and records three previously unknown parables: the Date Palm (7:24–35), the Grain of Wheat (8:16–28), and the Ear of Grain (12:22–30).111 For all intents and purposes, the early church did not tell parables, not in the canonical material and not in the early or later writings after the apostolic period. The closest accounts similar to parables are the long allegorical treatments in the Shepherd of Hermas, but they are not close to Jesus’ parables, even though they use the word parabolē and have occasional