ecause both in pestis and in proverbs there is comparison, and the hearer has to catch the analogy in order to be instructed. We may, if we like, give the name of a parable to Christ’s sayings about the salt of the earth, the lilies of the field, building on the sand, whited sepulchres (Mt δ᾽} 6% 7% 23”), fishers of men, light under the bushel (Mk 17 4"), a reed shaken with the wind, the green and the dry tree (Lk 7* 23"), living water, fields white unto harvest, a woman in travail (Jn 410. 85 1671), etc. ete. Not a few of these wn iy be expanded into a narrative without diffi-
culty.
2. The Use of Parables was familiar to the Jews,* and ancient Rabbinic writings are full of them; but as illustrations of truths already set forth, rather than as a means of conveying truths. In the hands of Christ the use of parables as vehicles of truth reached perfection. Just as His miracles are parables,—factum Verbi verbum nobis est, as Augustine says,—so His parables are miracles, both of literary beauty and of instructive power. As elements of His teaching they had several pur- poses, some of which are obvious, while others He explained to His disciples (Mt 13!-, Mk 41-12, Lk 8°"), They served both to reveal and to veil the truth; and the truths with which they are specially concerned are the mysteries of ‘the king- dom of God.’ They revealed these mysteries to those who deserved to know them and were capable of receiving them; and they concealed them from those who lacked these qualifications, And this penalis cecitas (Aug.) with regard to Divine truth when it is clothed in parables is not merely a fact (ὅτι, Mt) in the impenitent; it is designed (ἵνα, Mk, Lk) by God, in order to withhold the mysteries of the kingdom from the unworthy. This withhold- ing is therefore a judgment; but a judgment which is merciful in its operation. It saves un- worthy hearers from the responsibility of knowin the truth and rejecting it, for they are not allow to recognize it. It saves them also from the guilt of profaning it, for herein Christ observes His own maxim (Mt 7°). Nor does the mercy end here. The parable puts the truth in a form which arrests the attention at the time, and which is easily re- membered afterwards. Longum est iter per pra- cepta, breve et efficax per exempla (Sen. =p. 6) Those who are already receptive are caught at once; they get their lesson and do not forget it. Those who are not, although they get no lesson yet hear something which they remember, and which will convey the lesson to them, if ever they become capable of receiving it. Moreover, the vehicle of ha lesson being taken from very familiar
objects, he who has once heard a parable of Christ is ikely to be often reminded of it. Christ knew the grander scenery of Palestine ; yet His parables are taken, not from mountains and forests, cedars and palm-trees, but from things which are common, not only in Palestine, but almost throughout the world
(Stanley, Sin. and Pal. p. 432). Thus teaching by parables is both educational and disciplinary. It is a marked illustration of the law, that to him who hath shall more be given, while from him who hath not even that which he seems to have shall be taken away. The unreceptive hearer seems to have the opportunity of being instructed; but this is really withheld, because instruction is given in a form which, through his own fault, he cannot * Comp. 25 121%, Is 5, and see preceding article.
PARABLE (IN NT)
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αηδοτγβίαπά : ἀείσω συνετοῖς, θύρας δ᾽ ἐπίθεσδε βέβηλοι.“ It is quite in harmony with this principle that, at the beginning of Christ’s ministry, His parables were occasional and brief; but, as opposition to Him increased, they became His usual mode of public instruction and were more elaborate.
The chief purpose of parables is to instruct by means of the exquisite analogies which exist between things natural and things spiritual, and which are the outcome of the Divine Wisdom that fashioned both. In them Christ ‘utters things which have been hidden from the foundation of the world’ (Mt 1335), for the whole universe is a parable, which hides God from the unworthy, while it reveals Him more and more to the devout. Schelling says that nature and history are to one another as parable and a ee (Philos. Schriften, ed. 1809, p. 457). hrist makes both nature and history a parable, of which the kingdom of God is the interpretation ; and thus the whole world becomes a ‘ picture-gospel’ to those who can understand it. In His synagogue-teaching Christ expounded the book of the OT. In His parables He expounded the book of nature and of human life. In the one case the written letter, in the other the experience of facts, was used to reveal the spirit which inspires both. By the facts of everyday life the parable shows how the principles of the higher life may be known; for the universe is the outward expression of the laws of the king- dom of God.
It is remarkable that the Epistles, although they contain allegories and frequent similes, never exhibit anything which corresponds to the parables of our Lord. The attitude of the writers to this element in His teaching is analogous to that of the evangelists to the title ‘the Son of Man,’ which they record as often used by Jesus of Himself, but which they never apply to Him themselves (Nésgen, Gesch. Jesu, p. 346). Reverence of this kind, whether conscious or not, renders the hypo- thesis that some of Christ’s parables have been altered by those who recorded them all the less probable. It is more reasonable to believe that the differences between parables which have marked resemblances are the result of variations made by Jesus Himself. He certainly sometimes employed pairs of parables, in order the better to impress the required lesson upon His hearers; e.g. the Treasure in the Field and the Pearl of great Price (Mt 13), the Ten Virgins and the Talents (251-53), the Garment and the Wine-skins (Lk 5°*-*), the Mustard-seed and the Leaven (13'8-*1), the Rash Builder and the Rash King (14*-*), the Lost Shee and the Lost Coin (15*"°), And it should be ΞΕ how often the effect of Christ’s parables is in- tensified by a contrast; e.g. obedient and dis- obedient sons (Mt 21%), wise and foolish virgins (25"), profitable and unprofitable servants (25), heartless clergy and charitable Samaritan (Lk 10%), Dives and Lazarus (16), Pharisee and Publican (18°), ete.