Why People in Ancient Times Learned by Parables
IN the Ancient World, most people didn't read and it was the norm to spread the word and teach verbally and by drawings to those locally. The educated wrote on scrolls which could be carried to far away places.
BY telling stories using the examples and situations familiar to people in a particular region and time, listeners could better relate to and understand what was being taught. Rhetoricians in antiquity also used parables to clarify or prove a point in an argument in a more interesting or more neutral way.
Article Cut from Drive Through History
https://drivethruhistoryadventures.com/parables-in-the-ancient-world-and-the-gospels/
With this distinction in mind, Jesus used parables for 3 specific reasons: he used them to fulfill prophecy; as a tool of judgment; and lastly, to disciple those that genuinely believed in him. Consequently, Jesus never used parables because they were best way to reach as many people as possible.
Article from BibleStudyTools.com
https://www.biblestudytools.com/topical-verses/parables-of-jesus/
The parables of Jesus make up a crucial part of the Bible. Jesus had the wisdom to simplify the profound spiritual truths he needed to share with humanity in the form of relatable stories that are easy to understand. A parable is a tale about a simple, common subject to illustrate a more profound, valuable moral lesson. The source definition of the word “parable” means a placement side by side for comparison.
Sometimes, the Gospel authors begin a parable with an analogy, such as "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard" (Matthew 20:1).
Or Jesus may provide an example from everyday life to convey spiritual truth, such as the Parable of the Good Samaritan to emphasize love and mercy, or the Parable of the Friend at Midnight to show persistence in prayer.
A parable utilizes the full story to produce the spiritual lesson, whereas a proverb, metaphor, simile, or figure of speech usually centers on a word, phrase, or sentence. Discover the many parables of Jesus from the books of Matthew, Mark, and Luke in the collection of the Bible verses below..
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