PARABOLANI
467
PARABOLANI
in all this, "You cannot serve God and mammon"
(Luke, xvi, 13).
Much unwisdom has been shown by commentators who were perplexed that our Lord should derive a moral from conduct, evidently supposed unjust, on the steward's part; we answer, a just man's dealings would not have afforded the contrast which points the lesson, viz., that Christians should make use of opjior- tunities, but innocently, as well as the man of business who lets slip no chance. Some critics have gone far- ther and connect the hidden meaning with Shake- speare's "soul of good in things evil", but we may leave that aside. Catholic preachers dwell on the special duty of helping the poor, considered as in some sense keepers of the gates of Heaven, "everlasting tents". St. Paul's "faithful dispenser" (I Cor., iv, 2) may be quoted here. The "measures" written down are enormous, beyond a private estate, which favours the notion of "pubhcani". The Revised Version transforms "bill" happily into "bond". It may be doubted which is "the lord" that commended the unjust steward. Whether we apply it to Christ or the rich man we shall obtain a satisfactory sense. "In their generation" should be "for their generation", as the Greek text proves. St. Ambrose, with an eye to the dreadful scandals of history, sees in the steward a wicked ruler in the Church. TertulUan (De Fuga) and, long afterwards, Salmeron apply all to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles, who were indeed debtors to the law, but who should have been treated indulgently and not repelled. Lastly, there seems no ground for the widespread beUef that "mammon" was the Phoeni- cian Plutus, or god of riches; the word signifies "money".
St. Luke (xvii, 7-10) gives a short apologue of the unprofitable servants, which may be reckoned as a parable, but which needs no explanation beyond St. Paul's phrase "not of works, but of Him that calleth" (Rom., ix, 11 — A. v.). This will be true equally as regards Jews and Christians, in whose merits God crowns His own gifts.
The lesson is driven home by contrast, once more, between the pharisee and the publican (Luke, xviii, 9-14), disclosing the true economy of grace. On the one hand it is permissible to understand this with Hugo of St. Victor and others as typifying the rejec- tion of legal and carnal Judaism ; on the other, we may expand its teaching to the universal principle in St. John (iv, 23-24) when our Lord transcends the distinc- tion of Jew and heathen, Israelite and Samaritan, in favour of a spiritual Church or kingdom, open to all. St. Augustine says (Enarr. in Ps. Ixxiv), "The Jewish people boasted of their merits, the Gentiles confessed their sins". It is asked whether those "who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others" were in fact the pharisecs or some of the dis- ciples. From the context we cannot decide. But it would not be impossible if, at this period, our Saviour spoke directly to the pharisees, whom He condemned (at no time for their good works, but) for their boast- ing and their disdain of the multitude who knew not the law (cf. Matt., xxiii, 12, 23; John, vii, 49). The Pharisee's attitude, "standing", was not peculiar to him; it has ever been the customary mode of prayer among Easterns. He says "I fast twice in a week", not "twice on the Sabbath". "Tithes of all that I possess" means "all that comes to me" as revenue. This man's confession acknowledged no sin, but abounds in praise of himself — a form not yet ex-tinct where Christians approach the sacred tribunal. One might say, "He does penance; he does not repent". The publican is of course a Jew, Zacehaeus or any other; he cannot plead merit; but he has a "broken heart" which God will accept. "Be merciful to me" is well rendered from the Greek by the Vulgate, "Be propitious", a sacrificial and significant word. "Went down to his house justified rather than the other" is a
Hebrew way of saying that one was and the other was
not justified, as St. Augustine teaches. The expres-
sion is St. Paul's, SiKaimffdai.; but we are not required
to examine here the idea of justification under the Old
Law. Mystically, the exaltation and abasement indi-
cated would refer to the coming of the Kingdom and
the Last Judgment.
It remains to observe, generally, that a "double sense" has always been attached by the Fathers to our Lord's miracles, and to the Gospel history as a whole. They looked upon the facts as reported much in the light of sacraments, or Divine events, which could not but have a perpetual significance for the Church and on that account were recorded. This was the method of mystical interpretation, according to which every incident becomes a parable. But the most famous school of German critics in the nineteenth century turned that method round, seeing in the parabolic intention of the Evangelists a force which converted sayings into incidents, which made of doctrines alle- gories, and of illustrations miracles, so that little or nothing authentic would have been handed down to us from the life of Christ. Such is the secret of the mythical procedure, as exemplified in modern dealing with the multiplication of the loaves, our Lord's walk- ing on the sea, the resurrection of the widow's son at Nairn, and many other Gospel episodes (Loisy, "Ev. synopt.", passim).
Parable, in this view, has created seeming history; and not only the Johannine document but the synop- tic narratives must be construed as made up from supposed prophetic references, by adaptation and quotation of Old-Testament passages. It is for the Catholic apologist to prove in detail that, however deep and far-reaching the significance attributed by the Evangelists to the facts which they relate, those facts cannot simply be resolved into myth and legend. Nature also is a parable; but it is real. "The blue zenith", says Emerson admirably, "is the point in which romance and reality meet". And again, " Nature is the vehicle of thought ", the " symbol of spirit " ; words and things are "emblematic". If this be so, there is a justification for the Hebrew and Christian philos- ophy, which sees in the world below us analogies of the highest truths, and in the Word made flesh at once the surest of facts and the most profound of symbols.
The varioua commentaries on the Gospels, in courses of Scrip- ture, such as: van Steenkiste, Comment, in Evangel, secundum Matthaum (Bruges, 1880-2); MacEvillt, Exposilion of the Gos- pels (Dubhn, 1877); Schanz, Commentar iiber das Evangel, d. h, Lucas (Tubingen, 1883); Maas, Comment, of Gospel of St. Matthew (New York, 1898); Rose, Evangile selon s. Matthieu (Paris, 1904); Knabenbader (1894); Liagre (1889); Pillion (1883). Mystical exegesis in Origen, Ambrose, Augustine, Gregory M.; literal in Chrysost.. Thegphylactus, Jerome.
From the sixteenth century ; special writers among early Protes- tants, Calvin; later, Vitringa, Schriftmdssige Erklkrung (Frank- fort. 1717); amongOtholies, Maldonatus, In IVevang. (Pont k Mousson, 1597; latest ed., Barcelona. 1881-2); Salmer6n, Ser- mones in Parabolas (Antwerp. 1600). Modern Protestant writers: — Greswell (London, 1839); Trench (London, 1841; lasted., 1906); Bruce, Parabolic Teaching of Christ (Edinburgh, 1882). Critical.— Weiss, Mark and Matthew (1872); Julicher (1888- 99). these in German; followed by Loisy, Les ^vangiles synoptiques (Paris, 1907-8). For Jewish parables, Lauterbach in Jewish Encyc. And see lives of Christ by Maas, Fouard. Didon.
William Barry.
Parabolani, irapi/SoXoi, irapafia\imi the members of a brotherhood who in the Early Church volun- tarily undertook the care of the sick and the burial of the dead. It has been asserted, though without suffi- cient proof, that the brotherhood was first organized during the great plague in Alexandria in the episcopate of Dionysius the Great (second half of third century). They received their name from the fact that they risked their lives (irapapdWcadai ■rr)v fw^i') in expos- ing themselves to contagitHis diseases. In addition to performing works of mercy they constituted a body- guard for the bishop. Their number was never large. The Codex Theodosianus of 416 (xvi, 2, 42) restricted the enrolment in Alexandria to 500. A new law two
