RabbinicParables

 

Parablesare "short fictitious stories that illustrate a moral attitude orreligious principle." Normally they have two levels of meaning, popularly the "earthlystory" and the "heavenly meaning."

 

            1.Frequency

            2.Variety

            3.Parables as Analogies

            4.Parables as Mini-Dramas

            5.Caricature

            6.Stock Metaphors

            7.Function and Audience

            8.Comparison with Jesus' Parables

 

1.Frequency.  In the ancient Greco-Roman worldparables occur frequently in the teaching of Jesus and the rabbinic literature,but only rarely elsewhere.  Over1500 rabbinic parables survive, though only 324 of these date before AD200.  These earlier parables aregiven in Johnston (1977).  Onlythree date before the time of Jesus, from R. Hillel in the generation immediate­lypreceding.  Thus the 60 parables ofJesus in the Synoptic Gospels are among the earliest known.  Yet Jesus' audience realized he wasspeaking in parables (Mt 13:10), so the form was apparently well-known at thattime.  Perhaps parables were commonin the synagogue sermons of Jesus day, as they were later.  We have too little information fromthis early period to be sure.

 

2.Variety.  In Jewish usage, the Greek word parabol‘, like its Hebrew counterpart m~š~l, is broader in meaning than our Englishword "parable."  Bothalso include proverb and paradox, and m~š~l can mean by-word or prophetic poem aswell.  Here we confine our­selvesto parables in the narrower sense, illustrative stories ranging in length froma sentence or two (a "similitude"), to a short story of a few hundredwords ("story parable"). These may make a single point or several; they may be rather allegoricalor not.  To conserve space here,the parables quoted are the shorter ones.

 

3.Parables as Analogies.  Most parables have two levels ofmeaning.  As Sider notes, parablestypically make their points by means of analogy or proportion, using somesituation in everyday life to picture something in the moral or spiritual realm.  "R. Jacob said:  This world is like a lobby before theworld to come.  Prepare yourself inthe lobby that you may enter the banquet hall." (J116; m. 'Abot 4:16)  Here the analogy is: 

 

            thisworld: the world to come = lobby: banquet hall. 

 

Theleft side of the equation is the reality part (tenor, nim­šal); the right side is the picture part(vehicle, m~š~l). The speaker is making one or more points of comparison through thisproportion.  His main point here is(1) we need to get ready in the first before we enter the second.  Some other points are probably implied:(2) you have to pass out of the first to get into the second; (3) the second isfar more important than the first, or even the (3a) second is what the first isall about.

 

4.Parables as Mini-Dramas.  Young notes that many parables have astructure like that of a miniature drama. They often begin with an introductory formula, followed by thepresentation of the main characters and setting.  A crisis is developed and then re­solved.  Finally, the parable is applied.  "Judah ha-Nasi said: 'Unto whatis the matter like?  It is like aking who was judging his son, and the accuser was standing and indictinghim.  When the tutor of the princesaw that his pupil was being con­demned, he thrust the accuser outside thecourt and put himself in his place in order to plead on his behalf.  Even so, when Israel made the GoldenCalf, Satan stood before God accusing him, while Moses remained without.  What then did Moses do?  He arose and thrust Satan away and puthimself in his place.'"(J267; Ex. Rab. 43:1)

 

5.Caricature.  Parables are typically stories drawnfrom everyday life, but often they have some unusual character or exaggeratedaction designed to draw attention to a particular point.  The best ones are short and memorablecreations of ex­perienced story-tellers.  "It is said, 'Will you be angry with the entireassembly when only one man sins?' (Num 16:22).  R. Simeon b. Yohai taught:  A parable.  Itis like men sitting in a ship.  Onetook a drill and began boring beneath his seat.  His fellow-travelers said, 'What are you doing?'  He responded, 'What does it matter toyou?  It's my seat I'm boringunder!'  They said, 'The water willcome in and drown us all!'"(J271; Lev. Rab. 4:6)

 

6.Stock Metaphors.  Parable stories often have charactersand actions that are based on common metaphors.  Many of these are drawn from the OT, and they help thelistener understand what the point is. Among Johnston's 324 early rabbinic parables, by far the commonestmetaphor is that of a king (161 times), nearly always standing for God.  Other common pictures for God arehusband and father.  For Israel,the stock metaphors are son, wife, daugh­ter, and servant.  Moses is often pictured as a friend,steward or tutor.  A banquet isused with some variety, but a common meaning is the age to come.  Inheritance sometimes pictures thepromised land, sometimes Israelites, and once the future reward.  The skillful parable-maker would oftenweave together a consistent set of these motifs into a story to teach alesson.  "A philosopherasked R. Gamaliel, 'Why is your God jealous of idol-worshippers rather than ofthe idol itself?'  He answered, 'Iwill tell you a parable.  To whatis the matter like?  It is like aking who had a son, and his son raised a dog whom he named for his father.  Whenever the son took an oath, he said,"By the life of this dog, my father!"  When the king heard of it, with whom was he angry, his sonor the dog?  Surely his son!'" (J174; Mek. Bachodesh 6:113ff)

