50 Fun Facts About Parables of Jesus

In Jesus's parable of the Prodigal Son, the word 'prodigal' refers to which trait of the younger son?

Wildly wasteful is what 'prodigal' means, from the Latin prodigus. The word has nothing to do with leaving or coming home: it describes how the son burned through his share of the estate.

In Jesus's parable of the talents, a master going away trusts three servants with amounts of what?

Money, and a lot of it: one talent was worth about 6,000 days' wages. The English sense of 'talent' as a gift to be used most likely grew out of this story.

Which phrase for a final chance comes from Jesus's parable of workers hired late in the day?

The eleventh hour was when the final workers were taken on, with about an hour of the working day left. They still received a full day's pay, which is the sting of the story.

In Jesus's parable of the Good Samaritan, robbers attack a man on the road from Jerusalem to which city?

Jericho sits far below Jerusalem, and the winding road down to it was notorious enough for ambushes to be called the 'Way of Blood'. Jesus's first hearers would have known the danger.

In Jesus's parable of the Prodigal Son, the penniless son takes a job feeding which animals?

Pigs were forbidden food under Jewish law, which made tending them a humiliating job. The son grew hungry enough to envy the pods they ate.

In Jesus's parable of the sower, which creatures eat the seed that falls by the roadside?

Birds devour the roadside seed before it can take root. It is the first of four kinds of soil in the story, and only the fourth yields a harvest.

In Jesus's parable of the lost sheep, how many sheep does the shepherd leave behind to find one stray?

99 stay in the wilderness while the shepherd hunts for a single stray. The scene inspired the Victorian hymn 'The Ninety and Nine', written by Elizabeth Clephane in 1868.

In Jesus's parable of the two builders, the foolish man's house falls because he built it on what?

Sand gave the house nothing to hold on to when the rain, floods and wind came. The story closes the Sermon on the Mount, as a warning to act on what Jesus had just taught.

Good Samaritan laws, named after the helper in Jesus's parable, protect people who do what?

Give emergency aid in good faith and these laws shield you from being sued if it goes wrong. The aim is to stop fear of a lawsuit from making bystanders walk past.

Jesus compared the kingdom of heaven to which tiny seed that grows taller than every garden herb?

Mustard, probably black mustard, can reach about 9 feet from a proverbially small seed. Jesus used it to picture a kingdom with a tiny start and a huge finish.

In Jesus's parable of the wicked tenants, the tenants kill the vineyard owner's son hoping to seize what?

His inheritance was the prize: with the heir dead, they reasoned, the land would be theirs. The owner had already sent two groups of servants, who were beaten, stoned or killed.

Jesus caps the parable of the wicked tenants with a psalm: the stone the builders rejected became what?

The cornerstone, in the words of Psalm 118. The rejected stone stands for the murdered son, and the religious leaders listening understood that the story was aimed at them.

After Jesus told the parable of the wicked tenants, what did the chief priests want to do to him?

Arrest him, because they saw that the murderous tenants stood for them. They held back only out of fear of the crowds, who regarded Jesus as a prophet.

In Jesus's parable of the wicked tenants, the landowner digs a winepress in his vineyard and builds what?

A tower completes a description lifted from an Old Testament song about a vineyard that yielded only wild grapes. Hearers who knew that song could guess the story would end badly.

In the parable of the wicked tenants, what does the landowner say on sending his son?

"They will respect my son" proves a fatal misjudgment: the tenants throw him out of the vineyard and kill him. Jesus told the story in the Temple during the final week before his own death.

In Jesus's parable of the two sons, what does the first son do after telling his father 'I will not'?

Changes his mind and goes, which makes him the one who did his father's will. The second son says 'I'm going, sir' and never turns up.

After the parable of the two sons, Jesus said which groups were entering God's kingdom before the priests?

Tax collectors and prostitutes had believed the preaching that the leaders ignored, Jesus said. Like the first son, they began with a 'no' and ended by doing what was asked.

Jesus ended the parable of the two sons by accusing the priests of refusing to believe which preacher?

John the Baptist 'came to you in the way of righteousness, and you didn't believe him', Jesus told them. Moments earlier the same men had refused to say whether John's baptism came from heaven.

In Jesus's parable of the ten virgins, what did the five foolish ones fail to bring for their lamps?

Oil ran short because the bridegroom was so late, and nobody would lend them any. The story's point is readiness: the wait may be longer than you planned for.

In Jesus's parable of the ten virgins, at what time does the cry go up that the bridegroom is coming?

Midnight is when the shout comes, after every one of the ten has dozed off. Even the wise ones slept; what set them apart was the spare supply they had packed.

In Jesus's parable of the ten virgins, what reply do the latecomers hear through the shut door?

"I don't know you" is the bridegroom's whole answer to their knocking. Jesus drew the moral at once: keep watch, because nobody can say on which day the Son of Man will come.

In Jesus's parable of the ten virgins, what do the wise ones tell the foolish to do about their lamps?

Go and buy more, the wise ones say, fearing that sharing would leave all ten lamps dark. While the foolish are away at the dealers, the procession arrives and the door is shut.

In Jesus's parable of the lost sheep, how does the shepherd bring the stray home once he finds it?

On his shoulders, rejoicing, is how the story puts it. A shepherd carrying a sheep this way became one of the most common images of Christ in the catacombs of Rome.

Jesus ends the parable of the lost sheep by saying heaven has more joy over whom than over the righteous?

One sinner who repents brings more joy than a crowd who need no repentance, Jesus says. He told the story to critics who grumbled that he welcomed disreputable people and ate with them.

Between the lost sheep and the Prodigal Son, Jesus tells of a woman who sweeps her house hunting for what?

A silver coin, a Greek drachma, is one of ten she owns. When she finds it she calls her friends in to celebrate, just as the shepherd does over his sheep.

