Peace for the Disciples

²⁵ “I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures but will tell you plainly of the Father.

¹² “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.^(A)

²⁸ I came from the Father and have come into the world; again, I am leaving the world and am going to the Father.”^(A)

²⁹ His disciples said, “Yes, now you are speaking plainly, not in any figure of speech!

⁶ Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

¹³ And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables?

The Use of Parables

³⁴ Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables; without a parable he told them nothing.^{(A) 35} This was to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet:^[a]

The Purpose of the Parables

¹⁰ Then the disciples came and asked him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” ¹¹ He answered, “To you it has been given to know the secrets^[a] of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.^(A)

¹² Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with complete frankness,^{(A) 13} not like Moses, who put a veil over his face to keep the people of Israel from gazing at the end of the glory that^[a] was being set aside.^{(B) 14} But their minds were hardened. Indeed, to this very day, when they hear the reading of the old covenant, the same veil is still there; it is not unveiled since in Christ it is set aside.^{(C) 15} Indeed, to this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds,^{[b] 16} but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.^{(D) 17} Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.^{(E) 18} And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.^(F)