Analysis of Rhetorical Questions in The Parables of Jesus in The NRSV Bible

Abstract

The parables of Jesus are analyzed with a view to seeing how Jesus persuades his audience employing various persuasive strategies and rhetorical appeals such as ethos, logos and pathos; in particular, the analysis sheds light on how Jesus utilizes rhetorical questions as his persuasive technique to influence the audience. In achieving this, the study specifically analyses Jesus’ Parables that are found in the NRSV Bible. Since the discovery of the total number of Parables differs from scholar to scholar, the researcher has chosen only those parables whose title starts with ‘The Parable’ in the NRSV Bible. Data are drawn from the thirty five parables of Jesus that are found in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke in the NRSV Bible; fifteen parables in the Gospel of Matthew, four parables in the Gospel of Mark and sixteen parables from the Gospel of Luke are studied to achieve the goal of this research. The analysis employs the framework of Aristotelian rhetoric model of communication. The methodology used by the researcher for his analysis is qualitative methodology. And the interpretation has been carried out by dint of qualitative content analysis. The findings suggest that the total number of rhetorical question found in the research is twenty eight. The researcher has also found that the total number of parables in which rhetorical question has been employed is seventeen. The researcher finds that rhetorical question is the most used rhetorical device in the parables and the most number of parables employ rhetorical question to influence the audience.