The question for me becomes whether or not the historical Jesus used a form of discourse we could characterize as a “parable”. Paul, not unexpectedly perhaps, knows nothing of this. If so then the gospel writers are using this tradition to their own ends. Even Mark, who can hardly be assumed to be handing along his own sources unredacted. Of course we cannot assume Mark did not invent this idea. The wise teacher who tells pithy and meaningful stories to illustrate his wisdom hardly began with Jesus.
Robert what I find most interesting about these passages is, first, they imply that there were teachings of Jesus that were kept only for initiates, and second, that here at any rate the narrative goes against the general view of Mark that the disciples were clueless.
Mark 4:10-12 is followed with Jesus explaining the parable of the sower to disciples, so there is no contradiction with Mark 4:33-34.
However Mark’s “But to those on the outside everything is said in parables” and “But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything” are both absent from Matthew and Luke. And whereas Matthew and Luke both have “to you has been granted to know the secrets (plural) of the kingdom of heaven”, Mark has “to you has been granted the secret (singular) to the kingdom of heaven”.
Both good indication that Luke is editing Matthew and not Mark.
Also where Matthew has Jesus paraphrase Isaiah and then gives the Isaiah quote, Luke just has the paraphrase and Mark just the Isaiah quote. Another good indication that Matthew is the foundational version and Luke and Mark are editing him.
BDEhrman
FreedomBen
evgendob
Robert
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