| Question Title | Posted By | Question Date |
|---|---|---|
| Parables or Actual Events? | Mahina | Thursday, September 18, 2008 |
Question: Brother Ignatius Mary, First, I would like to thank you for taking time to answer all these question. I have submitted several since I was told about this site and your answers have been very informative and helpful. Thank you. Second, I would like to ask another question. I just started RCIA, and the topic was the Bible: Old Testament. The priest was sharing about how many of the stories in the Scriptures are really just parables that are given to teach a lesson. He used the example of the story of "Jonah and the Whale" stating that it is a parable and not a truthful story. This is different than what I was taught as a child, which is fine. What I want to know is how do you then determine which stories in the scripture are parables to teach lessons and which are truthful or factual/actually occurring events? Clearly it can't be based upon which things are fantastical (amazing) happenings versus normal occurrences since a virgin birth sounds rather fantastical, miracles of water being turned into wine or fives loaves of bread and two fish feeding thousands sound amazing but none of these are parables (I am guessing) but are in factual occurrences. Thus the four Gospels aren't parables (though they have parables told in them), I would summize? But how about the remaining books/stories in the Scriptures (Daniel in the Lion's Den, The Tower of Babel, Noah and the Ark, etc? How much of each of these are things that actually happened and how much are parables to teach a lesson? Or does it even matter? |
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| Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OLSM
Dear Mahina: Well, in terms of the parables of Jesus, he usually says they are parables when he tells them. In other instances we can tell if a story is a parable by careful examination of the text, the context of the story, various language conventions in Greek or Hebrew, the literary form, and other indicators that might indicate a parable. On literary form there are different kinds of writing that can be identified. For example, there are some literary styles that are mythic and others that are historical. Scholars examine the text of the Bible to determine the various literary styles. This is not the only method of trying to interpret the Bible, but is one of many ways that is taken into consideration. In terms of the Old Testament stories, many scholars, in doing this sort of analysis, have mostly agreed that the story of Jonah, for example, was not a historical event. But that does not matter. The Bible is not a book of history or science or geography or whatever. It is a book of religion with a purpose to reveal a God and to reveal His religious truth. Thus, it does not matter if these stories in question in the Old Testament are true or not. What matters is their religious message. This does not mean that all stories of the Old Testament have no historical truth. Some do, some don't, some have a blend of truth and myth. None of that matters. All that matters is the religious lesson to be learned from the story. A good Catholic can believe or not believe in the literal story of Jonah, Daniel in the Lion's Den, Noah's Ark and still be a good Catholic. With that said there are also many stories in the Old Testament that have been verified historically through archaeological and historical research. But, as I mentioned, ultimately it is the religious message that matters. We always need to remember that God does perform miracles and can do the things these stories talk about if He wants to. To explain away these stories as myth or parable as a motivation to avoid giving acknowledgment of God's sovereignty to perform miracles and such would be problematic. But these things are nothing we really need to argue about since the religious message is all that really matters. God Bless,
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