	The parables of Jesus are not—at any rate primarily—literary productions, nor is it their object to lay down general maxims…, but each of them was uttered in an actual situation of the life of Jesus, at a particular and often unforeseen point. Moreover, … they were mostly concerned with a situation of conflict—with justification, defense, attack, and even challenge. For the most part, though not exclusively, they are weapons of controversy. Joachim Jeremias, The Parables of Jesus, 21

Only when treated as art and not in the first place as an instrument or weapon of warfare… has the parable a word to say to other generations than that to which it was addressed. (165; 28 in Tolbert) G. V. Jones, The Art and Truth of the Parables London: SPCK, 1964

What is a parable?