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Moreover, Jesus begins to illustrate the parable he told
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This parable spake Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they
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You can find the description of it in Luke 16 with the parable of Lazarus and the rich man
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Parable of the Lost Sheep:
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Parable of the Lost Soul:
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7And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they
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6He spoke also this parable; a certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he
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32Now learn a parable of the fig tree; when his branch is yet tender, and putted forth
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6This parable spoke Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they were
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39And he spoke a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? Shall they not both
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11And as they heard these things, he added and spoke a parable, because he was nigh to
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18Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower
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1And he spoke a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not
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Parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it
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32Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putted forth
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Jesus told the parable of the farmer that sowed seeds on the ground, some on stony ground, some on hard ground, and some among the weeds
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Consider the parable in Song of Songs chapter 5
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it?” Jesus gives us a key in the parable of the field (see Matt
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“Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has
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2) The parable in Luke 16:1, which He just told them, also began with the exact
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parable of the shrewd accountant', is clearly a parable (though not labeled as
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If the first is clearly a parable, why not the second, for it is in the 28
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3) The point of the parable is at the end, " And he said unto him, If they hear not
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He made a point and backs it up with a parable
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The ultimate point of this parable is that their unbelief is due to money – not lack
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" The Parable itself is strictly of the Pharisees and their relation to the
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necessary in the interpretation of this Parable to keep in mind, that its
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But this parable
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for looking at this as a parable
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The parable that Jesus tells in Luke 19:27 teaches us that these ones will
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“Now learn a parable of the ; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh” (Matthew
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The Parable of The Great landowner and His beloved sheep
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The Parable of The aged shepherd
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As I thought about this feeling, the parable of the Prodigal Son came to mind
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4:1–18, TLB) of the Old Testament, while the other was told hundreds of years later in Luke of the New Testament, a parable within the teachings of Jesus
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The parable as told by Jesus, on the other hand, was a greatly simplified story meant to illustrate a complex principle within a philosophy of conduct and probably wasn’t about real people
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From here the story and the parable diverge
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The Parable of the Prodigal Son suggests that there is a better way, and by searching the more detailed wording of the parable story we may gain a more complete understanding of the background in which the story of Cain and Abel is told
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His Parable of the Prodigal Son (The Lost Son) appears at first glance to be an updated retelling of the story of Cain and Abel for the purpose of teaching a way to avoid the consequences of the first account
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What is the message in the parable? Is it, don’t worry about who the party is for, just celebrate the good news?
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Suddenly, it appears to me, that it is as easy to become guilty of the same flaw as Jesus’ disciples were, that is taking the parable to be the message
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At first I was led into it in comparing the story, Cain and Abel, with a known parable, the Prodigal Son, because of my feeling that the two were connected
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That is the situation that we find ourselves in as we again take up the parable of Cain and Abel
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These are only some of the real-world cultural practices that the parable story of Cain and Abel might have been meant to depict as a way to help guide the casual wonderer to a better understanding of how they came to be
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So, the larger meaning of the parable story of Cain and Abel might be the friction generated between settled people and nomadic people, as ever-larger populations of each disputed with one another over land usage
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This fictionalized account would have to be seen as a parable in itself, as it of necessity has to be an abbreviated account of what any real-life encounter, or series of them, must have involved
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Is the story of Abraham also a parable? This biblical account seems to be much more than a story about of a single man’s epic journey in response to his “God’s” direction
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It seems to reflect anew, the tensions between “herding” and “settled” peoples as suggested in the parable story of “Cain and Abel” in chapter 9 of this book
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If this then is a much foreshortened version, a parable as it were, using symbolic language to replace a much longer recitation that could not be as easily remembered, was the snake a stand-in for something else that was well understood within their historically religious tradition?
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Could the short introduction to the biblical story of Abraham then be a parable representing the movement of followers of EL, the “God Most High” away from the religious power center of Ur? Because it was the eastern anchor of the Fertile Crescent, it would have made more sense to flee up the Euphrates River than to try to escape into the harsh desert environment that was the southern limit of their land
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Why then was there magic in the “serpent-on-a-pole” that Moses constructed? If this story is a parable, what are the elements of it that would direct us to something larger?
