The Greek word parable comes from para – alongside and bole – to cast. A parable is something (like an image or metaphor) “cast alongside” something else.
Scholar C.H. Dodd says the definition of a parable is “a metaphor or simile drawn from nature or everyday life, arresting the hearer by its vividness or strangeness, and leaving the mind in sufficient doubt of its precise application so as to tease it into active thought.1” A parable is a story the audience can readily identify with but there’s something “off” by just enough to trip us up and make us think. The best example I can think of for this is the parable of the lost sheep where Jesus says “wouldn’t a shepherd leave the 99 and go in search of the one?” Even though I have zero experience with sheep and shepherding, I immediately think “what kind of caretaker leaves 99 to find the single one that wandered off?!” It forces us to think and consider what we think we know.
New Testament parables are challenging on many levels, not the least of which is that we no longer readily identify with the cultural references made in most parables. Jesus tailored his stories to an audience that lived in sync with nature and seasons, an audience who depended on the land to produce the crops. Unfortunately, this is a context we no longer have. So the first step towards fully appreciating Biblical parables is to begin to appreciate the cultural context.
- C.H. Dodd The Parables of the Kingdom 1961 (5) ↩︎