Closest analogues

(a@) Parables in the ordi- nary sense of this term (see above, 2 a) are found ἐπ ΟΝ PSS 7146 CIS NE ta Ba Nn interesting essay by P. Cersoy (of Lyons) on Is 5° appeared in the Revue Biblique (Jan. 1899; summary in Expos. Times, Apel 1899, p. 325) under the title ‘l’Apologue de la Vigne.’ He proposes to render v.’* ‘I will sing to my beloved my love- song touching his vineyard’ (je vais chanter ἃ mon ami mon chant amical ἃ ΤΌΡΩΣ de sa vigne).

But if the prophet had ΤῊ 13 imself as the primary author of this poem, it would have been unnatural to introduce God as the speaker in vv.*®. On the other hand, the circumstance that at the beginnin of the parable (vv.!»-?) the owner of the vineyar is treated as a third person, is quite explicable. By the selection of this third person a twofold object is gained.

In the first place the commence- ment of the parable connects itself directly with the exordium, and in the second place the appear- ance is avoided of Isaiah himself being the owner of the vineyard. Cersoy suggests, further, that in νον Isaiah ‘ probably utilized a short popular song.’ But this view finds no support either in the differ- ence of structure between the clauses of vv.!:? and vy.*°, or in the transition to the first person (vv. ‘I pray you,’ ete.)

, for it is perfectly natural that the outburst of the Divine anger should find its expression in a direct address by God Himself. Although none of the above-cited five passages of the OT is actually called a >y¥p (mashal), it is not therefore to be inferred that this term could not be appropriately applied to them. Its absence may be sufliciently explained as simply due to the fact that the particular writers did not take occa- sion to add the terminus technicus.

Jerome was quite right in his remark on Is 5’ ‘Que prius PARABLE (IN OT) PARABLE (IN OT) 661 eee per metaphoram dicta sunt vel per parabolam | pa exponuntur manifestius.’ So Kimchi began is exposition of 2S 12'4 with min $vpz, introduced | the passage 14% with the words Svon mpn xm, | began his exposition of Is 5 with amy x22 “27 vo, and finally explained ‘n wixn of 284% by Sep 371 ond xox ‘He spoke to them in the way of a mashdl.

’ The correctness of this last interpreta- tion results from two considerations, namely the original sense of mdshdl, and the later usage of this word and its linguistic congeners. This leads to the remark that the original sense of mashdl is very open to dispute. The now pre- vailing theory was argued for by Fleischer in an Excursus to Delitzsch’s Commentar iiber die Proverbien, p. 13f.

, and it is maintained also in Gesenius- Buhl, HWB*® (‘eigentlich wohl : als etwas stehen, repriisentiren etwas,’ i.e. ‘lit. perhaps : stand for something, represent some- thing’). Essentially the same view is shared by E. Meier, Wurzelworterbuch, p. 503f. It may be stated thus: In Arabic matala=‘stetit erectus,’ ete. Hence matalun (=mashdal) was papmally a ‘positio’ κατ᾽ ἐξοχήν. This might be looked at from the point of view of security and then became =‘affirmatio’ (cf.

3 συ ‘impose on one,’ i.e. rule over one), or from the point of view of the formu- lating of a thought, and then the ‘ positio’ became the investiture or representation of an idea. But this derivation of mdshdl requires some very bold leaps in order to reach its goal, and hence we venture to ang est another derivation. Our start- ing-point shall be the fact that the sense of ‘re- semble,’ ‘be like,’ is the predominatin one with the verb $v and its Semitic cognates.

This is the only sense of the Assyr. masdlu, the Eth. masdla (Dillmann: ‘ similis, consentaneus fuit’), the Aram. métal, and it is the prevailing one also of the Arab. matala. On this we would rest the thesis that mdashal originally had the sense of ‘likeness’ or ‘complex,’ a view which is supported by the cir- cumstance that the Assyr. mb te means ‘ totality.’ Now, what is the commonest form of an identifica- tion orcombination?

It is the judgment, and the embodiment of this is the simple sentence. Accord- ingly mashdal might be the designation of asentence, but also of other kinds of combination of individual conceptions and of whole sets of conceptions, From mashal (‘judgment’) may come a denominative verb $vp (‘rule’) which meets us in Pheenician (ef. Bloch, Phen. Glossar, p. 43) and in Hebrew. For the activity of a ruler exhibited itself originally in the pronouncing of judgments (ef.

Solomon’s words, ‘to judge thy people,’ 1 Καὶ 3%). From the stability which is a natural quality of such judgments may be derived, further, the Arab. mata(u)la, ‘stand fast.’ With this agrees the circumstance that Fuerst (Heb.-Chald. Worterb.3 1876, 8.0.) co-ordinates zip aw! ‘rule’ with the Arab. λαμ: (baswa), ‘strenuus fuit.’ This is not absolutely impossible. For the Aram. $np is not found with the sense of ‘rule,’ and therefore there need not be found 4 an Arab, Ure answering to the Heb.

