¥The Rabbinic literature is the written material that has survived from the
oral tradition of the Pharisees and their
successors in the first few centuries after the time of
Jesus.
¥In the ancient Greco-Roman world parables occur frequently in the
teaching of Jesus and the rabbinic literature, but
only rarely elsewhere.
¥Over 1500 rabbinic parables survive, though only 324 of these date
before AD 200.