cross-
roads, 1989), 151.
the parables, see Klyne Snodgrass, who asks the question, "Can a para-
ble be an allegory?" and then answers affrrmatively. See his The Parable
of the Wicked Tenants (TUbingen: Mohr, 1983), 12-26. Compare the dis-
cussion of Graham Ward. who argues that biblical narratives should be
read as both metaphor and metonymy in his "Biblical Narrative and the
Theology of Metonymy," Modern Theology 7:4 (1991) 335-49.
41. David B. Batstone, "Jesus, Apocalyptic, and World Transfor-
mation," Theology Today 49 (1992) 383-97.
42. William Herzog, Parables as Subversive Speech (Louisville:
Westminster/John Knox Press, 1994), 9.
43. Herzog's social and cultural insights have been both critiqued
and extended. See, for example, the essays found in Jesus and His Para-
bles, ed. V. George Shillington (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1997). Note
especially, Mary Ann Beavis, ''The Foolish Landowner," 55-68, and V.
George Shillington, "Saving Life and Keeping Sabbath," 87-101.
44. See Paul Fiebig, Altjiidische Gleichnisse und die Gleichnisse
Jesu (Tiibingen: Mohr, 1904); Die Gleichnisreden Jesu im Lichte der
rabbinischen Gleichnisse des neutestamentlichen Zeitalters (Tiibingen:
Mobr, 1912).
45. Raymond Brown, "Parable and Allegory Reconsidered,"
Novum Testamentum 5 (1962) 36-45. For a creative development of this
argument, see John Drury, "Origins of Mark's Parables," in Ways of
Reading the Bible, ed. M. Wadsworth (Brighton, Sussex: Harvester
Press, 1981 ), 171-89. Drury argues that the parables in Mark are "his-
torical allegories" that have their origin in the mashal as developed in
Ezekiel, Daniel, and other Jewish literature. The parables as used by
Mark can be historical, allegorical, obscure, and eschatological
(182-83).
46. David Stem, Parables and Midrash (Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1991 ), 11. Stem suggests that the opposite of metaphor
is not allegory but metonymy (12). Robert Johnson concludes that the
distinction between parable and allegory is ''unusable." See his ''Para-
bolic Interpretations Attributed to Tannaim" (Hartford: Ph.D. thesis,
1978), 636.
47. Cited in note 6 above.
48. Hedrick realizes, correctly in my view, that specific mean-
ings of parables arise (and vary) from the interplay of the story with the
Notes 135
historical circumstances and individual imaginations of the hearers and
readers (59).
49. Hedrick notes that there are a few parables that deliberately use
metaphor within the narrative (29, 32-33, 62). One should take care, how-
ever, to make sure that it is the internal force of the language of the narra-
tive that deliberately evokes those referential horizons (as does the parable
of the Leaven, 33) or whether it is the reader's imagination that "creates"
these outside connections. Hedrick further argues that early Christians
created these outside contacts by associating Jesus' parables, for the first
time, with the kingdom of God. Early Christians made this attempt
because they were trying to make sense out of these ordinary, occasional
stories that were no longer directly relevant to their own situations.
50. Craig Blomberg, Interpreting the Parables (Downers Grove,
IL: InterVarsity Press, 1990), 23. In my view, a more insightful critique
of Jeremias's "laws of transformation," is found in Ivor H.Jones, The
Matthean Parables: A Literary and Historical Commentary (Leiden:
Brill, 1995), 56-89. For a vigorous critique of Blomberg, see Andrew
Parker, Pairifully Clear, 82-87. Parker contends that most of Jesus' para-
bles are "attitude-straightening," where Jesus targeted people's "sick
attitudes" to help restore them to ••health" (68, 107).
51. Some scholars, given the weaknesses in form and redaction
criticisms, have screeched to a halt in a methodological cui-de-sac and
have despaired of determining the ..authentic" voice of Jesus. Others
have bypassed the arguments over precise historicity and have moved
into purely literary approaches. Still others have pressed on, publishing
red-letter editions of the parables (the Jesus Seminar) or looking for an
••originating" structure (Bemard Brandon Scott). Blomberg chooses
another, less-trodden path: He extends ••authenticity" to all of the words
attributed to Jesus in conjunction with the parables, including introduc-
tions, conclusions, and aphoristic generalizations (166}. As C. M. Thck-
ett notes, "almost every account of every parable in all three gospels is
taken as authentic .... [T]his looks very much like special pleading to
press a theory just a bit too far." See Thckett's review ofBlo~ber~·s
book in Biblica 72:4 (1991) 582-85. Perhaps a quote from a roam-
stream" scholar is appropriate: "'Ibere is every sign of a length~ and
complex history of tradition which extended tbrou~h the o~, ~tteo,
and redactionallevels of development. One can at tunes easily disc~m
stages in the growth of certain parables .... [But] the task of separatlDg
136 What Are They Saying About the Parables?
the various layers seems to me far more complex than is often realized."
