This book explores the intended meaning, as well as the implications and applications, of the three parables in Luke 15 (The Good Shepherd and the Lost Sheep, The Good Woman and the Lost Coin, and The Good Father and His Two Lost Sons). It reflects the author's immersion in the language, religion, and culture of the Middle East, demonstrating how meaningful the biblical text becomes when a broad background of study and analysis is permitted to illuminate the text.Western readers will gain an array of new insights from this volume and will be fascinated by the author's nuances of interpretation. The author's analysis shows how the cultural background of Arabic and Muslim theology affects the interpretation of these parables.
This volume is a combined edition of Poet and Peasant and Through Peasant Eyes, Kenneth Bailey's intensive studies of the parables in the gospel of Luke. Bailey begins by surveying the development of allegorical, historical-eschatological, aesthetic, and existential methods of interpretation. Though figures like Julicher, Jeremias, Dodd, Jones, and Via have made important advances, Bailey sees the need to go beyond them by combining an examination of the poetic structures of the parables with a better understanding of the Oriental culture that informs the text. Bailey's work within Middle Eastern peasant culture over the last twenty years has helped him in his attempt to determine the cultural assumptions that the teller of the parables must have made about his audience. The same values which underlay the impact of the parables in Christ's time, Bailey suggests, can be discovered today in isolated peasant communities in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. Because time has made almost no impact in these cultural pockets, it is possible to discern, for example, what it meant 2,000 years ago for a friend to come calling at midnight, or for a son to ask for his inheritance prior to his father's death. In addition to illuminating the cultural framework of the parables, Bailey offers an analysis of their literary structure, treating the parabolic section as a whole as well as its individual components. Through its combination of literary and cultural analyses, Bailey's study makes a number of profound advances in parabolic interpretation.
Beginning with Jesus' birth, Ken Bailey leads you on a kaleidoscopic study of Jesus throughout the four Gospels, examining the life and ministry of Jesus with attention to the Lord's Prayer, the Beatitudes, Jesus' relationship to women, and especially Jesus' parables. The work dispels the obscurity of Western interpretations with a stark vision of Jesus in his original context.
Israel, the community to which Jesus belonged, took its name from their patriarch Jacob. His story of exile and return was their story as well. In the well-known tale of the prodigal son, Jesus reshaped the story in his own way and for his own purposes. In this work, Kenneth E. Bailey compares the Old Testament saga and the New Testament parable. He unpacks similarities freighted with theological significance and differences that often reveal Jesus' particular purposes. Drawing on a lifetime of study in both Middle Eastern culture and the Gospels, Bailey offers here a fresh view of how Jesus interpreted Israel's past, his present and their future.
Preaching Magazine Year's Best Book for Preachers Where is the cross in the parable of the prodigal son? For centuries, Muslims have called attention to the father's forgiveness in this parable in order to question the need for a Mediator between humanity and God. In The Cross and the Prodigal, Kenneth E. Bailey--New Testament scholar and long-time missionary to the Middle East--undertakes to answer this question. Drawing on his extensive knowledge of both the New Testament and Middle Eastern culture, Bailey presents an interpretation of this parable from a Middle Eastern perspective and, in doing so, powerfully demonstrates its essentially Christian message. Here Bailey highlights the underlying tensions between law and love, servanthood and sonship, honor and forgiveness that grant this story such timeless spiritual and theological power.
Christianity Today Book Award winnerPaul was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, steeped in the learning of his people.But he was also a Roman citizen who widely traveled the Mediterranean basin, and was very knowledgeable of the dominant Greek and Roman culture of his day. These two mighty rivers of influence converge in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians.With razor-sharp attention to the text, Kenneth Bailey examines the cultural milieu and rhetorical strategies that shaped this pivotal epistle. He discovers the deep layers of the Hebraic prophetic tradition informing Paul's writing, linking the Apostle with the great prophets of the Old Testament.Throughout, Bailey employs his expert knowledge of Near Eastern and Mediterranean culture to deliver to readers a new understanding of Paul and his world. Familiar passages take on a new hue as they are stripped of standard Western interpretations and rendered back into their ancient setting.
Logos Bookstores' Best Book"The Lord is my shepherd."Thus begins the most beloved of all Psalms--and thus begins a thousand-year journey through the Bible. Prophets, apostles and Jesus himself took up this image from David, reshaping it, developing it and applying it to their own situations and needs. Kenneth Bailey uses his celebrated insights into Middle Eastern culture and especially his familiarity with Middle Eastern shepherding customs to bring new light and life to our understanding of this central image of the Christian faith.With each of nine major Old and New Testament passages, Bailey reveals the literary artistry of the Biblical writers and summarizes their key theological features. His work is also enriched by his unique access to very early Middle Eastern commentaries on these passages, bringing fresh understanding from within the mindset of these ancient worlds. The Good Shepherd invites us to experience a rich, biblical feast of ethical, theological and artistic delights.
Viele Menschen tun sich schwer, Gottes bedingungslose Liebe anzunehmen. Kenneth E. Bailey zeigt, wie Jesus in der Geschichte vom verlorenen Sohn auf atemberaubende Weise von der Vaterliebe Gottes erzählt: Einer Liebe, die sich nach uns Menschen sehnt und selbst den höchsten Preis dafür bezahlt, um unsere Heimkehr ins Vaterhaus zu ermöglichen. Auf ungewohnte Weise bringt Bailey den Kern der christlichen Botschaft zum Ausdruck: Ein spannender Kommentar zu Lukas 15 liefert wertvolles Hintergrundwissen. Arabische Kalligraphie illustriert diese Botschaft, und schließlich zeigt ein dramatisches Theaterstück (das sich mit einfachen Mitteln aufführen oder lesen lässt): Gott ist auf der Suche nach seinen Kindern. Bailey hilft mit diesem Buch, die Geschichten, die Jesus erzählte, neu zu verstehen. Dabei stützt er sich auf seine jahrzehntelange Forschungs- und Lebenserfahrung im Nahen Osten und fragt: Was haben die Erzählungen Jesu damals für seine Zuhörer bedeutet?
