Parables and Conflict in the Hebrew Bible examines the intimate relationship between parables and conflict in the Hebrew Bible. Challenging the scholarly consensus, Jeremy Schipper argues that parables do not function as appeals to change their audience#s behavior. Nor do they serve to diffuse tensions in regards to the various conflicts in which their audiences are involved. Rather, the parables function to help create, intensify, and justify judgments and hostile actions against their audiences. In order to examine how the parables accomplish these functions, this book pays particular attention to issues of genre and recent developments in genre theory, shifting the central issues in the interpretation of Hebrew Bible parables. # Fills a significant gap in parable scholarship by proposing a fresh theory regarding parables# function in the Hebrew Bible # Provides an overview of Hebrew Bible parables through close readings of all parables appearing within the Hebrew Bible#s prose sections in conversation with selected parables appearing in its prophetic sections # Advances the study of genre in relation to parable scholarship