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—

• The parable always relates what actually takes place, and is true to fact, which the fable is not; and
• 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:
• That of the trees choosing their king, addressed by Jotham to the men of Shechem, (Judges 9:8-15)
• That of the cedar of Lebanon and the thistle, as the answer of Jehoash to the challenge of Amaziah. (2 Kings 14:9) The fables of false teachers claiming to belong to the Christian Church, alluded to by writers of the New Testament, (1 Timothy 1:4; 4:7; Titus 1:14; 2 Peter 1:16) do not appear to have had the character of fables, properly so called.