to fall down (Mark 3:25), of throwing children’s bread to dogs (Mark 7:27). He warned against the “yeast” of the Pharisees (Mark 8:15). Strictly speaking, however, these imaginative pictures are not stories. The stories Jesus told all fall into a particular category of story known as parables. A parable is a story from real life or a real-life situation from which a moral or spiritual truth is drawn. Examples are abundant: the prodigal son (Luke 15:11–32), the good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37), the
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