MSJ 2:2 (Fall 91) p. 147 words: “Now He was telling them a parable” (18:1). The interpreter is informed that the teaching is to be construed in keeping with principles of parabolic hermeneutics. Therefore, the interpretive strategy has obvious differences from one adopted in Exod 20:15: “You shall not steal.” Recognizing and understanding the genre of a given passage prompts a reading strategy, rules out false expectations, and represents an entre to the meaning of the text.13 In the final analysis,