to Ezk 24%>*, namely mashal (Arab. VS (bis,
y
Pesh. DAk, LXX παραβολήν ; while the Targum alone, from a supposed necessity to heighten the dignity of the passage, rendered by 23 ‘a pro- phecy’). On the other hand, there is a formal agreement between Ezk 24°° and 3%4-26 41-12 51-4 etc. In all these passages, that is to say, there is mention of a Divine command to perform some action, and then it is added that this action illus- trates some idea. Thus the five passages, 2 S 12)-4 etc., and Ezk 3%>-% 41% etc, 24%, agree in their didactic aim ; and both sets of passages are para- bolical. This conclusion is strengthened further by the consideration that the passages in Ezk just cited cannot be separated from Is 2024, Jer 25'5%, According to the last passage, the prophet received the commission, ‘Take the wine-cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations to whom I send thee, to drink it’; and the prophet adds, ‘Then took I the cup at the Lord’s hand, and made all the nations to drink.’ This action cannot really have been performed. Hence the view is recommended that also in Ezk 3*>-% 41-12 51-4 ete, we have parabolical narratives. The same cate- gory includes the Bk. of Jonah, as has been shown in vol. ii. p. 746 ff., and we must add the story of Judith, for the very name pn; means ‘a Jewess,’ and stamps the heroine of this book as a personi- fication of the Jewish nation. The Bk. of Jth is, as Luther said, ‘ein geistlich schén Gedicht’ (cf., further, Konig, Hinleitung, p. 479 f.).
(c) The Paramyths, which, according to J. G. Herder, are to be distinguished from the parables, have also their analogues in the Hebrew literature (cf. παραμύθιον, which in Wis 318 is used for ‘con- solation’ [-ε- παραμυθία of 1 Co 14%], and in Ph 2! for ‘comfort [of love]’). Herder understood by Paramyths such narratives ‘as serve for the cheer- ing of the soul, and are based upon the ancient Greek myths.’ They are stories in which per- sonifications of ideas or of natural processes are introduced as living beings. One of Herder's paramythical narratives commences with ‘ Aurora complained to the gods,’ and another with ‘ Night and Day contended with each other for the pre- eminence,’ and a third with ‘Once beside a mur- muring stream Care sat down and mused.’ Now we find instances of personification in the OT as
y For instance, we read ‘the light of the righteous rejoiceth ’ (Pr 13°), and ‘ foolishness (1410) Sere that down which wisdom of women has
uilt’ (v.4*). The same foolishness is further de- scribed in a whole narrative as a seductive woman (9-18) ; and the same wisdom, with whose help Jahweh Himself founded the earth (3%, ef. 1%), comes forward as the subject of a dramatically worked action in ‘Doth not Wisdom ery,’ ete.? (8.5), A story of the same kind meets us in Sir 24°, for there, likewise, ‘wisdom’ is an attri- bute of God which was displayed in the creation of the world and the guiding of Israel. This
appears with the greatest clearness from the words,
καὶ éppltwoa ἐν λαῷ δεδοξασμένῳ, ‘and I took root in a people that was glorified’ (v.44). It is only a personification of wisdom that is found in Wis 6, The words ἵνα μάθητε σοφίαν (v.1%) show this in the most decisive fashion. Likewise in 7135. wisdom stands simply for the attribute of God (cf. ‘Thy wisdom’ in 9?) which controls the world and the course of history. For Solomon could imbibe and reproduce this wisdom, cf. ἔμαθον (714), els ψυχὰς ὁσίας μεταβαίνουσα (Υ. 319), εἰσῆλθεν els ψυχὴν θεράποντος Kuplov (1018) ; and by wisdom nothing else is meant than by ἀφροσύνη of 10%.
The post-biblical literature of the Jews also contains narratives, in which personifications a:
ear as subjects. One of these commences, ‘While
Yoah lived in the ark, one day the Lie appease and begged to be admitted. Noah, who did not know ane Lie, was prepared to grant her request, but he declared that he could not do this until she should have procured a companion, because only pairs could be admitted into the ark, The Lie had thus to retire after a bootless errand. But scarcely had she gone a few paces when she met Injustwe. Along with her the Lie was now admitted into the ark, but the two over-reached one another’ (Midrash, Yalkét, Gn 56; Fiirsten- ser cit., No. 497). See, further, the following article.
Lrreraturs.—A, Ε΄. Mehren, Die Rhetorik der Araber, 1858; R. Volkmann, Die Rhetorik der Griechen und Romer, 2 Aufiage, 1874; R. J. Firstenthal, Rabbinische Blumenlese, 1835. Other works are named in the body of the article. E
Ep. K6nia.
PARABLE (ΙΝ NT).—The subject will be treated under five heads: Terminology, Christ’s Use of Parables, their Distribution in the Gospels, their Classification, and their Interpretation.
1. The Term παραβολή (παραβάλλω) means ‘a plac- ing of one thing beside another’ with a view te comparison. Trench contends that ‘this notion of comparison is not necessarily included in the word.’ But it appears as early as the word itself, and is very Seat (Plato, PAwd. 33 B; Arist. Top. i. 10. 5; Polyb. i. 2. 2). From the original idea of ‘throwing beside’ come the derived meanings of ‘exposing,’ represented by παράβολος, and of ‘com- paring,’ represented by παραβολή. Latin writers use collatio on: in Cic.), umago (Cic. Sen. Hor.), and similitudo (Cic. Quint.). The Lat. VSS com- monly have pote (Mt 13% 18 ete.), which survives in the Fr. parole and through parabolare in parler ; but similitudo is fairly common, esp. in Lk (4% 5% 6% 84 1216 136 2019 21%), But in most of these cases some representatives of the Old Lat., esp. a and d, have parabola. Conversely, many Old Lat. texts sometimes have similitudo where the Vulg. has parabola (Lk 12 158 18° 19"),