Wemer G. Kfimmel, Introduction to the New Testament, trans. Howard
Clark Kee (Nashville, 1N: Abingdon, 1975), 536-37.
52. Blomberg's matrix seems to fonn a procrustean bed in which
each parable is forced to fit. C. M. Thckett also notes the "slightly bland
and somewhat disappointing" interpretations and gently laments the lack
of "deeper sensitivity." He also asserts that Blomberg's "agenda" causes
him to miss out on vital exegetical decisions (583-84). Yet, other recent
works reflect a similar concern for "propositional truth" in metaphor. See
Edmund Arens, Kommunikative Handlungen (Dtisseldorf: Patmos,
1982), who understands parables as rhetorical metaphors closely tied to
particular contexts and that presuppose propositional truths. See also,
Timothy A. Deibler, "A Philosophical Semantic Intentionality Theory of
Metaphor" (Ph.D. Dissertation, Rice University, 1989). Deibler con-
cludes: "There is no such thing as a special kind of truth over and above
literal truth" (224, cf. 228-29). Charles Hedrick, in contrast, believes that
any attempt to reduce the stories to a propositional meaning focuses not
on the story but behind the story on the (hypothetical construct of the)
mind of the inventor (Parables as Poetic Fictions, 57).
53. John W. Sider, Interpreting the Parables: A Hermeneutical
Guide to Their Meaning (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1995). This
book collects and significantly expands the insights of various articles
Sider had published over a number of years (beginning in 1981 ). Sider
assumes the essential authenticity of the parables in the gospel texts:
" ... Jesus' parables are embedded literary subsets [emphasis his] of his
discourse and the evangelists' narrative, and their meaning is subject to
the control of Jesus' authoritative intent" (211). For a rebuttal of this
position, see my arguments in chapter 3 above: When a parable is
embedded in a larger narrative, the author's voice enters into a dialogue
with the parable and reverberates with the original utterance of the cre-
ator of the parable.
54. Compare John Dominic Crossan's statement that "You can
prove nothing by analogy," in his In Parables (New York: Harper &
Row, 1973), 74-75. In addition, Sider only partially recognizes that the
words ..moral and social" should also include social and economic
aspects (see 171-91).
55. The four exceptions to this rule are the "example stories" of
the Good Samaritan, the Rich Fool, the Rich Man and Lazarus, and the
Notes 137
Pharisee and the Publican. This distinction, which has been in existence
since Jiilicher, has been challenged by such scholars as Funk, Breech,
Crossan, and Scott, who argue that the stories were originally parables
that should be understood metaphorically in relation with the kingdom
of God. For a defense of the position that Jesus used these parables as
example stories, see Wilhelm C. Linss, "Example Stories?" Currents in
Theology and Mission 17 (1990) 447-53. For a defense of similes as
"mere analogy" and their relationship to metaphors from a different per-
spective, see Teresa Bridgeman, "On the Likeness of Similes and
Metaphors," The Modern Language Review 91:1 (1996) 65-79.
56. Andrew Parker, however, cautions against the overreliance
on analogy: "[Y]ou can never sum up a parable by simply writing out its
basic analogy because, even if you are satisfied that you have managed
not to betray the parable's logic, you remain miles away from describing
the full impact on the listener when he or she bridges the parable's gap
and makes the connection. You always find that you want to throw such
analogies away, for the parable accomplishes something no analogy
can ... " (Painfully Clear, 62-63).
57. As George Shillington similarly observed, "The narrative
structure of Jesus' parables is not straight illustration; it is tinged with
riddle" (Jesus and His Parables, 16-17).
58. As noted concerning epithets, metaphors, similes, and so
forth, by Mikhail Ba.khtin: "Author and Hero in Aesthetic Activity," in
Art and Answerability (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990), 46.
