A List of the Parables of Jesus (and Where to Find Them)

By Pastor Duke Taber Jun 23, 2026 0CategoryBible TeachingsTag - Parables of Jesus

By Duke Taber

In This Article

You heard one in a sermon years ago. Something about a man who found treasure in a field and sold everything to buy it. Now you want to read it for yourself, and you have no idea where it is. Is it Matthew? Luke? Somewhere in the back of a Gospel you rarely open?

If that is you, take a breath. You are not the first person to go hunting for a parable you half remember. After more than thirty years of preaching, I have lost count of how many times someone has stopped me after a service and said, “Pastor, where is that one about the seeds?” The answer is usually closer than they think. The deeper answer is that the parables were never meant to be hard to find. They were meant to be impossible to forget.

This article is two things at once. It is a map, showing you where each major parable lives in your Bible. And it is a little bit of a guide, helping you see why Jesus told so many of these stories and how they fit together. By the time you finish, you will know not just where the parables are, but why they belong where they are.

What Actually Counts as a Parable

Before we list them, we have to answer a question that sounds simple and is not. How many parables did Jesus tell?

You will find different numbers in different places, and that is not a mistake or sloppy counting. The word we translate “parable” comes from the Greek parabolē, which literally means to throw alongside or to place side by side. The idea is comparison. You take something familiar, a field, a coin, a wayward son, and you lay it next to something unfamiliar, the kingdom of God, so the second thing comes into focus. Behind the Greek stands the Hebrew word mashal, which covers everything from a proverb to a riddle to a full story. That is a wide net.

So the count depends entirely on how tightly you define the word. If you only count the longer narrative stories, you land somewhere around thirty-five to forty. Many careful lists settle on about thirty-eight or thirty-nine. One ministry resource counts thirty-nine distinct parables, ranging from the single verse about an old garment all the way to the twenty-one verses of the prodigal son. If you open the definition to include every short simile and figure of speech, the number climbs past forty and even toward sixty. The exact figure matters less than the pattern. Whatever number you choose, parables made up roughly a third of everything Jesus taught. This was not a side method. It was His main one.

Scripture itself underlines that:

“And with many such parables He spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it. But without a parable He did not speak to them. And when they were alone, He explained all things to His disciples.” — Mark 4:33-34 (NKJV)

Read that slowly. To the crowds, story. To the disciples, the meaning behind the story. The parable was a doorway. It welcomed the curious and it quietly closed itself to the proud. If you want to go deeper on the numbers question, I wrote a fuller piece on how many parables Jesus actually taught, and another on the different types of parables He used.

Where the Parables Live

Here is the first thing that surprises people. Almost every parable Jesus told sits in just three books. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called the Synoptic Gospels because they “see together,” sharing much of the same material, and the parables belong to them. The Gospel of John, for all its glory, contains no parables in the usual sense. John gives us long discourses and extended pictures instead, like the vine and the branches or the good shepherd, but not the short comparison stories you find in the other three.

Luke holds the most, and many of his are found nowhere else. The Good Samaritan, the prodigal son, the rich fool, the persistent widow, all of them are Luke’s gift to the church. So if you are reading through the parables for the first time, Luke is a rich place to linger.

Now let us walk through them by theme, because grouping them is the fastest way to both remember them and find them.

The Kingdom Parables

When Jesus wanted to describe what the reign of God is like, He reached for ordinary things. Matthew 13 is the great chapter for this, a single sitting where He stacks one kingdom picture on another. There is the parable of the sower, the most foundational of them all, which appears in all three Synoptics (Matthew 13:1-23; Mark 4:1-20; Luke 8:4-15). There is the wheat and the tares growing together until harvest (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43). There is the tiny mustard seed that becomes a tree (Matthew 13:31-32; Mark 4:30-32; Luke 13:18-19), and the hidden leaven that works through the whole lump of dough (Matthew 13:33). There is the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price, twin stories about a kingdom worth everything you own (Matthew 13:44-46). The chapter closes with the dragnet that gathers fish of every kind (Matthew 13:47-50). Mark adds one the others leave out, the growing seed that sprouts while the farmer sleeps (Mark 4:26-29).

Jesus ended much of this teaching with the same refrain:

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” — Matthew 13:9 (NKJV)

These stories repay slow reading. I have walked small groups through Matthew 13 more times than I can count, and the same thing happens every time. People arrive thinking they already know the sower. They leave realizing the parable was reading them. If you want a closer look, I gathered the seven kingdom parables of Matthew 13 in one place, with a dedicated study on the mustard seed and on the hidden treasure.

The Parables of Grace and the Lost

Luke 15 is the heart of the Bible for anyone who has ever felt far from God. In one unbroken stretch, Jesus tells three stories about things that are lost and then found. A lost sheep wandered from the flock (Luke 15:3-7, with a parallel in Matthew 18:12-14). A lost coin rolled into a dark corner of the house (Luke 15:8-10). And a lost son, the prodigal, walked away on purpose and came home broken (Luke 15:11-32).

Notice what ties them together. In each one, heaven throws a party when the lost is recovered.

“Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” — Luke 15:10 (NKJV)

There is one more in this family, easy to miss. Back in Luke 7:41-43, Jesus tells the short parable of the two debtors to a Pharisee who is judging a weeping woman. The one forgiven more, He says, loves more. Grace and gratitude rise and fall together.

