in our previous four volumes, appears both obvious and pressing. Without such a framework, it is difficult if not impossible to guess what Jesus might or might not have meant by a particular parable—especially when, read in isolation, a given parable is open to an almost endless number of interpretations. What parable research from the last century has taught us—or should have taught us—is that, once a given parable is detached from both its redactional context in a Gospel and its historical context