The pronoun them is best taken to refer back to the Pharisees of 9.40. Jerusalem Bible indicates in a footnote that this is the noun to which the pronoun refers. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch renders “Jesus told this parable.” In some languages it may be necessary to say “Jesus told the people there.”

The word here translated parable (Greek paroimia) is not the word rendered parable (Greek parabolē) elsewhere in the Gospels. This particular word is used only here and in John 16.25,29 and 2 Peter 2.22. Although different translations use other terms for this word (for example, Revised Standard Version, New American Bible “figure”; Moffatt “allegory”; Phillips “illustration”), it is doubtful that in biblical Greek any distinction should be made between this term and the word normally used for parable, and so Good News Translation, New English Bible, and Jerusalem Bible all translate parable. In the Septuagint both words (parabolē and paroimia) are used to translate the Hebrew word mashal, a broad term referring to all types of figurative speech. There seems to be no perceptible difference between the term as John uses it here and the word other Gospels use for “parable,” and so it is probably best to translate both by the same term.

In translating Jesus told them this parable, one verb that specifies the act of telling a parable may be used; but in translating what he meant it may be necessary to use a verb that primarily means communicating, for example, “they did not understand what he was trying to say to them” or “… trying to communicate to them.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .