Roughly speaking, a Parable of Jesus is a short story that he shared with people as an aid to explain a complex topic. That is, they are metaphorical, or analogical, short stories Jesus used to teach the people he interacted with while on Earth. Don’t be miss-lead, however, as short doesn't mean simple. Rather, these stories are deeply rich, embodying perhaps many valid meanings simultaneously, applying to various audiences in different, yet relevant, ways both in history and today.
Jesus's Teachings are found primarily in the Gospels portion of the Bible, including the books Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in the New Testament. But what exactly classifies a Teaching of Jesus as a Parable? True to what seems like most everything in the contemporary Christianity of 2020, this classification is not universally agreed upon among the major churches (e.g. Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestants).
While not perfect by any means, Wikipedia has emerged today as a well cited reference for topics like this one. As such, I have decided to use a list of 37 parables as agreed upon by the contributors to the Parables of Jesus page.
Please note, some of the parables have significant overlap in the text and are thus covered together in one interpretation as they were told together and are very short.
The Biblical quotes used in this text come from the New International Version (NIV) 2011 English translation. Much can be said about modern Biblical translations, but that is well beyond the scope of The Parables Project. Many accessible resources exist today where any interested reader can find ample material on the topic of Bible composition, history, and translation at almost any reading level.
It is my opinion, given modern day Bible translating techniques from extensive archaeological sources, the "Bible" we have today is very close to the "Bible" that was originally put down by the authors. I fully realize I am "brushing under the rug" a very large body of church tradition, rigorous academic work, and a rich and interesting history without any real explanation. My apologies for such terseness, but one can only tackle so much in a single project. I hope the reader will simply take the NIV at face value, or seek out their own reason to believe it's authenticity.
Please note the copyright statement below as required by Zondervan:
Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.comThe "NIV" and "New International Version" are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™
The Parables of Jesus, and the Bible in general, can be approached with many different "styles" of interpretation or analysis. Perhaps nothing in all of human existence has been studied by more people, with various levels of education, comprising more life experiences, from more places, and at more ages, than the Parables of Jesus. One can very easily get lost in some obscure, academic paper regarding minor details of a Parable. While still on the same subject find a relevant, simplistic explanation of an eloquent reference made by Jesus designed for a child to understand.
Jesus was a master communicator and certainly had his audience in mind when he told the Parables. His audience, in my estimation, was and is all of mankind through all of history. Meaning there must be many valid interpretations to his message. The goal of this book is to share my interpretations of the Parables as a layman with other "layman." As such, I will approach my explanation and opinions with a "plain-reading" of the text style. I'll lightly get into some of the references I've picked up over the years, but will steer clear of a "deep dive." In my opinion, of the "contemporary Christian books," published these days, many seem to cloud much of the meaning one could derive by simply thinking through the Parable by sharing so many "extra references." One should remember, most everyone Jesus spoke to had very little, if any, formal education.
With this all being said, I'd like to offer what I've written is only my opinion. While I read the Bible and pray consistently, and have thought a good deal about the Parables, I am still a sinful human prone to error. I'm simply trying to live each day by the Grace God affords me. A such, consider my words carefully, but don’t take them as unquestionable truth. In fact, the whole goal of this exercise is to examine how my views, interpretations, and opinions change regarding the Parables as my life progresses. It would be quite a shame in fact if I agreed with everything I write after more reflection, life experience, and education. Meaning, The Parables Project mostly likely contains errors of interpretation, which I hope to discover and in fact correct in future editions as my life progresses.