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What is a parable?

Parable is the root word of Comparable.

A parable is a comparison of two things. A parable is not necessarily a story, but it can be. In essence, a parable is a simile, metaphor or allegory.

Jesus used parables to teach.

What did Jesus teach about?

There are over 40 parables recorded in the Gospels, and the vast majority of them are used by Jesus to teach His followers about the "Kingdom of Heaven" or the "Kingdom of God."

Why didn't Jesus just speak plainly about the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven? Why did He use parables?

Jesus answers this question directly,

Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith,

By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand;
and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:

for this people's heart is waxed gross,
and their ears are dull of hearing,
and their eyes they have closed;
lest at any time they should see with their eyes,
and hear with their ears,
and should understand with their heart,
and should be converted, and I should heal them. - Matthew 13:13-15

This is no different today. Some can hear, but many cannot. But there is another reason for teaching in parables:

all these things are done in parables: - Mark 4:14b

The word these is not actually in the original language, it was added by the translators for readability. So"ALL things are done in parables!" Jesus does not say most things or many things, or some things; He says ALL things. In my mind ALL things includes even the Holy Scriptures. So the Bible itself is a parable.

If the Bible is a parable, what it is a parable of?

Jesus answers this question for us, too:

Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. - John 5:39

And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. - Luke 24:27

Paul and the apostles understood that the Bible was written as a series of parables about Jesus, the Christ, the Way and the Truth.

Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion (parable) that he had seen. - Acts 7:44

Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude (parable) of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. - Romans

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