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Fable: A fable is a narrative in which being irrational, and sometimes inanimate, are, for the purpose of moral instruction, feigned to act and speak with human interests and passions. --Encyc. Brit. The fable differs from the parable in that --
1. The parable always relates what actually takes place, and is true to fact, which the fable is not; and
2. The parable teaches the higher heavenly and spiritual truths, but the fable only earthly moralities. Of the fable, as distinguished from the parable [PARABLE], we have but two examples in the Bible:
1. That of the trees choosing their king, addressed by Jotham to the men of Shechem, Jud 9:8-15
2. That of the cedar of Lebanon and the thistle, as the answer of Jehoash to the challenge of Amaziah. 2Ki 14:9 The fables of false teachers claiming to belong to the Christian Church, alluded to by writers of the New Testament, 1Ti 1:4; 4:7; Tit 1:14; 2Pe 1:16 do not appear to have had the character of fables, properly so called.
See Also: Parable
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