IamJoseph

Parables are not revelation. The latter uses specific commands, in a mode which is never subject to intepretation or confusion by all generations of mankind. Visions [mental perceptions] are sometimes used as parables when it is dangerous to be explicit [as with Daniel under persecution in Babylon].

There has never been a prophet whose words were parables or not understood - we see this in 55 Hebrew prophetic writings, which uses the most sublime grammar, namely the shortest distance between any two words - only the exacting adjectives and adverbs are used, with the least number of words possible of its definition - leaving no room for fillers. The 10 Commandments are not parables but specific mandated constants, and these are the greatest revelations ever handed down to humanity. Nothing mentioned in the Gospel is a historical event, self declared as 'belief' - yet the mass murder of a million Jews under its writer's times is a historical event - but not even mentioned!

Newfie

Like I said, I know the modern definition of what a parable is, and it's based on the belief that what Jesus was doing was using imaginary situations to illustrate a teaching in a simple way. This is something that works quite well in modern times with everyone understanding that the situation itself merely serves as a framework, but do we know for certain that this was how Jesus' little tales were understood by his direct followers, or even meant by himself?

In other words, is it possible that we created the definition for parable based on a theological belief of what Jesus meant by his stories, one that had to jive with their not being literal accounts, yet still in the spirit of truth? Could this have been a misunderstanding that developed through a Christian need to define Jesus as equally human and God?

Joan of Bark

Which is why I never boil a kid in its mother's milk.

The ten commandments (whichever version you prefer) are regularly flouted by Christians and Jews without guilt or explanation.

Vinnie

Why would you when boiling them in buttermilk provides better flavor

premjan

Yogurt is a good meat tenderizer (used at least for chicken in Indian cooking).

Newfie

Not such great revelations. Pretty basic stuff, really. Don't murder. Don't Steal. No mention of consequences whatsoever, so they fail to serve as a legal code per se. If anything, they have more in common with the rules of a board game. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200.

Judeo-Christian tradition holds up the commandments like they were the very first laws ever written, but the Egyptians that Moses led his people away from had their own laws, and even they were not the first. The Sumerian code of Ur-Nammu probably predates the ten commandments by a thousand years and it offers matching punishments for crimes.

From Wiki.
There are 25 other surviving laws. They're harsh by our standards, but in many ways less so than the later Biblical laws. They are far more cosmopolitan and you can almost say that they are more contemporary than the commandments.