Svin ‘rule.’ Further, a correspondence between m and ὁ is not altogether rare in Semitic (cf. J. Barth, 7d lope Studien, p. 32). But it is not necessary to appeal to this basula. By the way, the connexion between the two leading senses of Sein is not explained by Abu "l-walid in his Kitdbu 'l-'ugali (ed. Ad. Neubauer), p. 895. He contents himself with simply linking together the different groups of words by the formula | « ‘and another > sense’ (appears, etc.)

David Kimchi, in his Book of Roots, says nat $e 937 mor wa Seon py, Ke. ‘the sense conveyed by the term mdshdl is the likeness of one thing to another.’ Like- wise the two latest commentators on the Book of Proverbs (Wildeboer in the Kurzer Hdcomm. and Frankenberg in Nowack’s Hdkomm., published in 1897f.) have made no τον δὶ to solve the linguistic difficulty presented by the word \ the Arab. matalun is used both for ‘sententia’ and ‘parabola.’ In like manner the Heb.

mashal has the sense of ‘general proposition’ (γνώμη, sententia, ‘maxim’), as in ‘the proverb of the ancients, Out of the wicked cometh forth wicked- ness’ (1 § 24"). In the sense of ‘proverb’ Syp is found also in Sir 477, See, further, art. PROVERB. But none the less has mashal the sense of ‘ par- able.’* This is clear from the later identification of it and its cognates with ‘similitude’ (Germ. Gleichniss). ‘Three mésdle’ are announced in Eth. Enoch 375, namely those contained in chs. 88-44.

45-57. and 58-71. In these mésdlydt or mésdléyat phenomena and processes of the supra- mundane sphere are employed to illustrate the earthly fortunes of the kingdom of God. These three sections, then, contain essentially what we call parables. The same purpose is the starting- point of visions.

This comes out clearly in the words, ‘demonstra mihi et hoc, si plus quam preteritum sit habet venire’ (4 Ezr 4*), for this request is satisfied by a vision which is described thus, ‘ecce fornax ardens transiit coram me,’ ete. (v.“8), and this vision is expressly called in vy.” a ‘similitudo.

’ We read of another ‘similitudo’ in 85, and again a vision is expressly called a ‘ simili- tudo’ in the words ‘vidisti similitudinem eius, quomodo filium lugeret’ (10%), Likewise the ᾿απιδᾶϊ, which make up the third part of the Shep- herd of Hermas, are visions in which the vine, etc., is shown (see the Ethiopic version published by Antoine d’Abbadie in Abhandlungen fiir die unde des Morgenlandes, ii. 1, p. 47 11.) In any case the Syr. DAs», which exactly corresponds to the Heb.

Sv, is used to render παραβολή in Mt 1318. 81. 33 ete. 21, Mk 4? ete., Lk 5° 6” 147 etc. The post-biblical literature of the Jews exhibits the same use of the word médshal. For instance, the Talmud (Shabb. 1524) records how a certain king distributed royal garments among his ser- vants. The wise amongst these placed the arments in a chest, but the foolish wore them in going about their ordinary work. One day the king asked for his garments.

The wise gave them back to him just as they had been when they received them, but the garments returned by the foolish were soiled. Then the king commended the wise, but ordered the foolish to be cast into prison, and their garments were handed over to the fuller (0225). his story is expressly called a ρον Ὁ ‘a parable of a king,’ and is introduced to illustrate the saying, ‘ Give it (the soul) back to Him (God) as He gave it to thee’ (Ayn) 7x2 ὃν Ayn 3).

The very same expression, 7505 Se, is met with in Shabdb. 153a; and in ‘Aboda Zara 544 one finds ‘x δ ἢν Sivox, namely the parable of the king who presented his son with a dog, etc. In like manner the celebrated stories of ‘the seven sages’ were called Mishlé Sindbad (ed. P. Cassel, 3 Autflage, 1884), and in point of fact they are only partially ‘ Examples’ (see above 2 a β (iv.)), namely in so far as they are intended to describe real occurrences.

The most of them are parables, and they contain such expressions as ‘the second par- able of the empress,’ etc. It may be added that we hear of a Buddhist parable (cf. e.g. Edmund Hardy, Der Buddhismus, 1890, p. 124 f.), and that Herodotus (i. 141) records the parable of the flute- player and the fishes which would not dance to his playing. Volkmann (p. 379), too, speaks of the παραβολή which is clothed in the form of a narrative.

(6) How closely connected the expression mashal was with the notion of a parable is evident from A combination of ‘sententia’ and ‘similitudo’ may be ob- served in Ἵν be/p of Job 1813, ‘sentences which are strewn as lightly as ashes.’ 662 PARABLE (IN OT) PARABLE (IN NT) the circumstance that Se is the title of the pas- sage Ezk 9458, V.™ reads g7px) dp ‘2 Sep ‘ Utter a parable unto the rebellious house, and say’ (=saying); and in νυν.

