5.2

Bibliography: Parables

Bailey, Kenneth. Finding the Lost: Cultural Keys to Luke 15. St. Louis: Concordia, 1992. Interprets the three parables in Luke 15 from the perspective of Middle Eastern culture and develops the thesis that this chapter is best understood in light of Psalm 23.

———. Poet and Peasant and Through Peasant Eyes: A Literary-Cultural Approach to the Parables in Luke. 2 vols. in 1. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983. Analysis of the literary structure of the Lukan parables combined with comments drawn from the author’s knowledge of Middle Eastern culture.

Blomberg, Craig L. Interpreting the Parables. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1990. Concludes that the theme of God’s kingdom unites Jesus’s parables and that they include implicit claims to his deity.

Borsch, Frederick Houk. Many Things in Parables: Extravagant Stories of New Community. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1988.

Boucher, Madeleine. The Mysterious Parable: A Literary Study. CBQMS 6. Washington, DC: Catholic Biblical Association, 1977. Appeals to understand parables as a class of literature, then deals with Mark’s theory of parables in particular and relates this to his theme of mystery.

Capon, Robert F. The Parables of the Kingdom. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991. Covers short, almost one-sentence parables that occur in the Gospels before the feeding of the five thousand.

———. Kingdom, Grace, and Judgment: Paradox, Outrage, and Vindication in the Parables of Jesus. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001.

Carlston, Charles. The Parables of the Triple Tradition. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1975. A redaction-critical study of the parables that appear in all three Synoptic Gospels.

Carter, Matthew, and John Paul Heil. Matthew’s Parables: Audience-Oriented Perspectives. CBQMS 30. Washington, DC: Catholic Biblical Association, 1998.

Crossan, John Dominic. In Parables: The Challenge of the Historical Jesus. Santa Rosa, CA: Polebridge, 1992.

Dodd, C. H. The Parables of the Kingdom. Rev. ed. New York: Scribner, 1961. A seminal study originally published in 1935; proposes that the parables explicate Jesus’s announcement that God’s kingdom has already come into the world.

Donahue, John. The Gospel in Parable: Metaphor, Narrative and Theology in the Synoptic Gospels. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1988. An interpretation of the parables within the contexts of the Gospels in which they occur. Includes chapters on “Parables of Mark,” “Parables of Matthew,” and “Parables of Luke.”

Drury, John. The Parables in the Gospels: History and Allegory. New York: Crossroad, 1985. An exposition of how the parables in each of the Synoptic Gospels express the distinctive theologies of the Gospels in which they occur.

Fisher, N. F. The Parables of Jesus: Glimpses of God’s Reign. Rev. ed. New York: Crossroad, 1990. Considers Jesus’s parables in the Synoptic Gospels according to recurring themes in his proclamation of God’s reign: the coming of God’s reign (Jesus and God’s reign, Jesus and the parables), entering God’s reign (irruption, joy reversal of conventional notions, response required, assurance), and living in God’s reign.

Ford, Richard Q. The Parables of Jesus: Recovering the Art of Listening. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1997.

Glen, Stanley. The Parables of Conflict in Luke. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1962. Interprets selected Lukan parables in terms of their significance for contemporary theology and, especially, for the practice of evangelism in the modern world.

Gowler, David B. What Are They Saying about the Parables? Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1999. A review of scholarship.

Hedrick, Charles W. Many Things in Parables: Jesus and His Modern Critics. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2004.

———. Parables as Poetic Fictions: The Creative Voice of Jesus. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1998. Suggests that Jesus originally told the parables as secular stories that were not intended to convey religious meaning.

Hendrickx, Herman. The Parables of Jesus. London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1983.

Herzog, William R., II. Parables as Subversive Speech: Jesus as Pedagogue of the Oppressed. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1994. Interprets many of Jesus’s parables as offering a political critique of the social structures of his day.

Hultgren, Arland. The Parables of Jesus. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000. A comprehensive analysis of all the parables in the Gospels.

Hunter, Archibald M. The Parables Then and Now. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1971.

———. The Parables of Jesus. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960.

Jeremias, Joachim. The Parables of Jesus. 2nd ed. New York: Scribner, 1972. Provides a wealth of detail regarding the Palestinian settings for the parables; a classic work.

Jones, Geraint V. The Art and Truth of the Parables. London: SPCK, 1974. One of the first works to view the parables as aesthetic objects with significance beyond their original historical context.

Jones, Ivor Harold. The Matthean Parables: A Literary and Historical Commentary. NovTSup 80. Leiden: Brill, 1995. A massive study of the parables that appear in Matthew’s Gospel.

