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The Ancient World Behind the Text: Ideas

The customs, offices and ideas a first reader knew without being told, what each meant then, and the nearest thing you already know.

Parables and riddles

Short stories that compared one thing to another. Jewish teachers used them to make a point plain, and without the point stated they worked as riddles.

Jewish life and lawWhat people were waiting for

First, in plain English

The teacher told a story about a farmer, and only the ones who stayed after class found out what it meant. A parable is a comparison told as a story. Jewish teachers used them all the time. Jesus' parables come from farm and village life. Some hearers got the point; for others the story stayed a puzzle.

What it meant then

Jewish sages used parables to illustrate a point. If the point was not stated, the parable amounted to a story or a riddle, and rabbis kept some teaching for close disciples. Openings such as to what may this be compared, or the kingdom is like a man who, meant that the whole story explained the subject, not the next word. Wright argues that "the parables followed well-known Jewish lines." He points to Old Testament models such as Nathan's story to David and the vineyard, and to visions explained afterward, as in Daniel 7. Jesus' parables stay with farmers and villages, while later rabbinic parables favor royal courts. Blomberg argues for limited allegory: a few main characters, each carrying a point. The Hebrew mashal, often rendered parabole in the Greek Old Testament, covered proverb, riddle and comparison, and the word appears nine times in Sirach. Most of Jesus' parables tell a story. The cultural backgrounds article calls that a Jewish form, nearer to the story parables of the rabbis than to Greek fables. Jewish parables often came with interpretations attached, and in the article's judgment the ones without them are what look odd in antiquity.

The bridge to today

An analogy: a political cartoon. Readers who know the situation get it at once and laugh or wince. Readers who do not see only a funny drawing of animals.

What it changes in the reading

A parable compares the kingdom to a whole scene, so in Matthew 13:24 the kingdom is like the story, not like the man. Without its explanation a parable could hide its point, which is why the disciples ask in private, as in Mark 4:10. Luke 15 answers critics with three in a row.

Where the analogy breaks

Not something every insider got at once. A cartoon is drawn to be understood on sight by anyone who knows the news. A parable whose point went unstated worked more like a riddle, and rabbis kept some teaching for close disciples, so even an informed hearer might need it explained.

Where scholars disagree

How far rabbinic parables can be used as background. Keener writes as if rabbis commonly taught in parables. Blomberg counts 325 early rabbinic parables and says almost none can be dated to the first half of the first century: "The examples surveyed are largely second- or third-century compositions." The sources also differ on whether the allegorical explanations in the Gospels go back to Jesus; Blomberg defends a limited allegory, and the cultural backgrounds article answers the doubters that other Jewish parables also carried interpretations with several points of contact.

Passages where it appears

{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-7-13-29\/","n":"Matthew 7:13-29, Two ways, false prophets, two builders","s":"Jesus ends his sermon with the narrow gate, a warning about false prophets known by their fruit, and two houses built on rock and on sand. The crowd is struck by his authority.","r":"Matthew 7:13-29"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-11-2-30\/","n":"Matthew 11:2-30, John's question, children in the square, an easy yoke","s":"John asks from prison whether Jesus is the one to come. Jesus praises John, compares his generation to sulking children, pronounces woes on the lake towns, and offers rest under his yoke.","r":"Matthew 11:2-30"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-13-1-23\/","n":"Matthew 13:1-23, The sower","s":"From a boat Jesus tells the parable of the sower to the crowd on the shore, explains why he speaks in parables, and interprets the story for his disciples.","r":"Matthew 13:1-23"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-13-24-52\/","n":"Matthew 13:24-52, Darnel, mustard, yeast, treasure and a net","s":"More parables of the kingdom: weeds sown among wheat, a mustard seed, yeast in flour, treasure in a field, a pearl, and a dragnet, with the weeds and the net explained as the judgment at the end of the age.","r":"Matthew 13:24-52"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-18-21-35\/","n":"Matthew 18:21-35, Ten thousand talents and a hundred denarii","s":"Peter asks whether forgiving seven times is enough. Jesus tells of a king who cancels an impossible debt, and of the forgiven servant who then chokes a colleague over a small one.","r":"Matthew 18:21-35"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-20-1-16\/","n":"Matthew 20:1-16, A day's wage for an hour's work","s":"A landowner hires laborers for his vineyard at dawn and again through the day, then pays everyone a full denarius, starting with the last. Those hired first complain.","r":"Matthew 20:1-16"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-21-23-46\/","n":"Matthew 21:23-46, By what authority, two sons and the tenants","s":"The chief priests and elders demand to know Jesus' authority. He answers with a question about John, then with two parables: a son who says no and goes, and tenants who kill the owner's son.","r":"Matthew 21:23-46"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-25-1-13\/","n":"Matthew 25:1-13, Ten young women and the bridegroom","s":"Ten young women wait with their lights for a bridegroom who comes late at night. Five brought extra oil and go in to the feast; five go to buy oil and find the door shut.","r":"Matthew 25:1-13"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-25-14-30\/","n":"Matthew 25:14-30, Five, two and one talent","s":"A man going abroad entrusts his property to three slaves. Two double what they were given and are rewarded; the third buries his talent and is thrown out.","r":"Matthew 25:14-30"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-12-13-21\/","n":"Luke 12:13-21, Bigger barns","s":"A man asks Jesus to make his brother divide the inheritance. Jesus refuses, warns against greed, and tells of a rich farmer who plans bigger barns for his surplus and dies that night.","r":"Luke 12:13-21"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-12-35-48\/","n":"Luke 12:35-48, Slaves waiting up for the master","s":"Jesus tells his followers to be dressed for action with lamps lit, like slaves waiting for their master to come home from a wedding, and asks what a slave left in charge will do if the master is delayed.","r":"Luke 12:35-48"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-14-15-24\/","n":"Luke 14:15-24, The great banquet and the excuses","s":"A guest blesses whoever will eat bread in God's kingdom. Jesus tells of a man whose invited guests all excuse themselves when the feast is ready, so he fills his house with the poor and with people from the roads.","r":"Luke 14:15-24"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-18-1-8\/","n":"Luke 18:1-8, The widow and the judge","s":"Jesus tells of a judge who neither feared God nor respected people and a widow who kept coming to him for justice until he gave in. How much more, he says, will God see justice done for his chosen ones.","r":"Luke 18:1-8"}

Sources

Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Matthew 13:1-9, 13:11-13 and 13:24
NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, NT Glossary, entry Parable, and notes on Matthew 11:16, 13:3, 13:10 and 13:24
N. T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God, ch. 5, section (b) Parables
N. T. Wright, Matthew for Everyone, Part One, comment on Matthew 13:18-23, and Glossary, entry parables
Craig L. Blomberg, Interpreting the Parables, 2.2.2 The Rabbinic Parables, and 7.3 The Sower
NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, article Parables

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