δ we read, ‘Set on a pot, set it on, and also pour water into it: gather its ieces (i.e. those which belong to the pot), ete. ake the choice of the flock, and burn also the bones under it, and make it boil well, and let them seethe the bones of it therein.’ This last assage furnishes a double proof of our position. nm the one hand, it contains a narrative which corresponds with the above-cited stories in 2 8 12'* etc.

Consequently these five passages also might have been equally designated by the title applied ore to Ezk 24%>*, namely mashal (Arab. VS (bis, y Pesh. DAk, LXX παραβολήν ; while the Targum alone, from a supposed necessity to heighten the dignity of the passage, rendered by 23 ‘a pro- phecy’). On the other hand, there is a formal agreement between Ezk 24°° and 3%4-26 41-12 51-4 etc.

In all these passages, that is to say, there is mention of a Divine command to perform some action, and then it is added that this action illus- trates some idea. Thus the five passages, 2 S 12)-4 etc., and Ezk 3%>-% 41% etc, 24%, agree in their didactic aim ; and both sets of passages are para- bolical.

This conclusion is strengthened further by the consideration that the passages in Ezk just cited cannot be separated from Is 2024, Jer 25'5%, According to the last passage, the prophet received the commission, ‘Take the wine-cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations to whom I send thee, to drink it’; and the prophet adds, ‘Then took I the cup at the Lord’s hand, and made all the nations to drink.’ This action cannot really have been performed.

Hence the view is recommended that also in Ezk 3*>-% 41-12 51-4 ete, we have parabolical narratives. The same cate- gory includes the Bk. of Jonah, as has been shown in vol. ii. p. 746 ff., and we must add the story of Judith, for the very name pn; means ‘a Jewess,’ and stamps the heroine of this book as a personi- fication of the Jewish nation. The Bk. of Jth is, as Luther said, ‘ein geistlich schén Gedicht’ (cf., further, Konig, Hinleitung, p. 479 f.) (c) The Paramyths, which, according to J.

G. Herder, are to be distinguished from the parables, have also their analogues in the Hebrew literature (cf. παραμύθιον, which in Wis 318 is used for ‘con- solation’ [-ε- παραμυθία of 1 Co 14%], and in Ph 2! for ‘comfort [of love]’). Herder understood by Paramyths such narratives ‘as serve for the cheer- ing of the soul, and are based upon the ancient Greek myths.’ They are stories in which per- sonifications of ideas or of natural processes are introduced as living beings.

One of Herder's paramythical narratives commences with ‘ Aurora complained to the gods,’ and another with ‘ Night and Day contended with each other for the pre- eminence,’ and a third with ‘Once beside a mur- muring stream Care sat down and mused.’ Now we find instances of personification in the OT as y For instance, we read ‘the light of the righteous rejoiceth ’ (Pr 13°), and ‘ foolishness (1410) Sere that down which wisdom of women has uilt’ (v.4*).

The same foolishness is further de- scribed in a whole narrative as a seductive woman (9-18) ; and the same wisdom, with whose help Jahweh Himself founded the earth (3%, ef. 1%), comes forward as the subject of a dramatically worked action in ‘Doth not Wisdom ery,’ ete.? (8.5), A story of the same kind meets us in Sir 24°, for there, likewise, ‘wisdom’ is an attri- bute of God which was displayed in the creation of the world and the guiding of Israel.

This appears with the greatest clearness from the words, καὶ éppltwoa ἐν λαῷ δεδοξασμένῳ, ‘and I took root in a people that was glorified’ (v.44). It is only a personification of wisdom that is found in Wis 6, The words ἵνα μάθητε σοφίαν (v.1%) show this in the most decisive fashion. Likewise in 7135. wisdom stands simply for the attribute of God (cf. ‘Thy wisdom’ in 9?) which controls the world and the course of history. For Solomon could imbibe and reproduce this wisdom, cf.

ἔμαθον (714), els ψυχὰς ὁσίας μεταβαίνουσα (Υ. 319), εἰσῆλθεν els ψυχὴν θεράποντος Kuplov (1018) ; and by wisdom nothing else is meant than by ἀφροσύνη of 10%. The post-biblical literature of the Jews also contains narratives, in which personifications a: ear as subjects. One of these commences, ‘While Yoah lived in the ark, one day the Lie appease and begged to be admitted.

Noah, who did not know ane Lie, was prepared to grant her request, but he declared that he could not do this until she should have procured a companion, because only pairs could be admitted into the ark, The Lie had thus to retire after a bootless errand. But scarcely had she gone a few paces when she met Injustwe. Along with her the Lie was now admitted into the ark, but the two over-reached one another’ (Midrash, Yalkét, Gn 56; Fiirsten- ser cit., No. 497).

See, further, the following article. Lrreraturs.—A, Ε΄. Mehren, Die Rhetorik der Araber, 1858; R. Volkmann, Die Rhetorik der Griechen und Romer, 2 Aufiage, 1874; R. J. Firstenthal, Rabbinische Blumenlese, 1835. Other works are named in the body of the article. E Ep. K6nia.