59. Mikhail Bakhtin, "Epic and Novel," in The Dialogic Imagi-
nation: Four Essays (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981), 30-31.
60. For a philosophical explanation of why this is true for all his-
torical events and the texts which attempt to portray them, see Mikhail
Bakhtin, "The Problem of the Text in Linguistics, Philology, and the
Human Sciences: An Experiment in Philosophical Analysis," in Speech
Genres and Other Essays (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1986),
especially. 108-9.
Conclusion
1. But Charles Hedrick and Craig Blomberg, although they
arrive at very different conclusions in their own work on the parables,
138 What Are They Saying About the Parables?
139
140 What Are They Saying About the Parables?
Crossan, John Dominic. Finding is the First Act. Trove Folktales and
Jesus' Treasure Parable. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1979. Compares
the structure of the parable of the hidden treasure (Mt 13:44) with
other Jewish treasure stories and the wider background of the
entire tradition of other "treasure plots" in world folklore.
Matthew 13:44 is seen as a "metaparable" that succeeds precisely
to the extent it fails.
Crossan, John Dominic. Raid on the Articulate. New York: Harper &
Row, 1976. Compares the "comic eschatology" of Jesus' parables
with works of Jorge Luis Borges. Crossan emphasizes play, poly-
valence, and indeterminacy.
Funk, Robert W., Bemard Brandon Scott, and James R. Butts. Eds. The
Parables of Jesus. Sonoma. CA: Polebridge Press, 1988. Results
142 What Are They Saying About the Parables?
McArthur, Harvey K., and Robert M. Johnston. They Also Taught in Para-
bles. Grand Rapids, Ml: Zondervan, 1990. Presents translations of
144 What Are They Saying About the Parables?
115 tannaitic parables (i.e., before 220 c.E.). Also includes a wide
range of aspects concerning rabbinic parables.
Via, Dan Otto. The Parables: Their Literary and Existential Dimension.
Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1967. Investigates the parables as "aes-
thetic objects," carefully organized, self-contained ("autonomous"),
coherent literary compositions. Thus Via argues that we can analyze
the understanding of human existence inherent in their literary form
and content with virtually no reference to their original historical
context.
Wilder, Amos. The Language of the Gospel. Rev. Ed. New York: Harper
& Row, 1971. The eighteen-page chapter on Jesus' parables estab-
lished the parameters for discussions for years to come. Jesus used
these images to mediate reality and life, and his metaphors impart
an image with a certain shock to the imagination that directly con-
veys a vision of what is signified. The hearer not only participates
in this reality but is "invaded" by it.
For Further Reading 147
Young, Brad H. Jesus and his Jewish Parables. New York.: Paulist Press,
1989. Contends that parables must be studied as a unique genre of
teaching that is preserved only in rabbinic literature and the
gospels. Also argues that "kingdom of heaven" refers to God's
reign as a present reality among those persons who accept the call
to obey the divine will.
Scripture Index
148
Scripture Index 149
Jer 24:43-44 90
3:12 51 25:1-13 90
3:25 51 25:14-30 6
24:9 43 25:15-30 105
31:9 51
Mk
Ezk 4 64, 108
14:8 43 4:1-9 5,89
15:1-8 44 4:1-34 63, 123
16:1-54 44 4:1~12 11
17:3-10 43,45 4:11-12 56
19:2-9 44 4:25 6
19:1~14 44 4:26-29 86
44 4:33 117
23:1-9
43 7:15-17 117
24:3-5
24:3-14 44
1lc
Micah 4:23 43, 117
2:4 43 7:31-34 4
8:4-8 s
8:9-10 12
New Testament 10:25-27 26
Mt 10:25-29 70
9:37-38 52 10:25-37 36
10 10:29 109
10:1-8
11:16-19 4 10:3~37 s. 104
1~11,80, 106,108,143 10:36 70, 109
13
5 12:5-21 117
13:1-9
11, 12 12:13-21 60
13:1~17
76,89 12:35-40 75
13:24-30
12:39-40 90
13:33 117
14:1-14 64
13:44 29,31,140
14:7-11 117
13:45 29
64
18:32-33 60 14:7-24
64
71,72 14:16-24
20:1-16 81
20:13-15 60 15
150 What Are They Saying About the Parables?