Jones, Peter Rhea. Studying the Parables of Jesus. Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys, 2002.

Kingsbury, Jack Dean. The Parables of Jesus in Matthew 13. 3rd ed. London: SPCK, 1976. Investigates the eight parables that comprise Jesus’s parable speech in Matthew’s Gospel so as to ascertain the role that this speech plays within the Gospel and to understand both Matthew’s theology and the situation of his church.

Kissinger, Warren S. The Parables of Jesus: A History of Interpretation and Bibliography. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1979. A valuable research tool, virtually comprehensive in listing scholarly works up to the date of its publication.

Lambrecht, Jan. Once More Astonished: The Parables of Jesus. New York: Crossroad, 1981. A proposal for how to appreciate the way parables functioned for Jesus and for the early church, with chapters devoted to exegesis of sample parables from each of the Synoptic Gospels.

———. Out of the Treasure: The Parables in the Gospel of Matthew. LTPM 10. Louvain: Peeters, 1991. Discusses several key parables in Matthew’s Gospel with concern to elucidate both the original meaning during the life of Jesus and the redactional sense given to the story by Matthew.

Longenecker, Richard N. The Challenge of Jesus’s Parables. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999.

Marcus, Joel. The Mystery of the Kingdom of God. SBLDS 90. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1986. Redaction-critical analysis of Mark’s parable chapter; thesis is that whereas the stress in 4:3–20 is on the hiddenness of the kingdom, in 4:21–32 it is on the kingdom’s moving from hiddenness to manifestation.

Marguerat, Daniel. Parabole. Cahiers Évangile 75. Paris: Cerf, 1991. Places the Gospel parables in the dialogue between Jesus and his interlocutors and shows why the parables retain their power today.

Perkins, Pheme. Hearing the Parables of Jesus. New York: Paulist Press, 1981.

Perrin, Norman. Parables and Gospel. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2003.

Schottroff, Luise. The Parables of Jesus. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2006.

Scott, Bernard Brandon. Hear Then the Parable: A Commentary on the Parables of Jesus. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1989. One of the most comprehensive treatments of the parables available. Includes an extensive discussion of the genre of “parable,” followed by comments on every parable in the Synoptic Gospels.

———. Re-Imagine the World: An Introduction to the Parables of Jesus. Santa Rosa, CA: Polebridge, 2001.

Snodgrass, Klyne. Stories with Intent: A Comprehensive Guide to the Parables of Jesus. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007. A major study of all parables in the Gospels, viewing them as instances of prophetic speech.

Stein, Robert H. An Introduction to the Parables of Jesus. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1981.

Stern, Frank. A Rabbi Looks at Jesus’s Parables. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005.

Thoma, Clemens, and Michael Wyschogrod, eds. Parable and Story in Judaism and Christianity. SJC. New York: Paulist Press, 1989. Presents under “ancient parables and the gospel”: articles on Aesop’s miser and the parable of the talents, on literary and theological aspects of the rabbinic parables, and on the parables of the wicked husbandmen in light of Jewish-Christian dialogue.

Timmer, J. The Kingdom Equation: A Fresh Look at the Parables of Jesus. Grand Rapids: CRC Publications, 1990. Describes the parables as “kingdom equations”—that is, metaphors that equate something from our familiar world with the surprising kingdom of God.

Tolbert, Mary Ann. Perspectives on Parables: An Approach to Multiple Interpretations. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1979. A literary study that offers hermeneutical reflections on the polyvalence of parables.

Via, Dan O. The Parables: Their Literary and Existential Dimensions. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1967.

Wenham, D. The Parables of Jesus: Pictures of Revolution. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1989. Takes the parables of Jesus in the form in which they are found in the Gospels and seeks to make sense of them in the context of Jesus’s ministry and teaching, drawing also on the broader context of New Testament thought to illuminate their meaning.

Westermann, Claus. The Parables of Jesus in the Light of the Old Testament. Edited and translated by F. W. Golka and A. H. B. Logan. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1990. Reflects on the sequences of investigating comparisons in the Old Testament for our understanding of Jesus’s parables in the New Testament.

Wright, Stephen. Tales Jesus Told: An Introduction to the Narrative Parables of Jesus. Waynesboro, GA: Paternoster, 2004.

Young, Brad. Jesus and His Jewish Parables: Rediscovering the Roots of Jesus’s Teaching. TI. New York: Paulist Press, 1989.

———. The Parables: Jewish Tradition and Christian Interpretation. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1997.