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•PARABLE (Gr. parabole), a placing beside; a comparison; equivalent to the Hebrews mashal, a similitude. In the Old Testament this is used to denote (1) a proverb (1 Samuel 10:12; 24:13; 2 Chronicles 7:20), (2) a prophetic utterance (Numbers 23:7; Ezekiel 20:49), (3) an enigmatic saying (Psalm 78:2; Proverbs 1:6). In the New Testament, (1) a proverb (Mark 7:17; Luke 4:23), (2) a typical emblem (Hebrews 9:9; 11:19), (3) a similitude or allegory (Matthew 15:15; 24:32; Mark 3:23; Luke 5:36; 14:7); (4) ordinarily, in a more restricted sense, a comparison of earthly with heavenly things, “an earthly story with a heavenly meaning,” as in the parables of our Lord.
Instruction by parables has been in use from the earliest times. A large portion of our Lord’s public teaching consisted of parables. He himself explains his reasons for this in his answer to the inquiry of the disciples, “Why speakest thou to them in parables?” (Matthew 13:13-15; Mark 4:11, 12; Luke 8:9, 10). He followed in so doing the rule of the divine procedures, as recorded in Matthew 13:13.
The parables uttered by our Lord are all recorded in the synoptical (i.e., the first three) Gospels. The fourth Gospel contains no parable properly so called, although the illustration of the good shepherd (John 10:1-16) has all the essential features of a parable. (See List of Parables in Appendix.)
•PARADISE a Persian word (pardes), properly meaning a “pleasure-ground” or “park” or “king’s garden.” (See EDEN.) It came in course of time to be used as a name for the world of happiness and rest hereafter (Luke 23:43; 2 Corinthians 12:4; Revelation 2:7). For “garden” in Genesis 2:8 the LXX. has “paradise.”
•PARAH the heifer, a town in Benjamin (Joshua 18:23), supposed to be identical with the ruins called Far’ah, about 6 miles north-east of Jerusalem, in the Wady Far’ah, which is a branch of the Wady Kelt.
•PARAN abounding in foliage, or abounding in caverns, (Genesis 21:21), a desert tract forming the north-eastern division of the peninsula of Sinai,