Confused Christian,
Maybe this will help to unconfuse you:
Mark 4:11 "And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables: That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them."
The reason for telling the peasants little stories was because they were illiterate, totally unschooled peasants. They were hicks that knew nothing. It was very common when most people were illiterate to orally teach them (not because it was better) because they couldn't read. Mark 4:11 is referring to teaching the illiterate people, but we know that the Parables or Proverbs didn't originate with the bible they existed long before. Romans must have been relying on the stupidity and illiteracy of people to never know anything without someone telling them a story.
Proverbs 1:6 To understand a proverb; and the interpretation of the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.
The only way to understand how the biblical book of Proverbs was composed is to study the Proverbs of Ancient Sumer that is the world's earliest Proverb collections. In ancient times they used Proverbs as a method of teaching in the schools. When the Romans started burning libraries and books that didn't agree with the new religion, such as the library at Alexandria, we probably lost many books and the originals.
The Book of Proverbs was ancient "wise men" philosopher's "dark sayings." The Kings are advised by these "wise men" through their "dark sayings." There were men of the ancient past who were considered "wise men." The Book of Proverbs is a compilation of the proverbs spoken by these wise men. The biblical King Solomon supposedly put these sayings together in one book. These are ancient philosophical teachings and when understood they would have little relevance today.
There are parallels to biblical Proverbs in Ugaritic text, Egypt, and Sumerian proverbs. When the Ugaritic text were first found scholars didn't understand them until they eventually deciphered the ancient languages. They have used the Ugaritic text to more clearly understand what is written in the bible
(from Ugaritic text) because many things in the bible didn't make sense because words were misinterpreted until they got the right words from the Ugaritic text. These are among the oldest writings.
The bible is one of the most garbled messages ever presented to the human race. It is full of plagiarism, forgeries and misinterpretations. Concerning words we know today the bible misinterpreted words because the correct words were found in other ancient writings.
The whole idea of a hell where people burned forever came from a misinterpretation of words. Nobody knows what some of the Proverbs or Parables really mean unless they have corrected the mistakes and very few of the evangelists could. They just don't have the necessary knowledge of ancient languages to do that.
"Proverbs were anterior to books, and formed the wisdom of the vulgar, and in the earliest ages were the unwritten laws of morality." Benjamin Disraeli
