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What is a Parable?
        PAR'ABLE
        (from a Greek word signifying comparison) is used in the Bible in both a wider and a narrower sense. In the first case it comprises all forms of teaching by analogy and all forms of figurative speech, and is applied to metaphors, whether expanded into narratives, Eze 12:22, or not, Matt 24:32; to proverbs and other short sayings, 1 Sam 10:12; 1 Sam 24:13; 2 Chr 7:20; Luke 4:23; to dark utterances or signs of prophetic or symbolical meaning. Num 23:17-18; 1 Sam 24:3; Eze 20:49; Heb 9:9, etc. In the second case it means a short narrative of some everyday event, by which some great spiritual truth is conveyed to the hearer. In this sense the parable differs - 1. From the fable, by its higher aim to illustrate spiritual truth, and by the intrinsic possibility and probability of its fictitious narrative, which could have happened, though perhaps it did not actually happen; while the fable uses the wonderful, and even the impossible (thinking, talking, acting animals and plants), for teaching maxims of prudence and lower morality, the parables of Christ always keep within the limits of the simple every-day experience. 2. The parable differs from the allegory by its meaning, its idea not being represented, but simply suggested. The allegory is self-interpreting, the imaginary persons being named and performing acts which declare the meaning; while the parable must be interpreted by means of a knowledge of him who speaks it and of those to whom it is spoken. The allegory itself says what it means; the parable receives its whole meaning from the situation which called it forth. For him who knows not Christ the parable of the Sower contains nothing beyond a common every-day experience, but to him who knows the Man sitting there in the boat and speaking to the multitude on the shore this parable reveals a sublime spiritual truth. From this peculiarity of the character of the parable it is easy to understand its signification in the teaching of Christ, and easy to derive the law for its interpretation. "The purpose of our Lord in teaching by parables was twofold - to reveal and to conceal the truth: to reveal to those who really sought the truth, to conceal from those who did not desire such knowledge, thus rewarding the former and punishing the latter." - Schaff. To him who has, the parable gives more; but it takes away from him who has not. No pondering over its details will ever bring out its meaning, for, although the idea may be reflected a thousand times from every turn of the narrative, still it is not present in the words: it is a light thrown upon the words from without, from the situation, from the speaker. Teaching by parables was an ancient method. Striking instances occur in the O.T. - Nathan's address to David, 2 Sam 12:1-4; the woman of Tekoah, 2 Sam 14:6; the rebuke of Ahab, 1 Kgs 20:39; the denunciation of Isaiah, Isa 5:1-7 - and later on, the method found much favor with the Hebrew teachers. But it reached its perfection by the application it found in the teaching of Christ. Matthew gives, in Matt 13, seven parables, which represent the several stages of the kingdom of God and its relation to the world: (1) The parable of the Sower, or the beginning of the kingdom and its reception or rejection by the different classes of men; (2) The parable of the Tares, or the kingdom of heaven in conflict with the kingdom of Satan; (3) The parable of the Mustard-seed and (4) the parable of the Leaven, or the growth of the kingdom of heaven extensively, comprising all nations and intensively pervading all forms of human life; (5) The parable of the Hidden Treasure; (6) The parable of the Pearl of Great Price; and (7) The parable of the Net cast into the Sea, or the relation between the kingdom of heaven and individual man and his efforts to grasp it and to develop it. The parables occurring in the N.T. are: 1. The Sower. Matt 13:3-8; Mark 4:3-8; Luke 8:5-8. 1. The Wheat and the Tares. Matt 13:24-30. 2. The Mustard-seed. Matt 13:31-32; Mark 4:30-32. 3. The Leaven. Matt 13:33. 4. The Seed cast into the Ground and Growing up Secretly. Mark 4:26-29. 5. The Hidden Treasure. Matt 13:44. 6. The Pearl of Great Price. Matt 13:45-46. 7. The Net cast into the Sea. Matt 13:47-48. 8. The Lost Sheep. Matt 18:12-13; Luke 15:4-6. 9. The Merciless Servant. Matt 18:23-34. 10. The Two Debtors. Luke 7:41-42. 11. The Good Samaritan. Luke 10:30-35. 12. The Importunate Friend. Luke 11:5-8. 13. The Rich Fool. Luke 12:16-20. 14. The Return from the Wedding. Luke 12:35-40. 15. The Fig Tree. Luke 13:6-9. 16. The Great Supper. Luke 14:16-24. 17. The Lost Piece of Money. Luke 15:8-9. 18. The Prodigal Son. Luke 15:11-32. 19. The Unjust Steward. Luke 16:1-8. 20. The Rich Man and Lazarus. Luke 16:19-31. 21. The Unjust Judge. Luke 18:2-5. 22. The Pharisee and the Publican. Luke 18:10-13. 23. The Pounds. Luke 19:12-27. 24. The Laborers in the Vineyard. Matt 20:1-16. 25. The Two Sons. Matt 21:28-30. 26. The Vineyard let to Husbandmen. Matt 21:33-39; Mark 12:1-9; Luke 20:9-15. 27. The Marriage-Feast. Matt 22:2-14. 28. The Wise and the Foolish Virgins. Matt 25:1-13. 29. The Talents. Matt 25:14-30. 30. The Sheep and the Goats. Matt 25:31-46. The number of parables in the Gospels differs according to the range given to the application of the term. Greswell reckons 27; Trench, 30; Plumptre, 31; others, 50. Matthew and Luke give us most of the parables. Mark dwells more on the acts than the discourses of Christ. John has no parables proper. He took them for granted from the earlier Gospels, and gives us instead those higher discourses of our Lord respecting his relation to the Father. The best special works on the parables are by Lisco, Greswell, Trench, Arndt, Arnot, Stier. Our Lord has himself explained the parable of the Sower and the parable of the Wheat and the Tares. His explanation must be the standard by which our interpretations are to be regulated and measured.


Bibliography Information
Schaff, Philip, Dr. "Biblical Definition for 'parable' in Schaffs Bible Dictionary".
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