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Emanuel12
Guest
Could the parables that Jesus taugh have been real events that he wittnessed(as God) before his incarnation ?
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Holly3278
Guest
I don’t think they were stories about actual events although I don’t know for sure. They could be but I am thinking they are fictional stories that Jesus told in order to make a point.
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Gorgias
Guest
No, I don’t think that’s a reasonable suggestion. ‘Parable’ is the Greek for a Hebrew word, which shows up even in the OT as a particular rhetorical form. The fact that the evangelists ID these stories as ‘parables’ points to the fact that they recognize them as such.
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gama232
Guest
Yes, definitely. Human beings are only capable of many but a still finite set of actions. Human behavior has not changed in over 2,000 years.
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Gorgias
Guest
That’s quite the leap of logic you just made there, in two small words! There’s quite a chasm between “humans act in human ways” and “an arbitrary story is an account of an actual event”!
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gama232
Guest
Jesus always spoke the truth. Human behavior has only limited ways of playing out, such as the parable of the traveler who was beaten and robbed.
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Gorgias
Guest
That doesn’t mean that He always spoke in a literalistic idiom.
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KMC
Guest
In Luke 13:32, Jesus calls Herod a “fox”. Is Herod really a fox?
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PuerAzaelis
Guest
I sometimes think they are very confusing. Perhaps he spoke parabolically in order not to make a point, so that hearing they may not hear, etc.
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EricF
Guest
The origin of the story (parable) has no bearing whatsoever on the point Jesus was trying to make. To suggest that it does seems to delve into the realm of questioning Jesus in some manner.
They could have been true. Keep in mind that Our Lord, in His divine nature, knew every thing that every human being had ever done or seen, in the entire history of the world. He would have had no shortage of human experience from which to draw parables.
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mdgspencer
Guest
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There have been different opinions about this over the centuries over one of the parables, the parable of the rich man who ended in hell and the beggar at his gate who ended in heaven (Luke 16:19-31). Personally I have wondered if this is a true story or not.
There have been different opinions about this over the centuries over one of the parables, the parable of the rich man who ended in hell and the beggar at his gate who ended in heaven (Luke 16:19-31). Personally I have wondered if this is a true story or not.
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gama232
Guest
When Jesus says “There was a man…” I believe Him. Debating literal as opposed to telling a non-literal story to make a point profits no one.
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Emanuel12
Guest
But we for example when we try to give a moral message we explain something that we had seen happen. Jesus has lived as God for so long and has witnessed the lives and stories of countless people. At the parable of the rich man Jesus called the poor man by name “Lazarus”.
po18guy
Well-known member
Look up the meaning of the name “Lazarus” and you will have a better idea why He used that name. Secondly, everyone would have known the “rich man” if he was an actual person. Conversely, no one would have cared who Lazarus was. So, why then name Lazarus and not the rich man?
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Thom18
Guest
Except that’s exactly the point of a parable: to describe something heavenly in a human way. It doesn’t mean that the parable is based on a true story, and a parable doesn’t lose its power merely because it isn’t based on a true story.
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Gorgias
Guest
But when Scripture tells you that it’s only a parable, you disbelieve it?
And, you know what’s really funny? I just ran a quick search of the phrase “there was a man” in the Gospels… and it never occurs in the context of a parable.
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silentwitness
Guest
I think this is a really good point. Even if three ‘real’ stories are sometimes woven into one parable. Perhaps the realness of the stories helps make them so powerful and poignant even 2000 years later.
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