View source for Parable

{{short description|Short didactic story which illustrates one or more instructive lessons or principles}}
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{{other uses}}
{{distinguish|Parabola}}
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[[File:Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn - Return of the Prodigal Son - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''[[The Return of the Prodigal Son (Rembrandt)|The Return of the Prodigal Son]]'', by [[Rembrandt]], 1660s]]
{{literature}}
A '''parable''' is a succinct, [[Didacticism|didactic]] story, in [[prose]] or [[Verse (poetry)|verse]], that illustrates one or more instructive lessons or principles. It differs from a [[fable]] in that fables employ [[animal]]s, [[plant]]s, inanimate objects, or forces of nature as characters, whereas parables have human characters.<ref>{{cite web|title= Difference Between Fable and Parable|url= http://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-fable-and-vs-parable/|website= DifferenceBetween.com|date= 6 November 2012|publisher= Difference Between|access-date= 13 June 2015}}</ref> A parable is a type of [[metaphor]]ical [[analogy]].<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=VSjRcQSE2uQC&pg=PA99 |title= What are they saying about the parables |author= David B. Gowler |year= 2000 |pages= 99,137,63,132,133 |publisher= Paulist Press |isbn= 9780809139620 }}</ref>

Some scholars of the [[canonical gospels]] and the [[New Testament]] apply the term "parable" only to the [[parables of Jesus]],<ref>
{{cite book
 | last1 = Jülicher
 | first1 = Adolf
 | author-link1 = Adolf Jülicher
 | title = Die gleichnisreden Jesu
 | trans-title = The parables of Jesus
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=hxpWAAAAMAAJ
 | language = de
 | volume = 1
 | location = Tübingen
 | publisher = J.C.B. Mohr (P. Siebeck)
 | date = 1888
 | access-date = 8 November 2019
}}
</ref>{{qn|date=November 2019}}<ref>
{{cite book
 | last1 = Meier
 | first1 = John P.
 | author-link1 = John P. Meier
 | title = A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ydE6zCLww-YC
 | volume = 2: A Marginal Jew: Mentor, message, and miracles
 | series = The Anchor Bible reference library
 | publisher = Doubleday
 | date = 1994
 | isbn = 9780385469920
 | access-date = 8 November 2019
}}
</ref>{{page needed|date=November 2019}} although that is not a common restriction of the term.

==Etymology==
The word ''parable'' comes from the [[Greek language|Greek]] παραβολή (''parabolē''), literally "throwing" (''bolē'') "alongside" (''para-''), by extension meaning "comparison, illustration, analogy."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/parable|title=parable &#124; Origin and meaning of parable by Online Etymology Dictionary|website=www.etymonline.com}}</ref><ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dparabolh%2F παραβολή], Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', on Perseus</ref> It was the name given by Greek [[rhetorician]]s to an illustration in the form of a brief fictional [[narrative]].

==History==
The [[Bible]] contains numerous parables in the [[Gospel]]s of the [[New Testament]] ([[Parables of Jesus|Jesus' parables]]). These are believed by some scholars (such as [[John P. Meier]]) to have been inspired by ''[[Mashal (allegory)|mashal]]im'', a form of Hebrew comparison prominent in the [[Talmud|Talmudic period]] (c. 2nd-6th centuries CE).<ref name="A Marginal Jew">[[John P. Meier]], ''[[A Marginal Jew]]'', volume II, Doubleday, 1994.</ref> Examples of Jesus' parables include the [[Good Samaritan]] and the [[Prodigal Son]]. Mashalim from the [[Old Testament]] include the parable of the ewe-lamb (told by [[Nathan (Prophet)|Nathan]] in 2 Samuel 12:1-9<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=289892665|title=oremus Bible Browser : 2 Sam 12:1-9|website=bible.oremus.org}}</ref>) and the parable of the woman of Tekoah (in 2 Samuel 14:1-13 <ref>{{Cite web|url=http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=534123881|title=oremus Bible Browser|website=bible.oremus.org}}</ref>).

Parables also appear in [[Islam]].  In [[Sufi]] tradition, parables are used for imparting lessons and values. Recent authors such as [[Idries Shah]] and [[Anthony de Mello (Jesuit priest)|Anthony de Mello]] have helped popularize these stories beyond Sufi circles.

