Parables

From The Encyclopedia of Mormonism
Jump to navigation Jump to search

See this page in the original 1992 publication.

Author: Howe, Susan

Parables are short didactic narratives that make use of characters, situations, and customs familiar to their audience. They are meant to convey a spiritual message, but the reader usually must infer the message from the story, which generally is a presentation of some aspect of daily life. Because they are stories, parables are sometimes more memorable and more interesting than direct exhortation. Parables are seen to have several layers of meaning and may be understood differently, depending on the sensitivity and spiritual preparation of the hearer. For Latter-day Saints, it is significant that through the Prophet Joseph Smith the Lord offered some additional parables and used those given during Jesus' ministry to enrich that part of the message of the restoration of the gospel that points to events of the latter days.

In the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible (JST), Joseph Smith reworked some of the parables of Christ recorded in the synoptic gospels. In addition, he often referred to Christ's parables in discourses and articles. In revelations from the Lord, he received at least three original parables not in the New Testament (D&C 38:26-27;88:51-61;101:43-62). For those in the New Testament that he reworked, because he recognized that the meaning of a parable is in its relevance to the original audience, he used as a key for interpretation the situation that drew the parable from Christ (TPJS, pp. 276-77). Then under inspiration he interpreted virtually all the parables of Matthew 13 to apply to the latter days or to the mission of the restored Church of helping to prepare people for the second coming of Christ (cf. D&C 45:56;63:53-54; TPJS, pp. 94-99).

Joseph Smith showed many of Christ's parables to be relevant to the mission of the latter-day Church. For example, Doctrine and Covenants section 86 interprets the parable of the wheat and the tares (cf. Matt. 13:24-30, 36-43) as portraying the apostasy and the restoration of Christ's true gospel: "The apostles were the sowers of the seed," but "after they have fallen asleep…the tares choke the wheat and drive the church into the wilderness" (D&C 86:2-3). However, the wheat, or Christ's true church, resprouts: "In the last days,…the Lord is beginning to bring forth the word, and the blade is springing up and is yet tender" (D&C 86:4). The JST applies this parable to the latter days: "In that day, before the Son of Man shall come, he shall send forth his angels and messengers of heaven" (JST, Matt. 13:42). These angels and messengers are called to strengthen the wheat in the last days before the wicked will be destroyed. The focus of this parable thus becomes the time just before the end of the world (cf. D&C 101:65-66).

Other references further link Christ's parables to the latter-day Church. The JST version of the parable of the ten virgins (Matt. 25:1-13) begins, "At that day, before the Son of man comes, the kingdom of heaven shall be likened unto ten virgins" (JST, Matt. 25:1). The Doctrine and Covenants also refers to this parable: At "the coming of the Son of Man…there will be foolish virgins among the wise; and at that hour cometh an entire separation of the righteous and the wicked" (D&C 63:53-54; cf. 45:56-57). Of the parable of the mustard seed (Matt. 13:31-32), "the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs" (Matt. 13:32), Joseph Smith wrote, "Now we can discover plainly that this figure is given to represent the Church as it shall come forth in the last days" (TPJS, p. 98). He also saw a comparison with the Book of Mormon: Let us take the Book of Mormon, which a man took and hid in his field... to spring up in the last days, or in due time; let us behold it coming forth out of the ground,…even towering, with lofty branches, and God-like majesty, until it, like the mustard seed, becomes the greatest of all herbs. And it is truth, and it has sprouted and come forth out of the earth, and righteousness begins to look down from heaven, and God is sending down His powers, gifts and angels, to lodge in the branches thereof [TPJS, p. 98].

In discussing other parables, Joseph Smith compared the three measures of meal in which a woman hid leaven (Matt. 13:33) to the three witnesses to the Book of Mormon (TPJS, p. 100). The treasure hidden in a field for which a man "selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field" (Matt. 13:44) is likened to the Saints' "selling all that they have, and gathering themselves together unto a place that they may purchase for an inheritance" (TPJS, p. 101). To the "householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things that are new and old" (Matt. 13:52), the Prophet Joseph Smith compared "the Book of Mormon coming forth out of the treasure of the heart,…the covenants given to the Latter-day Saints, [and] the translation of the Bible-thus bringing forth out of the heart things new and old" (TPJS, p. 102).

Other parables were used in the Doctrine and Covenants to offer counsel for particular incidents. In 1833, Latter-day Saints in Jackson County, Missouri, were driven from their homes by armed mobs. In a revelation received by Joseph Smith on December 16, 1833, two parables suggested appropriate action. The first parable (D&C 101:43-62) is original, although it echoes Christ's parable of the wicked husbandmen (cf. Matt. 21:33-44). A nobleman sends servants to his vineyard to plant twelve olive trees and then to protect the vineyard by raising a hedge, setting watchmen, and erecting a tower. His servants at first obey but then become slothful. An enemy comes at night, breaks down the hedge and the olive trees, and takes over the vineyard. The nobleman calls the servants to task and then asks all the men of his house to go "straightway unto the land of [his] vineyard, and redeem [his] vineyard" (D&C 101:56). This parable, interpreted two months later in a subsequent revelation (D&C 103), served as the basis of Zion's Camp, a militia of LDS men called to March from Ohio to Missouri for the purpose of recovering the land of their fellow Saints.

The other parable cited in the December 1833 revelation (D&C 101:81-91) is that of the woman and the unjust judge (Luke 18:1-8). The judge grants the woman's suit because her continual pleading annoys him. Likewise the displaced Saints of the time were urged to "importune at the feet of the judge," then the governor, then the president of the United States, until they obtained redress (D&C 101:85-89).

These parables, as well as others he employed (cf. D&C 35:16;38:24-27;45:36-38;88:51-61), add a richness to Joseph Smith's teachings.


Bibliography

Allen, Marti Lu. "The Virgins' Lamps:Shine Beautiful!." BYU Studies 36:3 (1996-97):170-195.

Brooks, Melvin R. Parables of the Kingdom. Salt Lake City, 1965.

Burton, Alma P., ed. Discourses of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 196-204. Salt Lake City, 1965.

Jeremias, Joachim. The Parables of Jesus. London, 1954.

Welch, John W. "The Good Samaritan: A Type and Shadow of the Plan of Salvation." BYU Studies 38:2 (1999):50-115.

SUSAN HOWE


A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z