Mashal's Parable

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Parables are defined as short stories from everyday life that either suggest reality or the quality of the kingdom. A parable can also be a simple short story that entails a moral or deeper meaning. Much of Jesus’ teachings are in the form of parables. There are forty-six parables within the Bible. The actual word parable, according to Robert Stein, is derived from the Greek word parabolḗ. Parabolḗ is translated as a metaphor or a figurative saying (Stein). Furthermore, this definition does not comply with Jesus because it could imply that Jesus was from a Greek speaking community, which is not true. However, in Hebrew it is translated as the term mashal, which alludes to a satire. These two words are not interchangeable because they do not possess the same meaning. Mashal relates to a parable better because when Jesus taught through parables he wanted his followers to not only hear what he was saying, but to understand and …show more content…

“Prodigal stands for a man who has a single equal quality that is wasting substance” (Kenneth 53). In other words, the younger son is called the prodigal son because he takes his money he received from his exchange of his inheritance, and spends it recklessly. The son sins by not only taking the money, but also becoming so greedy that he asks the father for his share of the land, which he would inherit later on. Then he gets so invested and obsessed with the money that he sins by being obsessive in his greed. In spite of the parable’s title, the prodigal son is not the theme or lesson of the parable. Jesus is not trying to show that the son should not have taken the money and spend it by being extravagant; the point is that the son was lost, and then he is found. He was dead in the eyes of the family, and now he is alive again. This is why the parable can be known as the “Parable of the Lost

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