Source: Richard Bauckham, The Climax of Prophecy: Studies on the Book of Revelation (London; New York: T&T Clark: A Continuum Imprint, 1993), 92–117.
Synoptic Parousia Parables and the Apocalypse.wav
This podcast analyzes how parables about the Second Coming of Christ (parousia), particularly the Watching Servants and the Thief, were used and transformed in early Christian writings. It argues that these parables were widely known and often associated together, leading to a process called "deparabolization" where their imagery was extracted and used as independent metaphors or exhortations for Christian readiness. While the story of the parables persisted, this deparabolization was the primary way the church's teaching influenced the form of these parables in the tradition. The podcast examines examples in the Synoptic Gospels, Revelation, and other early texts to show this pattern, suggesting that while Revelation's prophetic pronouncements formulate sayings as spoken by the exalted Christ, their use of existing tradition isn't fundamentally more "creative" than other early Christian teaching.
When we read the Bible, it’s easy to think of its verses and stories as fixed and static, like words carved in stone. We open to a passage, read it, and assume it has always existed in that exact form, carrying a single, unchanging meaning through the centuries. But the reality of the early church was far more dynamic. The teachings of Jesus were part of a living tradition, a collection of stories and sayings that were retold, adapted, and even remixed to speak to new situations.
A deep dive into the Book of Revelation and its relationship to the parables of Jesus reveals some fascinating and counter-intuitive insights into this process. The author of Revelation, the prophet John, didn’t just quote Jesus; he engaged with the traditions of Jesus’s teachings in sophisticated ways. This interaction shows us how familiar stories were understood and applied in a community grappling with its identity and its hope for the future.
By looking closely at how the parables were used, we can peel back layers of tradition and see the text not as a static artifact, but as a vibrant part of an ongoing conversation. Here are four of the most surprising truths that a scholarly reading of Revelation and the Gospels reveals about this living tradition.
In the early church, the parables of Jesus were so intensely used that a fascinating process began to occur, a process scholars call “deparabolization.” This is when the original narrative structure of a parable breaks down, and its core imagery gets extracted and turned into standalone metaphorical commands or slogans. The story itself starts to dissolve, leaving behind its most memorable and practical pieces. The parable of the Watching Servants was particularly susceptible to this treatment because its core imagery—servants waiting, keeping awake, lamps lit—was already in common Christian use, making the metaphors easy to lift from their narrative context.
A prime example of this process appears in a first-century Christian text called the Didache. In chapter 16, verse 1, we find a mosaic of exhortations that have been mined from different parables. The instruction “let your lamps not be extinguished” is pulled directly from the Watching Servants, while the command to “be ready; for you do not know the hour” is lifted from the application of the Thief parable. This shows how early Christians could weave together deparabolized fragments from multiple stories to create a dense patchwork of instructions.
This is significant because it shows how the practical, moral message of a story could become even more important than the story itself. The narrative was mined for its most useful parts, which were then polished into easily remembered instructions for Christian living—a practice known as paraenesis, or moral exhortation. This process of breaking down stories into their core components is crucial for understanding how a single, powerful verse like Revelation 3:20 could be both an echo of a parable and something entirely new.