Understanding the Parables of Jesus on the Background of His Parables

The parables of Jesus are generally considered some of the most authentic sayings of Jesus. One could therefore easily expect them to be amongst the most reliable sources for understanding the identity of Jesus. By analyzing New Testament parable research throughout the last one hundred years, however, one is confronted with a series of different conceptions of whom Jesus understood himself to be. Based on the parables many scholars arrive at their own individual image of the historical Jesus. This variety can be explained as the result of two aspects working together: the parables? figurative character requiring a particular interpretation process on the one hand, and the rejection of the Gospels? interpretation method in the beginning of modern parable research on the other hand. This combination makes the parables problematic sources for reconstructions of the historical Jesus. By questioning the latter, however, the parables of Jesus regain value as sources for our understanding of the identity of Jesus. Then the parables tell us something about the didactic abilities of Jesus.