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Scholastic Dissection

Decent Essays

This week’s readings stretched my scholastic brain while I attempted to compare the parable collections found in the synoptic texts. All of the suggested parables were stories I remember forming my early theology as a child. Whether as a teacher in my later teenage years or as an elementary student, Sunday School had provided me with a parable bank that I could reference regularly as I conducted my religious life. These parables were all hallmark pulpit teachings that I have heard time and time again as an adult as well. It has been difficult for me to take a scholastic look at these familiar stories that simply just are. That is to say, why look harder at something when its teaching is so simple? Would a scholastic dissection change the meaning of a familiar story? In a way, the categories of the lay spoken idea of parable have opened up a new interpretive or applicative meaning.
I am displeased with myself when I say the categories of Jesus’ parable teachings were difficult to understand during lecture. However, by the end of lecture I felt I understood the definitions of each category. A parable was fairly straight forward, a narrative …show more content…

True parables were narratives meant to explain why something was happening in a certain fashion, like the parable of the lost sheep (Matt 18:12-14) explaining why God brings those who are “lost” back into the fold. An exemplary story, while still surrounded by narrative, has a command of moral behavior at its end. For example, the story of the unjust manager (Luke 16:1-13) heeds against dishonest behavior in any amount and Jesus finalizes the moral code by stating “you cannot serve God and wealth.” Alas, despite this scholastic exercise, I still feel uncertain about the definitions of these three categories. My question for this week is, have I been able grasp the meaning of these

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