conservative circles, the gap between scholar and student is often particularly acute, since only recently have a few good texts on the parables appeared which take account of the flood of recent research.2 In churches, pastors and teachers often continue to recommend the standard works of a generation or more ago. Quite frankly, many of these older works are painfully out-of-date and methodologically inadequate in many respects, even if they do contain numerous helpful devotional insights.3