Every parable Jesus told in the Gospels — who he told it to and why, what it teaches, where it is written, and how many Gospel accounts record it — organized by category.
“Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable.” — Matthew 13:34
Each card is one parable. The line under the title tells you who Jesus told it to and what prompted it — parables were almost always answers, and knowing the question is half the interpretation. Open a card for the point and the story's detail. The number on the right counts the Gospels that record it.
For group study: one category per session (eight sessions). Read the parable aloud, name the original audience before discussing, then close with the questions. The audience line will often change what you thought the parable meant.
Patterns to watch for as you read
Almost every parable answers someone: Peter's question, a lawyer's test, Pharisees muttering, a crowd expecting the kingdom at once. The same story shifts meaning with its hearers — Luke aims the Lost Sheep at grumbling Pharisees, Matthew at disciples tempted to despise the little ones. Before asking 'what does this mean?', ask 'who was in front of him?'
When the disciples ask why he teaches this way, Jesus quotes Isaiah 6: 'though seeing, they do not see' (Matthew 13:13-15). Parables sort their hearers — the open lean in and ask, the hardened walk away with a story about farming. They are invitations that can be declined without ever being understood.
The eleventh-hour workers paid a full day. The prodigal embraced before his speech is done. The tax collector justified instead of the Pharisee. Again and again the parables set God's generosity against human bookkeeping — and the sting is usually aimed at the religious insider watching from the edge of the story.
The bridegroom is 'a long time in coming'; the master 'stays away a long time'; the nobleman departs to a distant country. A whole cluster of parables assumes an interval between the kingdom's arrival and its completion — and asks one question about it: what will faithfulness look like in the meantime?
Sixteen parables survive only in Luke — nearly all his signature mercy stories: the Samaritan, the Prodigal, the Rich Fool, the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. Twelve are only in Matthew, mostly kingdom and judgment parables. Mark alone preserves the Growing Seed. John has no story parables at all — instead, extended figures: the Shepherd, the Vine. Losing any one Gospel would have lost us treasures.
Scope: the story parables and major parabolic sayings of Jesus in the four Gospels. Published lists range from about thirty to over forty-six entries because the boundary between a parable and a brief metaphor is drawn differently — this study counts 44, including short one-verse parables (the Strong Man, the Lamp) but excluding bare metaphors (salt of the earth, fishers of men). The 'accounts' badge counts the Gospels that record each parable; parallel passages are judged by standard Gospel-parallel alignments.
Judgment calls, flagged for transparency: the Talents (Matthew) and the Minas (Luke) are treated as distinct parables, as are the Wedding Banquet (Matthew) and the Great Banquet (Luke) — both the majority scholarly view, though some treat each pair as one parable told twice. The Sheep and the Goats is included though many classify it as a judgment scene using parabolic imagery. John's Good Shepherd and True Vine are included in their own category with the note that John himself calls such teaching a 'figure of speech' (John 10:6), not a parable in the Synoptic sense.
The 'point' given for each parable states the widely held mainstream reading; several parables (most notably the Shrewd Manager) carry live interpretive debates that a study group can explore beyond what one line can hold. Quotations follow the NIV.