The Parables We Live

When scholars look at tightly packed similar stories like we find in the opening of Mark, they will often refer to them as symbolic actions. And that's a tricky phrase, because often people will hear that and latch on to the word symbolic and then assume that what scholars are trying to do is undermine the historicity of these miracles, like they didn't really happen. They're just symbols or metaphors. Personally, I don't think that's really all that scary. To be honest, sometimes the line between what's a parable and what's not from Jesus is nuanced.