Beef Up Your Bible Reading 9

A parable is a short made-up story about something well-known in everyday life. It illustrates a point by drawing a comparison. There are some in the Old Testament, but most of the Bible’s parables, by far, were told by Jesus and are found in the first three gospels.

Each parable illustrates only one point. There may be other incidental teaching to be picked up, for although they’re not true stories we know that Jesus wouldn’t tell a misleading story. The parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19 – 3), for example, is about the importance of heeding God’s Word but we do learn some interesting things about death and the afterlife from it. But be careful, parables are not like allegories (more about allegories next time): everything in the story is not significant. The details in a parable may have no significance at all other than that they are needed to make the story work.

Here are some things to think about. They'll help you work out what's the main point of a parable.

Think about the setting in which the parable was told. Who was Jesus speaking to? What prompted His story? What was going on when He told it?

Think about the story’s most natural meaning. Keeping in mind the culture of the day, what would the first hearers have thought of when they heard it?

Look and see how Jesus applies the story. He actually spells out the point of most of His parables. If He doesn’t, take note of how the parable ends, there might be a clue in that.

Lastly, always check your understanding of a parable against what you know from the rest of your Bible reading. Remember, parables, just like all the other stories in the Bible, only illustrate truth, they don’t establish it.