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The article examines the term parable as it is used in the New Testament (in Greek parabole) and in the interpretation of the Gospels. At first, the Czech usage is presented, followed by the terminology of the Bible. Then the understanding of this word as a literary term is explored, beginning with classical authors. Much attention is paid to what biblical scholarship has said about the parables of Jesus in the last more than hundred years since the influential work of A. Jülicher. We can see that the approaches to the parables have been very diverse so that the only consensus among modern scholars seems to be the fact that Jesus sometimes spoke in parables. However, this cannot lead to an arbitrary interpretation of Jesus' parables. In author's opinion, the working definition of A. J. Hultgren can be useful in practice: A parable is a figure of speech in which a comparison is made between God's kingdom, actions, or expectations and something in this world, real or imagined.