parable
{{TOCright}}{{For|a comparison of parable with other kinds of stories|Myth, legend, fairy tale, and fable}}A
parable is a brief, succinct story, in
prose or
verse, that illustrates a
moral or
religious lesson. It differs from a
fable in that fables use animals, plants, inanimate objects, and forces of nature as characters, while parables generally feature human characters. Some scholars of the
New Testament apply the term "parable" only to the parables of
Jesus,
(1) though that is not a common restriction of the term. Parables such as "
The Prodigal Son" are central to Jesus' teaching method in both the
canonical narratives and the
apocrypha.
Characteristics
The word "parable" comes from the
Greek "
παραβολή" (
parabolē), the name given by
Greek rhetoricians to any fictive illustration in the form of a brief narrative. Later it came to mean a
fictitious narrative, generally referring to something that might naturally occur, by which
spiritual and
moral matters might be conveyed.
(2)A parable is one of the simplest of
narratives. It sketches a
setting, describes an
action, and shows the
results. It often involves a character facing a
moral dilemma, or making a questionable
decision and then suffering the
consequences. As with a
fable, a parable generally relates a single, simple, consistent action, without extraneous detail or distracting circumstances. Examples of parables are
Ignacy Krasicki's "
Son and Father," "
The Farmer," "
Litigants" and "
The Drunkard." Many
folktales could be viewed as extended parables, and many
fairy tales also, except for their
magical settings. The
prototypical parable differs from the
apologue in that it is a
realistic story that seems inherently
probable and takes place in a familiar setting of life. A parable is like a
metaphor that has been extended to form a brief, coherent fiction. Christian parables have recently been studied as extended
metaphors,
(3) for example by a writer who finds that "parables are stories about ordinary men and women who find in the midst of their everyday lives surprising things happening. They are not about 'giants of the faith' who have religious visions."
(4) Needless to say, "extended metaphor" alone is not in itself a sufficient description of parable; the characteristics of an "extended metaphor" are shared by the fable and are the essential core of allegory. Unlike the situation with a
simile, a parable's parallel meaning is unspoken and implicit, though not ordinarily secret. The defining characteristic of the parable is the presence of a
prescriptive subtext suggesting how a person should behave or believe. Aside from providing guidance and suggestions for proper action in life, parables frequently use
metaphorical language which allows people to more easily discuss difficult or complex ideas. In
Plato's
Republic, parables like the "
Parable of the Cave" (in which one's understanding of truth is presented as a story about being deceived by shadows on the wall of a cave) teach an
abstract argument, using a
concrete narrative which is more easily grasped.
(5) Townsend may have been influenced by the contemporary expression, "to speak in parables", connoting obscurity. In common modern uses of "parable," though their significance is never explicitly stated, parables are not generally held to be hidden or secret but on the contrary are typically straightforward and obvious. It is the
allegory that typically features hidden meanings. As H.W. Fowler puts it in
Modern English Usage, 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." The parable, though, is more condensed than the
allegory: a single
principle comes to bear, and a single
moral is deduced as it dawns on the reader or listener that the conclusion applies equally well to his own concerns.
(6) Jülicher held that these parables usually are intended to make a single important point, and most recent scholarship agrees.
Recently there has been interest in contemporary parable, exploring how modern stories can be used as parables. A mid-19th-century contemporary parable is the "
Parable of the Broken Window," which exposes a fallacy in
economic thinking.
See also
Notes
-
[John P. Meier, A Marginal Jew, volume II, Doubleday, 1994.]
-
[H.W. Fowler, Modern English Usage, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1958.]
-
[For parables as extended metaphors, see Amos Wilder, The Language of the Gospel: Early Christian Rhetoric (New York: Harper & Row) 1964; Robert W, Funk, Language, Hermeneutic and Word of God: The Problem of Language in the New Testament and Contemporary Theology (New York: Harper & Row) 1966; Dan O. Via Jr, The Parables: Their Literary and Existential Dimension (Philadelphia: Fortress) 1967; Sallie TeSelle, Speaking in Parables: A Study in Metaphore and Theology (Philadelphia: Fortress) 1975. ]
-
[Sallie McFague TeSelle, "Parable, Metaphor, and Theology," Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 42.4 (December 1974:630-645).]
-
[George Fyler Townsend, translator's preface to Aesop's Fables, Belford, Clarke & Co., 1887.]
-
History
Parables are favored in the expression of spiritual concepts. The best-known source of parables in Christianity is the Bible, which contains numerous parables in the Gospels section of the New Testament. Jesus' parables, which are attested in many sources and are almost universally seen as being historical, are thought by scholars such as John P. Meier to have come from mashalim, a form of Hebrew comparison.[Adolf Jülicher, Die Gleichmisreden Jesu (2 vols; Tübingen: Mohr [Siebeck], 1888, 1899).]
External links
{{Wiktionarypar|parable}}
Paràbola (al·legoria)PodobenstvíParabel (lignelse)Parabel (Sprache)Παραβολή (θεολογία)Parábola (literatura)Parabolo (retoriko)Parabole (rhétorique)Parabola (figura)Parabola (letteratura)PéldabeszédParabelParabel (lignelse)PrzypowieśćParábola (figura de estilo)ПритчаPodobenstvoParabola (figura)VertausParabel (liknelse)ParabulaตำนานแฝงคำสอนПритча比喻
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