How to Read a Parable

The patristic allegorical school — every detail signifies: Augustine reads the Good Samaritan with the inn as the church and the two pence as the two commandments of love (Quaestiones Evangeliorum 2.19, PD). Its strength: Jesus himself interprets the Sower and the Tares point by point (Matthew 13:18–23, 36–43). The one-point school — a parable makes a single point of comparison and allegorizing details is eisegesis (Jülicher, Die Gleichnisreden Jesu, 1888–99 — cite; Dodd 1935 and Jeremias 1947 added kingdom-eschatology and the Palestinian setting — cite-only). The modern middle — one point per main character, with Jesus' own practice licensing limited allegory (Blomberg, Interpreting the Parables, 1990; Snodgrass, Stories with Intent, 2008 — both cite-only). All three presented at strength; the recorded interpretations of the Sower, Tares, and Dragnet are displayed as the data every method must satisfy. Sources: parables brief §5; Augustine PD; moderns cite-only.