In Jesus's parable of the sower, some seed sprouts but is choked by which plants growing around it?

Thorns stand for the cares of this age and the deceitfulness of riches, Jesus explained: a promising start can still be crowded out.

According to Matthew, where did Jesus sit to tell the parable of the sower to a huge crowd?

In a boat, because the crowd had grown so large that he needed room. Everyone else stood on the beach to listen, which gave him a floating pulpit.

In Jesus's own explanation of the parable of the sower, who snatches away what was sown by the roadside?

The evil one comes and takes what was sown in the heart, in Matthew's wording; Mark's version names Satan. The sower is one of the few parables Jesus decodes point by point for his disciples.

When Jesus explains the parable of the sower to his disciples, what does he say the seed stands for?

The word of God is the seed, and the four soils are four kinds of listener. That is why the story is sometimes called the parable of the soils: the seed never changes.

In Jesus's parable of the Good Samaritan, a priest ignores the wounded man; who passes by second?

A Levite, from the tribe that assisted the priests in the Temple, also crosses to the other side. Two respected religious figures fail before a despised outsider stops to help.

Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan in reply to a lawyer who asked him which question?

"Who is my neighbor?" was the lawyer's attempt to put a limit on whom he had to love. Jesus turned it round, asking which of the three passers-by had acted like one.

In Jesus's parable of the Prodigal Son, what does the father order to be killed for the homecoming feast?

The fatted calf comes with the best robe, a ring and sandals: the father restores his son's full place in the household before the boy can finish his apology.

In Jesus's parable of the Prodigal Son, who stays outside the homecoming feast, too angry to go in?

His older brother protests that years of loyal work never earned him so much as a young goat for a party. The father replies, 'All that is mine is yours', and the story ends without saying whether he went in.

Which Dutch master painted The Return of the Prodigal Son, a late canvas hanging in the Hermitage?

Rembrandt finished it within about two years of his death in 1669. Art historian Kenneth Clark said those who have seen the original may be forgiven for calling it the greatest picture ever painted.

In Jesus's parable of the talents, what does the servant given one talent do with it?

Buries it in the ground, then hands it back untouched and blames his master for being a hard man. The master calls him wicked and lazy and gives his talent to the servant who made the most.

In Jesus's parable of the talents, the master praises two servants as 'good and' what?

Faithful over a few things, the master says, so they will be set over many. Both servants hear identical praise, although one had earned more than twice as much as the other.

In Jesus's parable of the workers in the vineyard, every worker is paid which sum, however long he worked?

A denarius was the usual pay for a day's labour, so the early starters got exactly what they had agreed. When they grumble, the owner asks, 'Are you envious because I am generous?'

Jesus ends the parable of the vineyard workers, where early starters resent equal pay, with which saying?

"The last will be first" matches the pay queue in the story: the owner settles up with the latecomers before the dawn shift, so everyone sees what the others got.

In Jesus's parable of the rich man and the beggar at his gate, what is the beggar's name?

Lazarus lies at the gate covered in sores while the rich man lives in luxury. The rich man gets no name in the text, though tradition calls him Dives, which is just Latin for 'rich man'.

The Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son, two of Jesus's best-known parables, appear in which Gospel alone?

Luke preserves more parables found in no other Gospel than any other evangelist, eighteen on one common count, and these two are the most famous of them.

In a short parable of Jesus about the kingdom of heaven, a merchant sells all he has for a single what?

Pearl hunting was the merchant's trade, and the 'pearl of great price' he finds is worth his whole stock. The twin story just before it has a man selling everything for treasure hidden in a field.

In Jesus's parable of the rich fool, a farmer with a bumper harvest decides to tear down and rebuild what?

His barns were to make way for bigger ones, so that he could 'eat, drink, and be merry' for years. That same night God calls him a fool and asks who will get it all.

Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is like what, hidden by a woman in three measures of flour?

Yeast is hidden in a startling amount of flour, about 38 litres. A little of it quietly transforms the whole batch, and that is the point about the kingdom.

In a parable of Jesus, an enemy creeps into a farmer's wheat field at night and sows what among the crop?

Weeds of the kind meant here, darnel, look much like wheat while young, so the farmer waits. Pulling them early would uproot the crop; at harvest they can be told apart and burned.

Which disciple's question about forgiving seven times prompted Jesus's parable of the unforgiving servant?

Peter thought seven times was generous. Jesus answered 'seventy times seven', or seventy-seven in some translations, then told of a servant let off a colossal debt who jails a colleague over a small one.

In Jesus's parable of two men praying in the temple, the Pharisee boasts of doing what twice a week?

Fasting twice a week is part of a prayer that is really a list of his own merits. Yet it is the other man, who can only beg for mercy, who goes home justified.

In Jesus's parable of the great banquet, a guest makes the excuse that he has bought five pairs of what?

Oxen, five yoke of them, are one of three excuses; the others are a new field and a new wife. The snubbed host fills his table with the poor, the blind and the lame from the streets instead.

Asked why he taught in parables, Jesus quoted which prophet on hearing without understanding?

Isaiah had been told his preaching would meet dull ears and closed eyes, and Jesus applied the lines to his own crowds. He then told the disciples that their eyes and ears were blessed.

The word 'parable', used for the stories Jesus told, comes from a Greek term with which basic meaning?

A comparison is the sense of the Greek parabolē, literally 'a throwing beside'. In later Latin the same term came to mean simply 'word', which is where French gets parler, 'to speak'.

In a parable of Jesus, a gardener begs one more year for which fruitless tree growing in a vineyard?

A fig tree that had borne nothing for three years gets a reprieve while the gardener digs round it and adds manure. Jesus leaves the story open, never saying whether it fruited.