 

7.Function and Audience.  Among the rabbis, parables are common­lyused in two ways C as illustrations and as arguments.  The rabbi's audience might be hisdisciples in a teaching situation, a congregation listening to a synagoguesermon, or some outsider in an encounter or debate.  We see the last of these in the parable cited in '6,above.  The teaching situation isprobably the occasion for ''4-5, which are explaining Scripturepassages, and the setting of '3 is likely to have been sermonic.

 

8.Comparison with Jesus' Parables.  The sorts of parables used by therabbis are often similar to those used by Jesus, and each can cast some lighton the interpretation of the other. In fact, most of what has been said above applies to the parables ofJesus. 

 

8.1.Fables.  One type of rabbinic parable not foundin the Gospels is the fable, a story featuring animals or plants acting inhuman ways.  When one rabbi warnedR. Akiba for violating the Roman decree against studying the Torah, the latterresponded, "Unto what is the matter like?  It is like a fox who was walking alongside a river, and hesaw fish going in swarms from one place to another [fleeing thefishermen].  He said to them,'Would you like to come on to the dry land...?'  They said to him, '... If we are afraid in the element inwhich we live, how much more in the element in which we would die!'  So it is with us....  If we go and neglect the Torah [whichis our life], how much worse off we shall be." (J148; b. Ber 61b)  This type of parable is occasionally found in the OT (e.g.,Judg 9:8-15), but is best known in the collection ascribed to Aesop (6th c.BC).

 

8.2.Sample Parables.  A type of parable used by Jesus but not(apparently) by the rabbis is the sample (or paradigm) parable.  In these, the story operates only on asingle level, being already a moral or religious story without the use ofanalogy. Instead, a sample of the sort of behavior to be approved or con­demnedis given (e.g., the parables of the Good Samaritan, Lk 10:30-36, and the RichFool, Lk 12:16-21), and the recipient is expected to generalize the lesson fromthis concrete example.  These havea background in the case law of the OT, and in the sample stories of theProverbs (e.g., Prov 7:6-23).

 

8.3.Similar Parables.  Stock metaphors ('6)are used by Jesus as well as the rabbis, and in a few cases, a similar clusterof such metaphors results in a very similar parable.  Compare R. Tarfon's saying, "The day is short, thetask is great, the laborers are idle, the wage is abundant, and the master ofthe house is urgent"(m. 'Abot 2:15), withJesus' "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.  Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore,to send out workers into his harvest field" (Lk 10:2).  Or consider the following parable:  "A king had a vineyard for which he engaged manylaborers, one of whom was especially apt and skillful.  What did the king do?  He took this laborer from his work, andwalked through the vineyard with him. When the laborers came for their hire in the evening, the skillfullaborer also appeared among them and received a full day's wages from theking.  The other laborers wereangry at this and said, 'We have toiled the whole day, while this man hasworked but two hours; why does the king give him the full hire, even as tous?'  The king said to them, 'Whyare you angry?  Through his skillhe has done more in two hours than you have all day.'" (y. Ber. 2:5)  The story is very similar to that of Jesus in Mt 20:1-16,but the lesson is very different.

 


Bibliography

 

RobertMorris Johnston, Parabolic Interpretations Attributed to Tannaim (PhD thesis, Hartford SeminaryFoundation, 1977; avail­able from University MicrofilmsInternational).  "J"followed by a number in the article above indicates the number of the parablecataloged in this work.

 

J.Z. Lauterbach, "Parable," Jewish Encyclopedia IX.512-14.

 

HarveyK. MacArthur and Robert M. Johnston, They Also Taught in Parables:  Rabbinic Parables from the FirstCenturies of the Christian Era(Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990).

 

RobertC. Newman and Robert M. Johnson, Early Rabbinic Parables Database (Oak Harbor, WA:  Logos Research Systems, 1998).

 

RobertB. Y. Scott and Louis Isaac Rabinowitz, "Parable," Encyclopaedia Judaica XIII.72-77.

 

JohnW. Sider, Interpreting the Parables: A Hermeneutical Guide to Their Meaning (SCI; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995).

 

DavidStern, Parables in Midrash(Cambridge, MA: Harvard, 1991).

 

BradH. Young, Jesus and His Jewish Parables:  Rediscovering the Roots of Jesus' Teaching (TI; New York: Paulist, 1989).

 

                                                                                                                                    R.C. Newman