'How Much More' vs. 'How Similar'
Types of Parables
Not every 'simile' is based upon similarity!
Or, in other words, not every parable is literally a 'simile!'
* For example, think about this: How may 'the shrewd steward to his unfair master' (Luk16)be likened to 'believers to the Lord'? This implies that the Lord is analogized by the tough wealthy man in dealing with his debtors-- God forbid!
* Also take this other parable, 'And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.
' (Luk11:39-40).. The disciples are commanded to wait for the Lord much the way the householder waited for the thief.
Yet, the householder had known the time the thief would have come, while the disciples do not know the time of the Lord's advent. It sounds then that the simile is out of sense!
The ostensible problem stems from the blind assumption that every parable is based on similarity, and hence its naming 'simile'..
Let me then coin this term for convention, the parables can be based upon the logic of 'How Rather' or 'How much more'..
Let us apply this simple concept now on the examples given above:
The householder had known when the thief would have come, yet he did not think of having some rest in the meanwhile! His worries about his house properties made him vigil and alert even when he had a chance for some rest.
How much more, then, that those who do not know when the Lord will come should be rather vigilant?!!!
In the same manner and more, the rich man who cares about his wealth and looks so tight that he fails to schedule the over-high records of debts and that he is immediate in firing his steward on initial suspicion, this rich man, with all his being as such, got so amazed at the wisdom of the steward that he praised what the latter did, and let go of the spending of his own money on the poor..
So, compared to our good Lord who, in the first place, commands us to be generous toward the needy, one could not help asking: How rather will one be forgiven, even praised by Him when they obey His very command of sharing the 'money of iniquity' with the poor? How much safer then is one going to be?
Now all the parables make great sense :)
P. Eng. Basil Lamie (aka C. Mark) !
Arabic Version of this Article
Discussion on a generic exmple emplying both types (FB Comments in Arabic)
Principal Remarks on Lord's Parables (Fb Post in Arabic)
*Terms herein are coined by the author.
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