readmore said:
You said earlier that interpreting the parable as talking about the church is eisegesis. This is, of course, because there was no church yet. I agree. But somehow you have made the leap to interpreting it as a "false church" as though it existed before the true church? That's even worse eisegesis.
I'm sorry. I was referring to seeing the 7 parables as the church as being eisogesis. BTW, have you ever heard that theory?
But in the case of the "woman," you are correct. I see her as the "one world religion" which, it later develops from the epistles, starts in the church. I'm sorry to throw you off like that. :tear:
To find what the parable is pointing to, it doesn't take too much searching. Jesus is talking about the Kingdom of Heaven. Not the "false Kingdom of Heaven".
And I obivously agree -- I pointed it out. And we shouldn't equate KoH with the church. Are we agreed on that?
The KoH is the earthbound but spiritual kingdom from Adam's fall to Christ's earthly MK.
Parables (or more specifically similitudes such as these) are a thought provoking little story which should be interpreted as illustrating a specific thing. The allegorical method you use seeks to ascribe a meaning to every little detail.
The more the detail, the clearer the "picture." Do you think the "picture" was unclear to Jesus or just to us? Could some of His detail have been a mistake?
The only things in a parable that should be interpreted are the "points of reference", and there are very few "points of reference" in relation to "details".
Exactly! Like the "point of reference" that LEAVEN gives us! Or like WOMAN and KoH gives us. These are the very least that we should recognize.
In this case, the points of reference are the loaf (the world) and the leaven (the Kingdom). The point is that the Kingdom of Heaven will start with one man and spread throughout the whole world.
No, that's the message of the mustard seed. In the case of the leavened MEAL (there is no "loaf"), there are THREE measures, not one. And in fact, you might not want to take my word for it but the MEAL has the meaning of wheat (Israel) and barley (Gentiles) mixed together in the world and in the last religion.
The other details in the story are not to be interpreted at all--as I said they are just there to draw the reader into the story.
You have a low opinion of Jesus "story-telling" abilities, my friend. :tear:
In fact, I do believe this parable has to do with the kingdom of heaven. I started this thread because I wanted people to take a shot at convincing me that leaven is always a "picture of sin". So far, though, I've found your attempt to interpret parables as allegories a bit underwhelming, and for every cut and paste job Linda64 puts in, I can put in one that disagrees with it (which is why I hate cut and paste jobs--who do they convince?).
What do you believe the "kingdom of heaven" to be? Whatever your answer, that is what makes my interpretation "overwhelming" to you. I've felt the same way about Larkin's interpretation. It is precisely his that made me revise mine. I came out not agreeing with him but establishing a better one.
skypair
