Researched by the Ignaria Editorial Team · Published 2026-03-12
The Fathers gave several interlocking reasons for Jesus's use of parables. Chrysostom reads the parabolic method as fulfilling Isaiah's prophecy: Jesus spoke to the multitudes only in parables, "uttering things that have been kept secret from the foundation of the world." Aquinas's Catena Aurea gathers the tradition's readings, including the view that the treasure hidden in the field represents the Holy Scriptures — the two Testaments as things new and old — so that the learned in the Church understands the Old Scriptures expounded in parables through the new. Matthew Henry emphasizes the progressive nature of parabolic teaching: those with receptive hearts are given more; those who harden themselves find even what they had taken away.
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What the primary sources show
"All these things spake Jesus unto the multitudes in parables, and without a parable spake He not unto them; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things that have been kept secret from the foundation of the world" — Chrysostom's reading of the parabolic method as deliberate prophetic fulfillment.
The treasure hidden in the field represents the Holy Scriptures — the two Testaments as things new and old — so that "he should be held learned in the Church who understood that the Old Scriptures were expounded in parables, taking rules from these new Scriptures" — the Catena's synthesis of patristic readings on how parables unlock the unity of Scripture.