Stories of a Galilean Prophet

The history of interpreting the parables can be divided into several periods. Early interpretations tended to read the parables as allegorical moralisms. From roughly 1900 to the 1960s, the dominant approach understood the parables primarily as apocalyptic symbols. Contemporary scholarship often treats the parables as narrative-theological devices, emphasizing metaphor, ambiguity, and theological meaning, and focusing on what the parable does to the hearer and how it challenges prevailing assumptions. This course, however, shifts attention away from abstract theological or purely narrative readings toward the material, social, political, religious, and economic realities reflected in the stories told by Jesus between 27 and 30 CE. When read in light of these realities, the parables are interpreted as realistic narratives rather than as symbolic or purely theological constructions. The authenticity of the parables, as we have them in their literary contexts, is not assumed, and the parables are read as atypical stories of social transformation told by a Galilean social prophet. Interpreted from this perspective, the parables are not earthly stories with heavenly meanings, but earthly stories with heavy meanings. The parables Jesus told are not stories about God, but stories about God's kingdom.