3. The Distribution of the Parables in the Gospels is very unequal. In the narrower sense of the term there are no parables in Jn. It is in harmony with the respective characteristics of the other three Gospels that Lk, who aims at com- pleteness, gives us most, and that Mk, who records events rather than discourses, gives us fewest parables. Only one parable is peculiar to Mk,—the Seed growing secretly (4%) ; and he gives three others, which are also in Mt and Lk,—the Sower, Mustard-seed, and Wicked Husbandmen. Two are common to Mt and Lk,—the Leaven (Mt 13%, Lk 13”) and the Lost Sheep (Mt 18”,
*See the anticipation of this principle in the symbolical teaching of the Pythagoreans as given by Stobwus, Serm. y. 72, ed. Gaisford, i. p. 164.
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Lk 15). Of the remainder, eighteen are peculiar to Lk and ten to Mt. Lk’s eighteen include some of the most beautiful. They are the Two Debtors, Good Samaritan, Friend at Midnight, Rich Foot, Watchful Servants, Barren Fig-tree, Chief Seats, Great Supper, Rash Builder, Rash King, Lost Coin, Lost Son, Unrighteous Steward, Dives and Lazarus, Unprofitable Servants, Unrighteous Judge, Pharisee and Publican, and the Pounds, The ten peculiar to Mt are the Tares, Hid Trea- sure, Pearl of great Price, Draw-net, Unmercifn] Servant, Labourers in the Vineyard, Two Sons, Marriage of the Kings Son, Ten Virgins, and the Talents.* Reasons have been given above why the Marriage of the King’s Son in Mt should not be identified with the Great Supper in Lk, nor the Talents in Mt with the Pounds.
The number of Christ’s parables cannot be satis- factorily determined, because of the difficulty of deciding what is to be regarded as a parable. Some, as Trench, omit one or two of those given above, as the Watchful Servants (Lk 12%) and the Chief Seats (Lk 14”). But many would have to be added, if all the short parabolic sayings of Christ were included. The usual estimate is from thirty to thirty-five, of which about two-thirds are ee served by Lk, the majority of them being peculi to his Gospel.
It is one of the many signs of inferiority in the spocuy pial Gospels that they contain no parables. While they degrade miracles into mere arbitrary and unspiritual acts of power, they omit all that teaches of the deep relations between the seen and the unseen.
4. The Classification of the Parables is a problem which perhaps does not admit of a satisfactory solution. One of the simplest is that of Goebel in Die Parabeln Jesu, Gotha, 1880, which is followed by Edersheim in The Life and Teaching of Jesus the Messiah, i. p. 579. He makes three groups, distin-
ished by the time and place of delivery: (i.) those
elonging to Christ’s ministry in and near Caper- naum, collected in Mt 13; (ii.) those belonging to the journeyings from Galilee to Jerusalem, re- corded in Lk 10-18 ; and (iii.) those belonging to the last days in Jerusalem. The first group mainly has reference to the kingdom of God as a whole, the second to the individual members of it, and the third to the judgment of the members of it. Godet, in Schaff’s Herzog, suggests another arrangement into three groups, which is more elaborate. Out of thirty parables he regards six as showing the preparatory existence of the King- dom under the Jewish dispensation; viz. the Wicked Husbandmen, Marriage of the King’s Son, Great Supper, Strait Gate, Barren Fig-tree, and Two Sons. Six others show the realization of the Kingdom in the form of a Church ; viz. the Sower, Tares, Mustard-seed, ven, Draw-net, and Un- righteous Judge. The remaining eighteen refer to the realization of the Kingdom in the life of indi- vidual members. This group is subdivided ; nine being referred to those who are entering the King- dom (Lost Sheep, Lost Coin, Lost Son, Pharisee and Publican, Friend at Midnight, Hid Treasure, Pearl of great Price, Rash Builder, and Rash King), and nine to those who have already become members (Chief Seats, Labourers in the Vineyard, Unmerciful Servant, Good Samaritan, Unrighteous Steward, Dives and Lazarus, Rich Fool, Talents, and Ten Virgins). But to put the Unrighteous Judge and the Friend at Midnight, which teach much the same lesson, into different classes, does not seem to be right. Nor does one see how the sheep, coin, and son could be lost, unless they
* ‘St. Matthew’s are more theocratic, St. Luke’s more ethical ; St. Matthew’s are more parables of judgment, St. Luke’s of mercy’ (Trench).
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were already members of the community. Lange, in his Life of Christ, i. p. 484, and in Herzog?, art. ‘ Gleichnis,’ makes another threefold classification. The first cycle treats of the Kingdom in its develop- ment; the second of its completion by acts of mercy ; the third of its completion by acts of judg- ment. Somewhat similar is the division made by Steinmeyer in Die Par. des Herrn, Berlin, 1884, into kerygmatic, pastoral, and judicial. A very elaborate classification is drawn out by Westcott in his Elements of the Gospel Harmony, App. Ὁ ; and Int. to the Study of the Gospels, App. f He makes two main classes, of which the second has three divisions; and each of these divisions has three subdivisions, some of which are bisected or trisected. The chief featuresare these. I. Parables drawn from the material world; viz. the Sower, Tares, Seed growing secretly, Mustard-seed, and Leaven. 11. Parables drawn from the relations of man (i.) to the lower world; viz. the Draw-net, Fig-tree, Lost eee and Lost Coin: (ii.) to his