Reading Our Bibles, Part 6

      Writing a series and keeping people interested is a tough task. I hope these articles on reading the Bible effectively are helpful to you. We are learning to rightly divide among biblical genres. In our last article we highlighted instruction, narrative and poetry. We will continue our list today with parable and proverb.

Parable: The word “parable” means “to lay alongside.” A parable is a story. However, it differs from narrative. Narratives simply tell stories as they happened. Parables tell one story while actually teaching about something different. For instance, the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13 tells the story of a farmer, his seed and the ground upon which he sowed. However, Jesus was actually illustrating teaching, listening to and following through on His gospel message. The key to understanding parables is to first grasp the big picture message of the parable. Rarely is a parable written in such a way that every object mentioned actually represents something else. Rather, the main crux of the story actually represents something else. For instance, in the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32), Jesus’ main point is about God’s desire to forgive and rejoice over repentant sinners versus the Pharisees desire to exact punishment on all sinners without allowing them to repent. With that in mind, we recognize that the prodigal represents sinners who repent, the father represents God and the older brother represents the faithful followers of God who don’t want to forgive a penitent brother. However, we do not have to figure out what the citizen who hired the prodigal represents or what the swine or their pods represent. We must see the story alongside its intended meaning but not try to squeeze representative meaning out of every word, phrase or picture.

Proverb: This genre is used mostly in the Old Testament book of Proverbs. However, there are other proverbs (i.e. Ezekiel 18:2). Proverbs are often poetical, using couplets and rhyming ideas to make their point. The reason we need to view these as a separate genre from poetry is to learn proverbs are rarely absolutes. When the instruction of Ephesians 4:26 says, “Be angry, and yet do not sin…” That is absolute. It applies all the time. We must be angry but not sin, period. Proverbs, however, are maxims, general truths that contain weighty advice. Thus, while Proverbs 15:1 said a soft answer turns away wrath, we do not accuse God of lying when we are dealing with someone who is a real jerk and constantly angry at us no matter how softly we speak to him. Nor do we assume someone is sinning just because their response is not as soft as ours would have been.

      Next week we will finish our look at biblical genres discussing prophecy and apocalypse. Certainly we are not being exhaustive, but this is a starting place for us to remember to read our Bibles.

Edwin L. Crozier