As Paul Ricoeur has taught us, narratives and metaphors are inseparable. A narrative, or story, is nothing but an embellished and embroidered metaphor. By the same token, we could define a metaphor as nothing but a dense and distilled narrative. Therefore, when we speak of narraphor, we are simply naming a form that Jesus used in his preaching and teaching. “He did not speak to them except in parables.”8 Parable literally means “alongside of,” and Jesus built his stories alongside of the native images, reports, and experiences of the people to whom he was speaking.
