Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897)
(Gr. parabole), a placing beside; a comparison; equivalent to the Heb. mashal, a similitude. In the Old Testament this is used to denote (1) a proverb (1 Sam. 10:12; 24:13; 2 Chr. 7:20), (2) a prophetic utterance (Num. 23:7; Ezek. 20:49), (3) an enigmatic saying (Ps. 78:2; Prov. 1:6).
In the New Testament, (1) a proverb (Mark 7:17; Luke 4:23), (2) a typical emblem (Heb. 9:9; 11:19), (3) a similitude or allegory (Matt. 15:15; 24:32; Mark 3:23; Luke 5:36; 14:7); (4) ordinarily, in a more restricted sense, a comparison of earthly with heavenly things, “an earthly story with a heavenly meaning,” as in the parables of our Lord. Instruction by parables has been in use from the earliest times. A large portion of our Lord’s public teaching consisted of parables. ” (Matt. 13:13-15; Mark 4:11, 12; Luke 8:9, 10).
He followed in so doing the rule of the divine procedures, as recorded in Matt. 13:13. , the first three) Gospels. The fourth Gospel contains no parable properly so called, although the illustration of the good shepherd (John 10:1-16) has all the essential features of a parable.
Smith's Bible Dictionary (1863)
—McClintock and Strong. As used in the New Testament it had a very wide application, being applied sometimes to the shortest proverbs, (1 Samuel 10:12; 24:13; 2 Chronicles 7:20) sometimes to dark prophetic utterances, (Numbers 23:7,18; 24:3; Ezekiel 20:49) sometimes to enigmatic maxims, (Psalms 78:2; Proverbs 1:6) or metaphors expanded into a narrative. (Ezekiel 12:22) In the New Testament itself the word is used with a like latitude in (Matthew 24:32; Luke 4:23; Hebrews 9:9) It was often used in a more restricted sense to denote a short narrative under which some important truth is veiled.
Of this sort were the parables of Christ. The parable differs from the fable (1) in excluding brute and inanimate creatures passing out of the laws of their nature and speaking or acting like men; (2) in its higher ethical significance. It differs from the allegory in that the latter, with its direct personification of ideas or attributes, and the names which designate them, involves really no comparison. The virtues and vices of mankind appear as in a drama, in their own character and costume.
The allegory is self-interpreting; the parable demands attention, insight, sometimes an actual explanation. ) For some months Jesus taught in the synagogues and on the seashore of Galilee as he had before taught in Jerusalem, and as yet without a parable. But then there came a change. The direct teaching was met with scorn unbelief hardness, and he seemed for a time to abandon it for that which took the form of parables.
The worth of parables as instruments of teaching lies in their being at once a test of character and in their presenting each form of character with that which, as a penalty or blessing, is adapted to it. They withdraw the light from those who love darkness. They protect the truth which they enshrine from the mockery of the scoffer. They leave something even with the careless which may be interpreted and understood afterward. They reveal on the other hand, the seekers after truth. These ask the meaning of the parable, and will not rest until the teacher has explained it.
In this way the parable did work, found out the fit hearers and led them on. In most of the parables it is possible to trace something like an order.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898)
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 - 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.
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. " - 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. 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.
T. are: The Sower. Matt 13:3-8; Mark 4:3-8; Luke 8:5-8. The Wheat and the Tares. Matt 13:24-30. The Mustard-seed. Matt 13:31-32; Mark 4:30-32. The Leaven. Matt 13:33. The Seed cast into the Ground and Growing up Secretly. Mark 4:26-29. The Hidden Treasure. Matt 13:44. The Pearl of Great Price. Matt 13:45-46. The Net cast into the Sea. Matt 13:47-48. The Lost Sheep. Matt 18:12-13; Luke 15:4-6. The Merciless Servant. Matt 18:23-34. The Two Debtors. Luke 7:41-42. The Good Samaritan. Luke 10:30-35. The Importunate Friend. Luke 11:5-8. The Rich Fool. Luke 12:16-20. The Return from the Wedding.
Luke 12:35-40. The Fig Tree. Luke 13:6-9. The Great Supper. Luke 14:16-24. The Lost Piece of Money. Luke 15:8-9. The Prodigal Son. Luke 15:11-32. The Unjust Steward. Luke 16:1-8. The Rich Man and Lazarus. Luke 16:19-31. The Unjust Judge. Luke 18:2-5. The Pharisee and the Publican. Luke 18:10-13. The Pounds. Luke 19:12-27. The Laborers in the Vineyard. Matt 20:1-16. The Two Sons. Matt 21:28-30. The Vineyard let to Husbandmen. Matt 21:33-39; Mark 12:1-9; Luke 20:9-15. The Marriage-Feast. Matt 22:2-14. The Wise and the Foolish Virgins. Matt 25:1-13. The Talents. Matt 25:14-30.
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.
Schaff's Bible Dictionary
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 - 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.
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. " - 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. 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.
T. are: The Wheat and the Tares. Matt 13:24-30. The Mustard-seed. Matt 13:31-32; Mark 4:30-32. The Leaven. Matt 13:33. The Seed cast into the Ground and Growing up Secretly. Mark 4:26-29. The Hidden Treasure. Matt 13:44. The Pearl of Great Price. Matt 13:45-46. The Net cast into the Sea. Matt 13:47-48. The Lost Sheep. Matt 18:12-13; Luke 15:4-6. The Merciless Servant. Matt 18:23-34. The Two Debtors. Luke 7:41-42. The Good Samaritan. Luke 10:30-35. The Importunate Friend. Luke 11:5-8. The Rich Fool. Luke 12:16-20. The Return from the Wedding. Luke 12:35-40. The Fig Tree. Luke 13:6-9.
The Great Supper. Luke 14:16-24. The Lost Piece of Money. Luke 15:8-9. The Prodigal Son. Luke 15:11-32. The Unjust Steward. Luke 16:1-8. The Rich Man and Lazarus. Luke 16:19-31. The Unjust Judge. Luke 18:2-5. The Pharisee and the Publican. Luke 18:10-13. The Pounds. Luke 19:12-27. The Laborers in the Vineyard. Matt 20:1-16. The Two Sons. Matt 21:28-30. The Vineyard let to Husbandmen. Matt 21:33-39; Mark 12:1-9; Luke 20:9-15. The Marriage-Feast. Matt 22:2-14. The Wise and the Foolish Virgins. Matt 25:1-13. The Talents. Matt 25:14-30. 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.