striding over the unploughed stubble, and this enables us to under-
stand why he sows 'on ⁴ the path': he sows intentionally on the path
which the villagers have trodden over the stubble, ⁵ since he intends
to plough the seed in when he ploughs up the path. He sows inten-
tionally among the thorns standing withered in the fallow because
they, too, will be ploughed up. Nor need it surprise us that some
grains should fall upon rocky ground; the underlying limestone,
thinly covered with soil, barely shows above the surface until the
ploughshare jars against it. What appears to the western mind as
bad farming is simply customary usage under Palestinian condi-
tions.

Furthermore, when the result of a comparison of the Synoptic
parables with contemporary literature of the same type, such as
Pauline similitudes or rabbinical parables, is to reveal a definite
personal character, a unique clarity and simplicity, a matchless
mastery of construction, the conclusion is inevitable that in reading
the parables we are dealing with a particularly trustworthy tradition,
and are brought into immediate relation with Jesus.

Not only do the parables of Jesus regarded as a whole represent a
specially reliable tradition, but they also present the appearance of
being entirely free from problematic elements. The hearers find
themselves in a familiar scene where everything is so simple and
clear that a child can understand, so plain that those who hear
can say, 'Yes, that's how it is.' Nevertheless, the parables confront
us with a difficult problem, namely, the recovery of their original
meaning.

Already in the earliest period of all, during the first decade after
the death of Jesus, the parables had undergone a certain amount of
reinterpretation. At a very early stage the process of treating the

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