PARA
460
PARABLES
sftzione e traslazione di S. Francesco d'Assisi e del
ritrovaraento del di lui corpo", 2nd ed., Foligno,
1824; "Storia del Pordono d Assisi con documenti e
osservazioni", Florence, 1S24; "La Storia di S. Fran-
cesco di Assisi, opera critica," 2 vols., Foligno, 1827.
UoBlNSON, A Short Introduction to Francisain Litcroturr (New York. 1907), 19, 44; Eubel, Sbaraleas und Papinis lilerarischer Nachlass in Ilislorisches Jahrbuch. X (1889), 67-9; Manuate dci Nocwii e Pro/essi Chierici e Laid Minori Convenluati (Rome. IS97), 278, 342; Lanzi, Note e ricordi suUa Chiesa di S. Francesco in TcmiiD Miscellanea Francescana, IX (1902), 6-7.
L1VARIU.S Oliger. Para. See Belem do Para, Archdioce.se op.
Parables. — The word parable (Heb. bt'^, mashal; Syr. mathla, Gr. wapa^oXJi) signifies in general a com- parison, or a parallel, by which one thing is used to illustrate another. It is a likeness taken from the sphere of real, or sensible, or earthly incidents, in order to convey an ideal, or spiritual, or heavenly meaning. As uttering one thing and signifying something else, it is in the nature of a riddle (Heb. khidah, Gr. atviyija or Trp6;}\ri/ia) , and has therefore a light and a dark side, — "dark sayings", Wis., viii, 8; Ecclus., xxxix, 3; — it is intended to stir curiosity and calls for intelligence in the listener, "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear" Matt.,xiii,9. ItsGreek designation (from Tapa/3dXXeiv, to throw beside or against) indicates a deliberate "making up " of a story in which some lesson is at once given and concealed. As taking simple or common ob- jects to cast light on ethics and religion, it has been well said of the parable that "truth embodied in a tale shall enter in at lowly doors." It abounds in lively sjjcaking figures, and stands midway between the hteralism of mere prose and the abstractions of philosophy. What the Hebrew bt'^ is derived from we do not know. If connected with Assyrian mashalu, Arab, matala, etc., the root meaning is "likeness". But it will be a likeness which contains a judgment, and so includes the "maxim", or general proposition bearing on conduct (Greek "gnomic wisdom"), of which the Book of Proverbs (Meshalim) is the chief inspired example. In classic Latin, the Greek word is translated collatio (Cicero, " De invent.", i-xxx), imago (Seneca, "Ep. lix."), simililudo (Quintil., "Inst.", V, 7-8). Observe that irapa^oXri does not occur in St. John's Gospel, nor napoi/xla (proverb) in the Synoptics.
Likeness and abstraction enter into the idea of lan- guage, but may be contrasted as body and spirit, standing as they do in a relation at once of help and opposition. Wisdom for the practice of life has among all nations taken a figurative shape, passing from myth or fable into the contracted sayings we term proverbs, and arriving in the Greek schools of philosophy at ethical systems. But system, or technical metaphys- ics, does not appeal to the Semite; and our Sacred Books were never written with a view to it. If, how- ever, system be not made the vehicle of teaching, what shall a prophet employ as its equivalent? The image or comparison remains. It is primitive, interesting, and easily remembered; and its various applications give it a continual freshness. The story came into use long before the system, and will survive when systems are forgotten. Its affinity, as a form of Divine speech, with the "Sacrament" {livar-qpiov) as a form of Divine action, may profitably be kept in mind. Neither can we overlook the points of resemblance which exist be- tween parables and miracles, both exhibiting through outward shows the presence of a supernatural doctrine and agency.
Hence we may speak of the irony which must al- ways be possible in devices adapted to human weak- ness of understanding, where heavenly secrets are concerned. Bacon has said excellently well, "parables are serviceable as a mask and veil, and also for ehici- dation and illustration" (De sap. vet.). Of Scripture parables we conclude that they illustrate and edify by revealing some Divine principle, with immediate refer-
ence to the hearers addressed, but with more remote
and recondite applications in the whole Christian
economy to which tlujy belong. Thus we find two
lines of interpretation, the first dealing with Our Lord's
parabl(-s as and when they were spoken — let this be
termed crilical exegesis; and the second bringing out
their ■■^igniticanre in the history of the Church, or ec-
clesia.-^tical exegesis. Both are connected and may be
traced to the same root in Hcvclalioii: yet Ihcv are
distinct, .somewhiit after the fashion of the literal und
mystical sense in Scripture generally. We cannot lose
either out of siglit. The parables of the New Testa-
ment refuse to be handled like ^Esop's fables; they
were intended from the first to shadow forth the
"mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven", and their
double purpose may be re.'ul in St Matthew, xiii, 10-
18, where it is attributed to Christ Himself.
Modern critics (Jiiliehcr and Loisy) who deny this, affirm that the Evangelists have deflected the parables from their original meaning in the interest of edifica- tion, suiting them to the circumstances of the primi- tive Church. In making such accusations these crit- ics, following the example of Strauss, not only reject the witness of the Gospel writers, but do violence to its text. They overlook the profoundly supernatural and prophetic idea on which all Scri])ture moves as its vital form, — an idea certified to u.s by the usage of our Lord when quoting the < »ld Ti'slaiiM-nt, and admitted equally by the Evangeli.sis urn I St. Paul. That they run counter to Catholir tradition is manifest. More- over, parables thus ilctuclied from a Christological significance would hang in the air and could claim no place in the teaching of the Son of God. A valid exe- gesis will therefore be prejjared to discover in them all not only the relevance which they had for the multi- tude or the Pharisees but their truth, sub specie sacra- nienli, for "the Kingdom", i. e., for Christ's Church. And on this method the Fathers have expounded them without distinction of school, but especially among Westerns, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, and St.. Greg- ory the Great, as their commentaries prove.
Of the proverb not an ill definition might be that it is a closed or contracted parable: and of the parable that it is an expanded proverb. An instance, hovering on the verge of both, occurs Matt., xi, 17: "We have piped to you, and you have not danced; we have la- mented, and you have not mourned." The words were taken from some child's game, but they are ap- plied to St. John the Baptist and to Our Lord, with a gnomic moral, "Wisdom is justified by her children." In a myth or allegory, fictitious persons, gods and men, are introduced; and the significance lies within the story, as in Apuleius, "Eros and Psyche". But a parable looks at life as it is li\'ed, deals in no personifi- cations, and requiras to be interpreted from without. Fable is marked by giving speech and thought to irra- tional or inanimate objects; parable as our Lord em- ploys it never does so. Examples or "histories with a moral " have at least a core of reality — the instances occurring in Scripture and allowed by critics are such as Esther, Susanna, Tobias; but a parable need not quote individual persons, and except in the doubtful case of Lazarus, we shall not light upon instances of this kind among the stories told in the Gospels. A type consists in the significance given by prophecy to a person or his acts; e. g., to Isaac as the lamb of sacrifice, and the symbolical deeds of Ezechiel or Jere- mias. But the parable brings in no types directly or in its immediate sense, and no determined persons. Metaphor (Lat. Iranslatio) is a vague term, which might be applied to any short parabolic saying but does not fit the narrative of an action, such as we mean by a parable in the New Testament. The Socratio myth which adorns the "Gorgias", "Pha'do", and "Republic", is confessedly a fable, whereas in our synoptic Gospels whatever illustrations we meet are chosen from daily occurrences.
