please help. are parables easy to understand?

Question

are parables easy to understand and why

Answer 1

Many of the parables tend to be understood by us in ways that are considerably less radical than they would have been in the original context.

One 2-word example: In Jesus time, "good" and "Samaritan" were two terms his audience would never put together. The Jews despised the Samaritans, on political, ethnic, and religious grounds ... worse than Gentiles.

So for Jesus to make a Samaritan the hero of a story was an invitation for his hearers to shake up their entire worldview.

So, to be honest, I get hesitant when I think a parable has been easy for me to understand ... I suspect I'm missing something if I don't feel radically provoked.

Jesus' teaching style amazes me.
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Answer 2

Parables aren't always easy to understand. Frankly, if the disciples coudn't understand some of them, I think we would be arrogant to assume that we "know" what they mean. Instead, I believe we have to allow the Holy Spirit to teach us and meet us where we are.


Also, in some cases I believe we miss the point of many of the parables because we don't get the references. Take the 1 and 99 sheep parable. Until I spent some time with shepherds I had no clue to the real meaning of the story. It seemed so sweet that the shepherd would walk off to get the 1.....I didn't realize just how hard it is to catch a single sheep. Its far far easier to catch 2 or more sheep than just one. Which meant I was missing part of the story.

Answer 3

All parables are are fables that have true, heavenly meaning. as others have said, Jesus would tell a parable and then explain it. If you do not understand a parable, then have someone help you. Now don't get me wrong, I am not christian, but when i did practice christianity, i read parables every day. I still do. They hold a lot of meaning in this modern day, and anyone, from pagans to Christians can learn from them.

Answer 4

Why did Jesus teach in parables (Matt. 13:10-23)? There were two major purposes:
(1) to reveal truth to the receptive (13:11-12) and
(2) to conceal truth from the unresponsive—those who rejected Jesus (13:13-15).

Jesus quoted Isaiah 6:9-10, originally written to describe the hardhearted Jews of preexilic Israel, to describe the unbelieving Jews of his own day. In addition, Jesus' use of parables fulfilled prophecy, for Psalm 78:2 predicted that the Messiah would teach by this means (Matt. 13:34-35). —Tyndale Concise Bible Commentary

Parables had a two-fold purpose in Jesus’ ministry. When unexplained, they concealed truth; when explained, they revealed truth. When Jesus gave a parable to the multitudes or to the unbelieving religious leaders without also giving an explanation, it was a riddle to them. When He gave a parable to His disciples and explained it, it was a vivid illustration that made a truth clear and understandable.

When the disciples asked Jesus, "Why do You speak to them [the multitudes] in parables?" He replied, "To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted.… Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand" (Matt. 13:10-11, 13). Then He said to the disciples, "But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear," and He proceeded to tell them the meaning of the parable of the sower (vv. 16-23).
—MacArthur New Testament Commentary, The

Answer 5

He spoke in parables so as that those that weren't His disciples could desire to not in all danger understand what He became asserting - matthew 13:10-17 matthew 10:36 explains that not all of us is named in an identical family members on an identical time to appreciate the reality Messiah taught so something of the family members will turn on the a million that's called by making use of the daddy - john 6:37

Answer 6

My Sunday School teacher told me years ago that a parable is and earthly story with an heavenly meaning. There are many parables are there any in particular that you're having problems with?

Answer 7

Many times in Scripture Jesus tells a parable and then explains what it means. There's nothing so difficult to understand if you read the complete section of Scripture.

Answer 8

It helps to have a background in Aramaic idioms. Many of the parables used in the Bible are not exclusive to the Bible and are found elsewhere with commentary from the time periods the Bible was written in.

Not all our parables and idioms are easy to understand either (raining cats and dogs).

May I suggest a good book to begin with?
"Idioms of the Bible Explained" by Mr. Lamsa.

There are many interpretations of Bible parables by people steeped in Western lore and tradition.

Often they totally ignore the fact that the Bible wasn't written in the West, and many of their associations are totally meaningless.

Many of the parables Jesus himself used were used before him by the village priests, in the oral traditions they had kept for centuries. It's one of the funniest parts of the Bible when you realize that Jesus is quoting the priests most of the time when disagreeing with them! He was really quite a traditionalist in a time of oppression and compromise with the Roman and Greek traditions.

Answer 9

Deu 32:28 For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them.
Deu 32:29 O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!

This passage from 'The Song of Moses' explains what God is doing by masking lessons with riddles. The problem was, and still is, that if God sends someone like a prophet, Elijah, or Moses, or John the Baptist, and that person tells people straight-up what they're doing wrong and what's gonna happen to them, THEY DON'T LISTEN!!! They NEVER DO!!!
Repentance is bad for business profits!
So God does the next best thing...He mocks the people who think they're SOOO smart, and makes jokes that they can't quite figure out...and tells stories that sound like they're about somebody else...but the stories are really about them. Just like a lot of comedians do today. And in these stories there are predictions...things that will happen to us later, just when we think its all good...and then...GOTCHA! You never thought it could really happen to you, now DID you?
Read the Song of Moses...and see the whole story as Moses tries to warn us...its not just for Jews.

Answer 10

Some can be difficult and all need the Spirit of God to be rightly understood.