How to write a test which expects an Error to be thrown in Jasmine?

Try using an anonymous function instead:

expect( function(){ parser.parse(raw); } ).toThrow(new Error("Parsing is not possible"));

you should be passing a function into the expect(...) call. Your incorrect code:

// incorrect:
expect(parser.parse(raw)).toThrow(new Error("Parsing is not possible"));

is trying to actually call parser.parse(raw) in an attempt to pass the result into expect(...),

You are using:

expect(fn).toThrow(e)

But if you'll have a look on the function comment (expected is string):

294 /**
295  * Matcher that checks that the expected exception was thrown by the actual.
296  *
297  * @param {String} expected
298  */
299 jasmine.Matchers.prototype.toThrow = function(expected) {

I suppose you should probably write it like this (using lambda - anonymous function):

expect(function() { parser.parse(raw); } ).toThrow("Parsing is not possible");

This is confirmed in the following example:

expect(function () {throw new Error("Parsing is not possible")}).toThrow("Parsing is not possible");

Douglas Crockford strongly recommends this approach, instead of using "throw new Error()" (prototyping way):

throw {
   name: "Error",
   message: "Parsing is not possible"
}

I replace Jasmine's toThrow matcher with the following, which lets you match on the exception's name property or its message property. For me this makes tests easier to write and less brittle, as I can do the following:

throw {
   name: "NoActionProvided",
   message: "Please specify an 'action' property when configuring the action map."
}

and then test with the following:

expect (function () {
   .. do something
}).toThrow ("NoActionProvided");

This lets me tweak the exception message later without breaking tests, when the important thing is that it threw the expected type of exception.

This is the replacement for toThrow that allows this:

jasmine.Matchers.prototype.toThrow = function(expected) {
  var result = false;
  var exception;
  if (typeof this.actual != 'function') {
    throw new Error('Actual is not a function');
  }
  try {
    this.actual();
  } catch (e) {
    exception = e;
  }
  if (exception) {
      result = (expected === jasmine.undefined || this.env.equals_(exception.message || exception, expected.message || expected) || this.env.equals_(exception.name, expected));
  }

  var not = this.isNot ? "not " : "";

  this.message = function() {
    if (exception && (expected === jasmine.undefined || !this.env.equals_(exception.message || exception, expected.message || expected))) {
      return ["Expected function " + not + "to throw", expected ? expected.name || expected.message || expected : " an exception", ", but it threw", exception.name || exception.message || exception].join(' ');
    } else {
      return "Expected function to throw an exception.";
    }
  };

  return result;
};