the catholic encyclopedia states: "there are no parables in st. john's gospel. in the synoptics ... we reckon thirty-three in all; but some have raised the number even to sixty, by including proverbial expressions." the gospel of luke contains both the largest total number of parables (24) and eighteen unique parables; the gospel of matthew contains 23 parables of which eleven are unique; and the gospel of mark contains eight parables of which two are unique.