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Is this then the larger meaning that the parable points us toward? That’s anybody’s guess, but maybe this is as large as our present understanding will permit
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But even at the end of his diorama his knowledge, he seems to have discovered, informed him that he hadn’t quite measured up, and could never hope to on his own, if I have understood this parable correctly
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In the parable of Abraham and his “sacrifice,” a chapter in this book, God seems to be asking, does Abraham love God above all else to the extent that he would be able to give up everything to retain it, as Job’s story seems to be saying that the “test” was at least partly about
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I additionally propose that Jesus’ death upon the cross, was and is a parable, a simplified example, standing in place of something of far wider worldly significance
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So where does that leave us today? What can be said of who Jesus is to us in the here and now? In the previous chapter I discussed Jesus as a Parable (symbolizing or prefiguring a larger occurrence), and how that idea had worked regarding past history
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Is his value as a parable already used up in reference to occurrences long gone? Or may His-story still refer iconically to the events of today?
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It reminds me of the man that I pictured in chapter 3, “The Parable of the Beginning,” who had been given the gift of a vision into the Genesis of all things
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Again as in past chapters, I ask the question: If this was meant to be viewed as a parable, then what’s the bigger picture? Revelation is cast, metaphorically I believe, as the end of the final battle that brings on the end of time
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They seemed to be more interested in picking apart the parable, the earthly example, the messenger, than trying to understand the message that he brought
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I’ve referred several times through the earlier chapters to the title, “The Bible Is a Parable” and within it, illustrating other lesser parables, of which the Tower of Babel is one
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In chapter 11, “How High the Sky,” I depicted a real-world event that this parable might make reference to, a catastrophic flood, and the building of a platform as a place of safety
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This is what I call the physical event that the parable reflects
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Science presents us with the parable called physical evolution
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But replace the literalist understanding of the Bible with a parable understanding and their embarrassment would disappear, and so would much of the argument of their detractors
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“And He spoke a parable to them (to this end), that men ought
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But what was it? Angels are mentioned, kind of in passing, in the Bible, but what place should they occupy in my understanding of this book as a parable?
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Has He given us another parable to ponder? A history, so to speak, of Man’s long effort to try to visualize that which has always been just beyond his ability to sense directly, and has always been far more than he could ever imagine?
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But, if the Bible can be seen as the parable this author claims, then most of the power of those challenges fall away
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The Bible is a parable of God’s Word! With this touchstone of theological understanding I am now assured that all scientific knowledge is allowed
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In my case, the parable was already there, unknowingly constructed by its human authors (or intentionally instructed), over the ages that span most of pre, and recorded history
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Fortunately, no translation of the message into a parable (as Jesus had done) was needed
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What was necessary and critical was learning how to interpret the parable, the Bible, back toward the larger meaning that it had come from that became my personal odyssey
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This new way of viewing the Bible as a parable has allowed me to see what is the good in each, while being able to overlook the errors of both
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Could it be that the many gods supported within these myriad versions of “belief” were merely misinterpretations and therefore misrepresentations of the One who has eternally and patiently instructed Mankind about the nature of His Being? Might these borrowings have been meant to come to them as a kind of parable of earlier times, telling of things far beyond the normal ability to remember?
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Through a process that seems to have guided my hand, the many bits and pieces have been fitted together in a manner meant to illustrate the principle contained in the title, “The Bible is a Parable
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” 3 The Parable of the good samaritan is very clear con-
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According to him, the biblical parable must keep some historical truth, given the variety of Mesopotamian references about the terrible floods that devastated the shores of the Tigris and Euphrates in the late fourth millennium BC
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1 Moreover Job continued his parable, and said,
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The legs of the injured are not equal, so also is the parable in the mouth of fools; like he who attaches the stone inside the
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sling, so is he who gives honour to the fool; like the thorn goes up into the hand of the drunkard, so is the parable in the mouth of
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3 And utter a parable to the rebellious house, and say to them, So says the Lord God; Set on a pot, set it on, and also pour water into
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29 The heart of the prudent will understand a parable; and an attentive ear is the desire of a wise man
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have done in His Kingdom in our lifetimes,Please read the parable of the talents
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(The parable of the sower, and the seed
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Jesus himself gave the interpretation of this parable, but not in the same words that I
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parable of the house built on the rock, as contrasted to the one built on the sand
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parable of the sower and the field, it is the Holy Spirit, in effect the owner of the field,
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in the parable of the rich farmer who had a bumper crop
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I am reminded of the parable of the house built on the
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A sudden picture came into Maggie’s head, a parable that Mary had once shown her
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the parable of the unforgiving steward, who was forgiven a great debt by his master,
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has given us in the Parable of Matthew 13:31-32,
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know that each parable in Matthew 13 had a colossal
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have the Parable of the Seed in Luke 8:13, and what
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about the Parable of the Talents and the demise of
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there is so much more to the parable of the young
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Indeed, I learned that this parable is also about
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parable of the rich young ruler, said this of Matthew
