5. Note how each parable and its redactional shaping fit with the purpose and plan of each Evangelist. This will include looking for help in the context in which a parable appears, but with the recognition that the specific context of many of the parables has not been preserved. The parables are stories used twice—once by Jesus and then again by the Evangelists. They are stories within larger stories, parables woven into the Gospel narratives. The narratives provide an interpretive field within which