Modern parables also exist. A mid-19th-century example, the [[parable of the broken window]], criticizes a part of [[Economics|economic]] thinking.

==Characteristics==
[[File:Jan Wijnants - Parable of the Good Samaritan.jpg|thumb|left|[[Parable of the Good Samaritan]], as depicted by [[Jan Wijnants]] (1670)]]
A parable is a short tale that illustrates a universal truth; it is a simple [[narrative]]. It sketches a setting, describes an [[Action (philosophy)|action]], and shows the results. It may sometimes be distinguished from similar narrative types, such as the [[allegory]] and the [[apologue]].<ref name="fowler558">{{cite book|title=A Dictionary of Modern English Usage |url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofmode00fowlrich |url-access=registration |last=Fowler |first=H.W.|year=1965 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=London|page=[https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofmode00fowlrich/page/558 558]}} See entry at '''simile and metaphor'''.</ref>

A parable often involves a character who faces a [[morality|moral]] dilemma or one who makes a bad decision and then suffers the [[unintended consequences]]. Although the meaning of a parable is often not explicitly stated, it is not intended to be hidden or secret but to be quite straightforward and obvious.<ref>[[George Fyler Townsend]], in his translator's preface to ''[[Aesop's Fables]]'' (Belford, Clarke & Co., 1887), defined the parable as being "purposely intended to convey a hidden and secret meaning other than that contained in the words themselves, and which may or may not bear a special reference to the hearer or reader." However, Townsend may have been influenced by the 19th century expression, "to speak in parables", connoting obscurity.</ref>

The defining characteristic of the parable is the presence of a [[subtext]] suggesting how a person should behave or what he should believe. Aside from providing guidance and suggestions for proper conduct in one's life, parables frequently use metaphorical language which allows people to more easily discuss difficult or complex ideas. Parables express an [[Abstract and concrete|abstract argument]] by means of using a concrete narrative which is easily understood.

The allegory is a more general narrative type; it also employs [[metaphor]]. An allegory may have multiple noncontradictory interpretations and may also have implications that are ambiguous or hard to interpret. As [[H.W. Fowler]] put it, the object of both parable and allegory "is to enlighten the hearer by submitting to him a case in which he has apparently no direct concern, and upon which therefore a disinterested judgment may be elicited from him, ..."<ref name="fowler558"/> The parable is more condensed than the allegory: it rests upon a single [[principle]] and a single moral, and it is intended that the reader or listener shall conclude that the moral applies equally well to his own concerns.
{{clearleft}}

==Parables of Jesus==
{{Main article|Parables of Jesus}}
[[Middle Ages|Medieval]] interpreters of the Bible often treated [[Jesus]]' parables as allegories, with symbolic [[correspondence (theology)|correspondence]]s found for every element in his parables. But modern scholars, beginning with [[Adolf Jülicher]], regard their interpretations as incorrect.<ref name="Die Gleichnisreden Jesu">Adolf Jülicher, ''Die Gleichnisreden Jesu'' (2 vols; Tübingen: Mohr [Siebeck], 1888, 1899).</ref> Jülicher viewed some of Jesus' parables as similitudes (extended similes or metaphors) with three parts: a picture part (''Bildhälfte''), a reality part (''Sachhälfte''), and a ''[[tertium comparationis]]''. Jülicher held that Jesus' parables are intended to make a single important point.<ref name="A Marginal Jew"/>

[[Gnosticism|Gnostics]] suggested that Jesus kept some of his teachings secret within the circle of his disciples and that he deliberately obscured their meaning by using parables. For example, in [[Gospel of Mark|Mark 4:11–12]]:

{{Quotation|And he said to them, "To you has been given the secret of the [[kingdom of God]], but for those outside, everything comes in parables; in order that 'they may indeed look, but not perceive, and may indeed listen, but not understand; so that they may not turn again and be [[Forgiveness|forgiven]].'" ([[New Revised Standard Version|NRSV]])}}

The idea that coded meanings in parables would only become apparent when a listener had been given additional information or initiated into a higher set of teachings is supported by ''[[Epistle of Barnabas|The Epistle of Barnabas]],'' reliably dated between AD 70 to 132:  <blockquote>For if I should write to you concerning things immediate or future, ye would not understand them, because they are put in parables. So much then for this.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Epistle of Barnabas (translation J.B. Lightfoot)|url=http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/barnabas-lightfoot.html|access-date=2021-10-20|website=www.earlychristianwritings.com}}</ref> </blockquote>
Another important component of the parables of Jesus is their participatory and spontaneous quality. Often, but not always, Jesus creates a parable in response to a question from his listeners or an argument between two opposing views. 

