Parables as Genre

Nathan said to David, You are the man! 

(2 Sam. 12:7)

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

In 2 Samuel 12:1-7, the prophet Nathan tells King David the story of two men, one rich and the other poor. The poor man has only one small lamb that the rich man steals and slaughters to serve his guest. When David hears this story, he becomes indignant because he had been a shepherd and understood the cruelty of the rich man. When Nathan declares that he is this rich man, because of David’s sin with Bathsheba, David is cut to the core and repents of his sin. This parable of the lamb is an allegory, where the context is shifted and the true context is only revealed at the end of the story. The true context then becomes the key, like the denarius in the parable of the vineyard, to the entire story.

Although the story of Nathan’s parable told to David is normally held up as the only example of a parable in the Old Testament to compare with Jesus’ parables, the story is not described in the text as a parable. When the Old Testament uses the word, parable, it is in the context of stories of divine judgment.

Old Testament Parables

Our use of the word, parable, is taken from the Greek word, παραβολὴν, that is used only three times in the Old Testament (Ps 78:2, Ezek 17:2; 24:3). In each case, the parable given is a prophecy of judgment on the nation of Israel for their lack of faith.

Psalm 78 recounts the history of the Israel during the desert wandering following the Exodus from Egypt and unwillingness of even Moses to rely on God provision, when he struck rather than spoke to the rock at Kadesh, as God directed:

“Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.” (Num 20:12)

The judgment against Moses is personal. The parable in this case is the story of Israel’s disobedience.

Ezekiel 17 recounts Israels attempt to rebell against Babylon by forming an alliance with Pharaoh in Egypt rather than relying on God with a story about two eagles. Ezekiel 24 talks about Babylon’s siege against Jerusalem and the destruction to come with a pity little story about a meat stew.

Parable Defined

The word for parable in the Greek is παραβολή that has two definitions:

1. Something that serves as a model or example pointing beyond itself for later realization, type, figure, or

2. A narrative or saying of varying length, designed to illustrate a truth especially through comparison or simile, comparison, illustration, parable, proverb, maxim (BDAG 5556) .

The Greek definition is close the our common understanding of a parable from those given by Jesus.

The Hebrew word translated as a παραβολὴν in the Greek is masal (מָשָׁ֑ל). Masal carries these inferences: 

1. A proverbial saying, brief terse sentence of popular sagacity,

2. A prophetic figurative discourse,

3. A by-word,

4. A similitude, parable,

5. A poem, of various kinds

6. A sentences of ethical wisdom (BDB 5753).

This is a wide range of meanings for masal in the Hebrew, inclusive of our understanding of Jesus’ parables, but also inclusive of Solomon’s many proverbs and things that we do not normally think of as parables.

What is interesting about a masal arises because of a potential play on words in the Hebrew. Written Hebrew is a consonantal language where only the consonants were written down. Written vowels were a late development (circa AD 400), long after the translation of the Hebrew into Greek about 200 BC. In this case, masal was written simply as MSL. If the S is associated with a short E rather than a long A, one gets the word, dominion, suggesting perhaps why a masal was associated with divine judgment in the three passages cited above. The analogy in English might be–run and ran—which share the same consonants, but have different vowels and definitions.

Jesus Extends Parable Genre to Reflect God’s Character

This excursion into Greek and Hebrew suggests that the focus of Jesus’s parables on God extended the Old Testament parable normally associated with divine judgment to offer a fuller characterization of God. The God of the Old Testament describes himself to Moses as merciful, gracious, patient, loving, and faithful (Exod 34:6). The characterization of God as wrathful is limited to situation where the people of Israel have been disobedient to their covenantal obligations or display hardness of heart like Pharaoh (Exod 4:21). God is not capricious like many other deities in the ancient world.

This observation leads Matthew Elliot (2009, 46-47) to articulate a cognitive theory of emotions: Like God of the Old Testament, we get angry about things that are important to us. Elliott (2009, 53-54) writes: “If the cognitive theory is correct, emotions become an integral part of our reason and our ethics,” informing and reinforcing moral behavior.

Jesus extended the Old Testament treatment of parables in two ways. First, while divine judgment in the Old Testament is primarily corporal (the nation of Israel), Jesus’ judgment is more personal, relating to individual demonstrations of faith or disobedience (e.g. Matt 25) as in th example of Moses at Kadesh. Second, Jesus associates parables attributes of God beyond judgment—mercy, grace, patience, love, and faithfulness (Exod 34:6). Thus, God becomes our father not only in the Lord’s prayer, but also in being pictured as a God who displays a range of attributes and associated emotions. We might say that Jesus pictured God the Father as more human, but that characterization neglects the fuller testimony of the Old Testament—he always was more than just a wrathful God.

References

Brown-Driver-Briggs-Gesenius (BDB).⁠ 1905. Hebrew-English Lexicon, unabridged.

Bauer, Walter (BDAG). 2000. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 3rd ed. ed. de Frederick W. Danker. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. .

Elliott, Matthew A. 2006. Faithful Feelings: Rethinking Emotion in the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic and Professional.

Parables as Genre
Also see:
The Face of God in the Parables
The Who Question
Preface to a Life in Tension
Other ways to engage online:



Author site: http://www.StephenWHiemstra.net
Publisher site: http://www.T2Pneuma.com





Newsletter at:  https://bit.ly/DogDays_24 ,  Signup

 
 

 

 

The post Parables as Genre appeared first on T2Pneuma.net.