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Jesus Tells Why He Used Stories(A)

10 Later, when Jesus was alone, the twelve apostles and others around him asked him about the ·stories [parables; see 3:23].

11 Jesus said, “·You can know [To you has been given] the secret about the kingdom of God. But to ·other people [outsiders] I tell everything by using ·stories [parables] 12 so that:

‘They will look and look, but they will not ·learn [perceive].
    They will listen and listen, but they will not understand.
·If they did learn and understand [L Otherwise],
    they ·would [might] ·come back [return] to me and be forgiven [Is. 6:9–10; cf. Is. 43:8; Jer. 5:21; Ezek. 12:2].’”

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10 As soon as He was alone, those who were around Him, together with the twelve [disciples], began asking Him about [the interpretation of] the parables. 11 He said to them, “The mystery of the kingdom of God has been given to you [who have teachable hearts], but those who are outside [the unbelievers, the spiritually blind] get everything in parables, 12 so that they will continually look but not see, and they will continually hear but not understand, otherwise they might turn [from their rejection of the truth] and be forgiven.”(A)

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