The Esoteric Rule on Parables: Mark 4:10-12 and Its Earliest Reception History

The article argues for a renewed understanding of the Markan saying about parables and the “mystery of the kingdom” (Mark 4:10-12) in light of its earliest reception by Matthew and Luke. The saying plays a crucial role in developing Mark’s narrative strategy, as it provides readers with a key theoretical rationale for the double dimension the evangelist attributes to Jesus’s teaching method. The focal point of this method is that “parables” (i.e. coded language) are used by Jesus to maintain a harsh duality between insiders and outsiders. Such an idiosyncratic view, however, did not go unnoticed to the first readers of the Gospel and prompted both Matthew and Luke to engage in a softening or si-lencing manoeuvre that was not without repercussions on the later reception of Mark. It was not merely Mark’s radical theory of parables that troubled them, but also the esoteric communication pattern behind it.