Jesus's Truth

Life in Parables

Yung Suk Kim

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781532643996
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

Parables of Jesus are stories about everyday life, ranging from a person's worldview to economic justice in society. This book examines most parables of Jesus from a critical literary perspective. Twenty-three narrative parables in the Synoptic Gospels are rearranged by their source: Markan parables, Q parables, Matthean unique parables, Lukan unique parables. Each parable invites readers to reengage Jesus's stories in the contemporary world.

1

Introduction

Allegorical interpretation deprives us of the true meaning of a parable by spiritualizing it. Allegory, derived from allegorein (meaning “to speak differently”), is a way of reading the text by focusing not on the internal story but the hidden spiritual meaning. In doing so, what readers do typically is to make a one-to-one correspondence between story and particular outside the story. This allegorical interpretation has been popular with the Alexandrian School (Clement, Origen, and Augustine). In the parable of Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), the allegorical matchings go like this: Jerusalem as Paradise; Jericho as world; a robbed person as Adam; robbers as evil; priest as the law; Levite as prophets; the good Samaritan as Jesus; injury as disobedience; donkey as Jesus’s body; inn as church; the innkeeper as bishop of the church; and the promise of return as the second coming of Jesus. We can hardly think that Jesus applied himself to a Samaritan as in allegorical interpretation. Rather, we can read this parable as a story and wonder why first two religious leaders pass by without helping the needy person. They also have to think about the third person, who is not an ordinary Jewish person but a despised foreigner who need not respond to the needy person from the perspective of Jews. He could pass by without looking at this man robbed, but he stopped by and did everything he could to help him. Hearers must grapple to understand the act of this man from Samaria, a district of contempt by Jews. Who is this guy? He was not considered a neighbor by Jews. But he became a neighbor to them. This mysterious act and presence of the Samaritan raise a metaphorical imagination to hearers.1 How can a Samaritan become a neighbor? From a traditional perspective of Jews, the neighbor is found among themselves. But the Samaritan became a neighbor to a person in need.

Another famous parable of Jesus, “the father and two sons” (Luke 15:11-34), also has been read allegorically. Namely, the older son/brother represents Jews, the younger son/brother represents newly converted Gentile sinners, and the father represents the compassionate God. So much so, the older brother/son is blamed for his narrow mindset, and his father welcomes the younger brother/son because of his repentance. But inside the parable, there is no such clue that this story is understood with such “representative” interpretation. Rather, this story is taken from e...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Markan Parables
• Chapter 3: Q Parables in Matthew and Luke
• Chapter 4: Matthean Unique Parables
• Chapter 5: Lukan Unique Parables (I)
• Chapter 6: Lukan Unique Parables (II)
• Bibliography