When " the citizens of Shechem and the whole house of Millo " were gathered together " by the plain of the pillar " ( i. e., the stone set up by Joshua, 24: 26 ; compare Genesis 35: 4 ) " that was in Shechem, to make Abimelech king ," from one of the heights of Mount Gerizim he protested against their doing so in the earliest parable, that of the bramble-king.

The similar parable in, the Parable of the Minas, is generally similar, but differences include the inclusion of the motif of a king obtaining a kingdom, and the entrusting of the servants with equal amounts, measured in minas rather than talents ( 1 talent = 60 mina ).

The use of the term " outer darkness " is in Jesus ' Parable of the wedding feast ( also known as the parable of the marriage of the king's son ).

Tertullian, in his De Pudentia ( On Modesty ) 7: 1-4 mentions the depiction of a shepherd on Christian cups, calling to mind the parable of the Good Shepherd and thus used as a symbol for Jesus.

This interpretation of the parable is the inspiration for a number of hymns, including the Swedish hymn Den Kos ­ tli ­ ga Pärlan ( O That Pearl of Great Price!

In spite of the lack of explicitly religious content, Song of Songs has often been interpreted as a parable of the relationship of God and Israel, or for Christians, Christ and the Church or Christ and the human soul, as husband and wife.

The New Testament contains the parable of the Good Samaritan, where a man who was beaten is cared for by a Samaritan.

In this parable, the Lord asked Jeremiah to buy a belt and wear it around his waist for a time ensuring that it did not come in contact with water.

With a significant nod to the parable style the old man's act of saving and caring for a stray kitten saves his life when he is lost through a soft place in reality and meets Morpheus, recently released from his imprisonment ( Preludes and Nocturnes ), and still weak.

In Bertolt Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle, a play is staged as a parable to villagers in the Soviet Union to justify the re-allocation of their farmland: the tale describes how a child is awarded to a servant-girl rather than its natural mother, an aristocrat, as the woman most likely to care for it well.

The Greek word for " Mammon ", μαμμωνάς, occurs in the Sermon on the Mount ( during the discourse on ostentation ) and in the parable of the Unjust Steward ( Luke 16: 9-13 ).

And as soon as we got on that road I said to my wife, " I can see why Jesus used this as the setting for his parable.

Klyne Snodgrass writes " On the basis of this parable we must deal with our own racism but must also seek justice for, and offer assistance to, those in need, regardless of the group to which they belong.

The model for the Samaritan's kindly behavior in the parable may be, in which Samaritans treat Judean prisoners well.

The meaning of the parable for Calvin was, instead, that " compassion, which an enemy showed to a Jew, demonstrates that the guidance and teaching of nature are sufficient to show that man was created for the sake of man.

And, not surprisingly in the Third Gospel, neighborly love has been concretized in care for one who is, in this parable, self-evidently a social outcast

Such a reading of the parable makes it important in liberation theology, where it provides a concrete anchoring for love and indicates an " all embracing reach of solidarity.

" William C. Placher points out that such debate misinterprets the biblical genre of a parable, which illustrates a moral rather than a historical point: on reading the story, " we are not inclined to check the story against the police blotter for the Jerusalem-Jericho highway patrol.

The parable of the Good Samaritan is the theme for the Austrian Christian Charity commemorative coin, minted 12 March 2003.

Gnostics suggest that Jesus kept some of his teachings secret within the circle of his own disciples, and deliberately obscured their meaning by the use of parable, for example, Mark 4: 11-12:

Theology Secretary for the Church of England Anne Richards described Mewtwo as representing a " parable about the pointlessness of force ", and praised the character for displaying the Christian value of redemption.

Peter Travers, in a favourable review for Rolling Stone, praised the film for its timely AIDS parable and described Ryan as miscast in the role of the troubled Katherine.

In the parable of the vine Christ expressly declares the " abiding in him " a necessary condition for " bearing fruit ": " He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit " ( John, xv, 5 ); and this constant union with Christ is effected only by sanctifying grace.

In the Christian New Testament, the mustard seed is used by Jesus in the parable of the Mustard Seed as a model for the kingdom of God which initially starts small but grows to be the biggest of all garden plants.

It ’ s more like a parallel universe, the perfect setting for a parable .”

The parable of the Prodigal Son would be a legend if it were told as having actually happened to a specific son of a historical father.

A description of repentance in the New Testament can be found in the parable of the prodigal son found in the Gospel of Luke ( 15 beginning at verse 11 ).

Also, like the parable of the prodigal son God forgives those who repent sincerely.

The parable continues by describing how the younger son travels to a distant country and wastes all his money in wild living.

The parable concludes with the father explaining that because the younger son had returned, in a sense, from the dead, celebration was necessary:

The parable is referenced in the last verse of the traditional Irish folk tune " The Wild Rover " (" I'll go home to me parents, confess what I've done / and I'll ask them to pardon their prodigal son ").

Another literary tribute to this parable is Dutch theologian Henri Nouwen's 1992 book, The Return of the Prodigal Son, A Story of Homecoming, in which he describes his own spiritual journey infused with understanding based on an encounter with Rembrandt's painting of the return of the Prodigal and deals with three personages: the younger, prodigal son ; the self-righteous, resentful older son ; and the compassionate father – all of whom the author identifies with personally.

* David A. Holgate, Prodigality, liberality and meanness in the parable of the prodigal son: a Greco-Roman perspective on Luke 15. 11-32, Continuum, 1999, ISBN 1-84127-025-3.

This practice of releasing a prisoner is said by Magee and others to be an element in a literary creation of Mark, who needed to have a contrast to the true " son of the father " in order to set up an edifying contest, in a form of parable.

More clearly does this appear in the parable of the Pharisee and the publican ( Luke, 18: 9-13 ), and more clearly still in the story of the prodigal ( Luke, 15: 11-32 ): " Father, I have sinned against Heaven and before thee: I am not worthy to be called thy son ".

These referred to, in particular, the parable of the four sons, in which the " wicked son " was portrayed as a man wearing German clothes, with a Hitler-like moustache.

It derives from the parable of the prodigal son in the New Testament.

Spielberg answered that he did not intend the film to be a religious parable, joking, " If I ever went to my mother and said, ' Mom, I've made this movie that's a Christian parable ,' what do you think she'd say?

It did this by interpreting the concrete letters of the scripture rather than, say, the universal parable more evident in the gospels.

* The parable of those who take guardians besides Allah is as the parable of the spider that makes for itself a house ; and most surely the frailest of the houses is the spider's house did they but know.

The arguments in favour of identification of the Rich Man as the Sadducees are ( 1 ) the wearing of purple and fine linen, priestly dress, ( 2 ) the reference to " five brothers in my father's house " as an allusion to Caiaphas ' father in law Annas, and his five sons who also served as high priests according to Josephus, ( 3 ) Abraham's statement in the parable that they would not believe even if he raised Lazarus, and then the fulfillment that when Jesus did raise Lazarus of Bethany the Sadducees not only did not believe, but attempted to have Lazarus killed again: " So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well " ( John 12: 10 ).