Lectio Daily

The Parables of Jesus

The list, with the chapter for each one and the Gospels it appears in.

A parable is a short story drawn from ordinary life — a sowing, a wedding, an unpaid debt — that Jesus tells to a crowd and leaves open. The three synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) carry dozens of them, and many show up in two or in all three, each evangelist telling it his own way. Below is the list of the widely recognised ones, with the chapter where each is read and every parallel passage.

  1. The house on the rockMatthew 7Luke 6
  2. New wine in old wineskinsMatthew 9Mark 2Luke 5
  3. The sowerMatthew 13Mark 4Luke 8
  4. The weeds among the wheatMatthew 13
  5. The mustard seedMatthew 13Mark 4Luke 13
  6. The yeastMatthew 13Luke 13
  7. The hidden treasureMatthew 13
  8. The pearl of great priceMatthew 13
  9. The netMatthew 13
  10. The lost sheepMatthew 18Luke 15
  11. The unforgiving servantMatthew 18
  12. The workers in the vineyardMatthew 20
  13. The two sonsMatthew 21
  14. The wicked tenantsMatthew 21Mark 12Luke 20
  15. The wedding banquetMatthew 22
  16. The budding fig treeMatthew 24Mark 13Luke 21
  17. The faithful and wise servantMatthew 24Luke 12
  18. The ten virginsMatthew 25
  19. The talentsMatthew 25
  20. The sheep and the goatsMatthew 25
  21. The lamp under a basketMark 4Luke 8Luke 11
  22. The growing seedMark 4
  23. The watchful doorkeeperMark 13Luke 12
  24. The two debtorsLuke 7
  25. The good SamaritanLuke 10
  26. The friend at midnightLuke 11
  27. The rich foolLuke 12
  28. The barren fig treeLuke 13
  29. The lowest seat at the tableLuke 14
  30. The great banquetLuke 14
  31. The tower and the king going to warLuke 14
  32. The lost coinLuke 15
  33. The prodigal sonLuke 15
  34. The shrewd managerLuke 16
  35. The rich man and LazarusLuke 16
  36. The servant's dutyLuke 17
  37. The persistent widowLuke 18
  38. The Pharisee and the tax collectorLuke 18
  39. The ten minasLuke 19

John is the exception: the fourth Gospel contains no parables in the narrative form the synoptics use. There are no sowers, no debtors, no banquets told as a story about other people. What it has instead are extended images that Jesus develops in the first person: the good shepherd (John 10) and the vine and the branches (John 15). The Greek marks the difference with a different word — paroimia, at John 10:6 and 16:25, 29 — where the synoptics use parabolē, and translations disagree about how to render it: at John 10:6 some read "parable", others "figure of speech" or "illustration". That is why John's extended images are not in the list below, even though plenty of other lists slip them in without saying so.

That is why this page gives you the list rather than a round number. Published catalogues range from about thirty parables to more than forty-five, and the gap is not a denominational one — Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox read the same four Gospels — it is a matter of criteria: whether a one-line simile (the lamp, the salt) counts as a parable, whether the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25 is a parable or a judgement scene, and whether a story that Matthew, Mark and Luke each tell in their own way counts once or three times. Here each story is counted once, with its parallels listed beside it: 39 entries.

Seven parables in a row

No chapter packs in more of them than Matthew 13: the sower, the weeds, the mustard seed, the yeast, the hidden treasure, the pearl and the net, one after another. Some catalogues count an eighth at verse 52. Read it end to end in one sitting.

Matthew 13Plans