Blomberg Faithfully Interprets the Parables

Craig L. Blomberg. 2012. Interpreting the Parables. Downers Grove: IVP Academic.

Review by Stephen W. Hiemstra

In editing my writing project, Image and Illumination, I discovered a hole in my argument. I realized that the New Testament offered three views of the image of God: The person of Jesus, Jesus’ parables of the kingdom (a circumlocution for God the Father), and the founding of the church by the Holy Spirit. This insight encouraged me to look more closely at Jesus’ parables.

Introduction

Craig L. Blomberg’s Interpreting the Parables sets forth this purpose

“This volume, therefore, brings a state-of-the-art report on parable scholarship in a form intended to be useful as an update for pastors and scholars, a basic textbook for students in colleges and seminaries, and an introduction to the field for the layperson willing to wrestle in some detail with scholarly concerns.” (18)

This book also argues that: “The dominant approaches of the twentieth century to the interpretation of the parables were misguided and require rethinking.” (18) Blomberg’s argument is salient because much of biblical interpretation today is built on a materialist worldview that precludes transcendence and deconstructs the bible rather than trying to understand its message.

Background and Organization

Blomberg is a graduate of Augustana College in Rock Island Illinois, received his master’s of divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, and wrote his Ph.D. at Aberdeen, Scotland. He has written a number of books on the New Testament and is a professor emeritus at Denver Seminary.

Blomberg writes in nine chapters divided into two parts:

Preface

Introduction

PART ONE: Methods & Controversies in Interpreting the Parables

Parable & Allegory
Form Criticism & the Parables
Redaction Criticism of the Parables
New Literary & Hermeneutical Methods

PART TWO: The Meaning & Significance of Individual Parables

Simple Three-Point Parables
Complex Three-Point Parables
Two-Point & One-Point Parables
The Theology of the Parables: The Kingdom & the Christ (v-viii)

These chapters are preceded by abbreviations and followed by indices.

Consensus and Rebuttal

The parables of Jesus uniquely point to God, a characteristic that separates them from Rabbinic parables and other literary forms. Modern and postmodern critics anxious to reduce their uniqueness and to explain them away have largely failed. Instead, critical analysis reinforces the view that the parables point to the authentic voice, not just the words, of Jesus (193). It’s like we have been given Jesus’ fingerprints.

In his introduction, Blomberg (19-22) cites five consensus views that are probably wrong:

Throughout the history of the church, most Christians interpreted the parables as allegories.
Modern scholarship has rightly rejected allegorical interpretation, instead favoring an approach that allows for each parable to make only one main point.
Nevertheless, the parables as they appear in the Gospels do have a few undeniably allegorical elements, but these are the exception and not the rule.
Thus, the occasional explicit interpretation of parables in the Gospels are additional exceptions to Jesus’ usual practice, and they too are not to be taken as normative.
Apart from this small amount of allegory, most of the parables and most parts of each parable are among the most indisputably authentic sayings of Jesus in the Gospel.

These observations do not account for Jesus’ comment:

“And he said to them, to you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, so that they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.” (Mark 4:11-12)

Over time this veiled view of the parables has been described as the Messianic Secret, but even today one observes that people living in repressive societies are much more likely to use indirect speech than those living in more open societies.

In response to these five consensus views, Blomberg (24-25) offers a summary of emerging alternative views:

The parables, as they stand in the Gospels, are much more allegorical than is usually acknowledged.
If the parables are fairly uniformly allegorical in nature, then they are likely to be either even more entirely authentic than the consensus admits or much more inauthentic.
Many parables probably make more than one main point.

Stories that invite the reader into the story, as parables do, tend to be allegorical in nature in much the same way as variables in a mathematic equation invite the user to substitute in different numbers. While the number of allegories attributable to Jesus’ parable is potentially infinite, the context in which he spoke suggests stock interpretations, like the father in the Prodigal Son is God (Luke 15), that make his meaning fairly transparent.

Example of Interpretation

Blomberg classifies Jesus’ parables by their structure, not their content. He begins with an analysis of parables, like the Prodigal Son, writing:

“Many of Jesus’ parables have three main characters. Quite frequently, these include an authority figure and two contrasting subordinates. The authority figure, usually a king or master, judges between the two subordinates, who in turn exhibit contrasting behavior. These have been called monarchic parables.” (197)

In the case of the Prodigal Son, the authority figure is a father who has two sons (198). Blomberg sees one point for each character:

“(1) Even as the prodigal always had the option of repenting and returning home, so also all sinners, however, wicked, may confess their sins and turn to God in contrition. (2) Even as the father went to elaborate lengths to offer reconciliation to the prodigal, so also God offers all people, however undeserving, lavish forgiveness of sins if they are willing to accept it. (3) Even as the older brother should not have begrudged his brother’s reinstatement but rather rejoiced in it, so those who claim to be God’s people should be glad and not mad that he extends his grace even to the most undeserving.” (200-201)

The extraordinary grace of the father is unexpected, which serves as a hint that the parable is allegorical, not just a sweet story (204). The grace offered by the father is also unconditioned, contrary to Jewish tradition. Death by stoning is prescribed for stubborn and rebellious sons (Deut 21:18-21), another hint that this parable would be shocking to a first-century Jewish audience.

Blomberg runs through a number of similar parables to make his points about interpretation and his exegesis. Simpler parables, he argues, actually can be seen as a special case of the three-character structure.

Assessment

Craig L. Blomberg’s Interpreting the Parables is a fascinating read. He clearly meets his objective of providing “an update for pastors and scholars, a basic textbook for students in colleges and seminaries, and an introduction to the field for the layperson” (18).

Footnotes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_B....

Blomberg Faithfully Interprets the Parables
Also see:
The Who Question
Preface to a Life in Tension
Other ways to engage online:



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