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A Texas Libertarian's avatar

"The purpose is to express a moral truth."

The primary reason Jesus spoke in parables was to describe the structure of reality (Heaven and Earth) in a way His disciples would understand, and sometimes there was immorality contained within the parables (unjust steward) and a sense of unjust punishment (wedding banquet, talents) or unjust reward (workers in the vineyard, prodigal son).

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Monahorns's avatar

I was taught that parables must be interpreted in a specific way do to the nature of what a parable is. The concept is that a parable teaches one lesson and one lesson only. The elements in the parable serve that purpose and they don't always have a definition. When Jesus explains his interpretations you see that some elements are analogous to something in the real world and some things are left undefined. In those cases that element is just there to lead you to the lesson. It should not be further interpreted and/or you should not search for a real world identity.

Not sure where I heard this but it was a part of a sermon in a church at some point of my life. That concept has been fruitful trying to understand parable when I have studied them.

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