The Parables of Prayer and Persistence

Some parables exist to keep us praying when we are tempted to quit. The persistent widow wears down an unjust judge until he gives her justice, and Jesus tells it so that we will “always pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1-8). The friend at midnight bangs on a door until his sleeping neighbor finally gets up (Luke 11:5-8). And the Pharisee and the tax collector stand in the same temple praying two very different prayers, one self-satisfied and one desperate, and only the desperate man goes home justified (Luke 18:9-14).

These three together form a small school of prayer. They teach us to be persistent, to be bold, and to be honest about who we really are when we kneel.

The Parables of Mercy and How We Treat People

Two parables in this group should be memorized by every believer. The first is the Good Samaritan, told in answer to a lawyer trying to define how little love he could get away with (Luke 10:25-37). A man is beaten and left for dead. The respectable pass by. The despised foreigner stops. Then Jesus turns the question back on the man who asked it.

“And he said, ‘He who showed mercy on him.’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.'” — Luke 10:37 (NKJV)

The second is the unforgiving servant, forgiven an unpayable debt by his king and then choking a fellow servant over a small one (Matthew 18:21-35). It is the most uncomfortable parable for anyone holding a grudge, and that is exactly why it is in the Bible.

The Parables of Money, Stewardship, and the Heart

Jesus talked about money more than almost any other subject, and several parables put it under a bright light. The rich fool tears down his barns to build bigger ones, plans for many years, and dies that night (Luke 12:13-21). The talents in Matthew 25:14-30 and the very similar minas in Luke 19:11-27 both ask what we are doing with what the Master entrusted to us. The shrewd manager of Luke 16:1-13 is one of the strangest stories Jesus ever told, a dishonest steward held up as a lesson in foresight. And the rich man and Lazarus pulls back the curtain on eternity, showing a great reversal that can never be undone (Luke 16:19-31).

What unites them is a single warning. The heart follows the treasure, so be careful where you put it.

The Parables of Readiness and the Return of the King

A whole cluster of parables points forward to the day Jesus comes back, and they share one urgent note. Be ready. The ten virgins wait for the bridegroom, and five of them let their lamps run dry (Matthew 25:1-13). The faithful and wise servant keeps working because he does not know the hour his master returns, while the foolish servant assumes he has time to waste (Matthew 24:45-51; Luke 12:42-48). The wedding feast in Matthew 22:1-14 and the great banquet in Luke 14:15-24 both describe a generous invitation that the expected guests refuse, so the doors swing open to everyone else. And the wicked tenants murder the owner’s son rather than give him his due, a parable so pointed the religious leaders knew He was talking about them (Matthew 21:33-46; Mark 12:1-12; Luke 20:9-19).

If one of these has tugged at you before, I unpacked the parable of the faithful servant and what it means to live ready.

The Short Comparisons People Walk Right Past

Not every parable is a story with characters and a plot. Many are brief, almost tossed off, and they are easy to miss when you read quickly. Jesus compared the futility of patching the old with the new in the new cloth and new wineskins (Matthew 9:16-17; Mark 2:21-22; Luke 5:36-39). He spoke of a lamp under a basket that no one would ever hide (Matthew 5:14-16; Mark 4:21-22; Luke 8:16). He described the wise and foolish builders who hear His words and either build on rock or on sand (Matthew 7:24-27; Luke 6:46-49). He told of a barren fig tree given one more year to bear fruit (Luke 13:6-9), the two sons who each said one thing and did another (Matthew 21:28-32), and the workers in the vineyard all paid the same wage by a scandalously generous landowner (Matthew 20:1-16).

These shorter pieces are not lesser parables. They are concentrated. A single image, and the whole point lands in one breath.

How to Actually Use This List

A list is only useful if you do something with it. You have a few good options.

You can read by theme, taking one group at a time, which is how this article is arranged. You can read by Gospel, working straight through Luke to catch the parables found nowhere else. Or you can take one parable a week, sitting with it long enough to let it ask its question. Whatever pace you choose, do not just read the story. Ask what Jesus was answering when He told it, because most parables were responses to a question, a critic, or a moment. The context is half the meaning.

This is also where a structured study earns its keep. Reading a parable once is good. Studying a parable with others, returning to it, letting it correct you, is how it changes you. The parables were built for that kind of community.

If you want help seeing the bigger picture, I have written on why the parables of Jesus still transform lives, on how the parables reveal the heart of the Father, and a gathering of the ten most famous parables if you want a shorter starting point.

One Last Thing to Hold Onto

Here is what I have come to believe after a lifetime with these stories. The parables are not just a clever teaching method. They are an invitation into the way God Himself sees the world. He sees a wandering sheep and goes after it. He sees a buried treasure and calls it worth everything. He sees a runaway son on the horizon and runs.

You came looking for where the parables are. I hope you leave knowing they are not riddles to crack but doors to walk through. Pick one this week. Read it slowly. Let it look back at you. That is exactly what Jesus made them to do.

Go Deeper in the Parables

If this list has stirred something in you, the next step is to study them, not just locate them. I built a complete resource for exactly that.

The 13-Lesson Parables of Jesus Bible Study walks through the major parables one at a time, perfect for personal devotions, a small group, or a midweek service.
Read it alongside this list so you always know where each story lives and what it means.
Whether you study alone or gather a few friends, give the parables room to do their slow, faithful work.

Pick up the study, open your Bible, and start with the sower. Everything else grows from there.