To the educated [[Greco-Roman world|Greco-Roman]] audience, Jesus’ use of parables was reminiscent of many famous oratory styles like the [[Socratic method]]. As a literary work, the [[Development of the New Testament canon|Gospel authorship]] depict the various groups that question Jesus about his teachings, to the role an interlocutor has in the [[Socratic dialogue|Socratic Dialogues]] of [[Plato]].

Similarly, the rhetorical style of the [[Roman Senate|Roman Senator]] and lawyer [[Cicero]] (which remained highly regarded after his death by many famous orators<ref>{{Cite web |title=Plutarch's Lives (Clough)/Life of Cicero - Wikisource, the free online library |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Plutarch%27s_Lives_(Clough)/Life_of_Cicero |access-date=2024-05-02 |website=en.wikisource.org |language=en}}</ref>) was known for its use of a seemingly unrelated [[anecdote]] that demonstrates in its conclusion some insight pertaining to the current topic of the discussion.

==Quranic parables==
{{main|Quranic parables}}
The [[Quran]]'s [[Q39:28-30]] boasts "every kind of [[parable in Islam|parable]] in the Quran". The [[Quranic verses]] include parables of the good and evil tree ([[Q14:32-45]]), [[the parable of the two men|of the two men]], and [[Parable of the spider's house|of the spider's house]]. [[Q16:77]] contains the parable of the slave and his master, followed by the parable of the blind man and the sighted.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wherry |first1=Elwood Morris |author1-link=Elwood Morris Wherry |title=A Complete Index to Sale's Text, Preliminary Discourse, and Notes |date=1896 |publisher=Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, and Co |location=London}}</ref>

==Other figures of speech==
The parable is related to [[Figure of speech|figures of speech]] such as [[metaphor]] and [[simile]]. A parable is like a metaphor in that it uses concrete, perceptible phenomena to illustrate abstract ideas. It may be said that a parable is a metaphor that has been extended to form a brief, coherent narrative. A parable also resembles a simile, i.e., a metaphorical construction in which something is said to be "like" something else (e.g., "The just man is like a tree planted by streams of water"). However, unlike the meaning of a simile, a parable's meaning is implicit (although not secret).

==Examples==
[[File:Krafft the Elder Ignacy Krasicki (detail).jpg|thumb|upright|[[Ignacy Krasicki]], author of "[[Fables and Parables#Abuzei and Tair|Abuzei and Tair]]"]]
* [[Akhfash's goat]] – a Persian parable
* [[Hercules at the crossroads]] – an ancient Greek parable
* Parables by [[Ignacy Krasicki]], from his 1779 book ''[[Fables and Parables]]'':
** [[Fables and Parables#Abuzei and Tair|Abuzei and Tair]]
** [[Fables and Parables#The Blind Man and the Lame|The Blind Man and the Lame]]
** [[Fables and Parables#The Drunkard|The Drunkard]]
** [[Fables and Parables#The Farmer|The Farmer]]
** [[Fables and Parables#Son and Father|Son and Father]]
* [[The Rooster Prince]] – a Hasidic parable

==See also==
* [[Allegory]]
* [[Amplification (rhetoric)]]
* [[Exemplification]]
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==References==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==External links==
{{Wiktionary|parable}}
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Commons category|Parables of Jesus Christ}}
* [http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=63&letter=P ''Jewish Encyclopedia'': Parable]
* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11460a.htm ''Catholic Encyclopedia'': Parable]
* [http://www.spiritual-short-stories.com/spiritual-short-stories-2-Parables.html Spiritual Parables]
* [http://www.circleofreason.org Secular Parables]

{{Narrative modes}}
{{Parables of Jesus}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Parables| ]]
[[Category:Christian genres]]
[[Category:Folklore]]
[[Category:Meaning in religious language]]
[[Category:Narrative techniques]]
[[Category:Persuasion techniques]]
[[Category:Rhetorical techniques]]
[[Category:Short story types]]
[[Category:Traditional stories]]