Making use of early Syriac and Arabic Christian literature on the Gospels, Middle Eastern culture specialist Kenneth Bailey explores examines the life and ministry of Jesus with attention to the Lord's Prayer, the Beatitudes, Jesus' relationship to women and especially Jesus' parables.
Bailey offers a deeper understanding of the person and significance of Jesus, and lifts away the blurring modern Western interpretation to reveal a historically and culturally clear Jesus. Biblical quotations are from Bailey's own translations, as he seeks to contribute new perspectives from the Eastern Tradition to the knowledge of the person of Jesus Christ.
Kenneth E. Bailey is an author and lecturer in Middle Eastern New Testament studies. An ordained Presbyterian minister, he also serves as Canon Theologian of the Diocese of Pittsburgh of the Episcopal Church, USA. He holds graduate degrees in Arabic language and literature, and in systematic theology; his Th.D. is in New Testament. He spent forty years living and teaching New Testament in Egypt, Lebanon, Jerusalem and Cyprus, still holding the title of research professor (emeritus) of Middle Eastern New Testament studies at the Ecumenical Institute (Tantur), Jerusalem. Bailey has written many books in English and in Arabic, including The Cross and the Prodigal, Poet & Peasant, Through Peasant Eyes, Jacob & the Prodigal and Finding the Lost: Cultural Keys to Luke 15. He has also published many articles in The Princeton Seminary Bulletin, The Presbyterian Outlook, Asia Journal of Theology, Christianity Today, Expository Studies, Irish Biblical Studies, Novem Momentum, Theology Review and Temelios.
"While no book on Jesus and the Gospels can be perfect or final, writing any really good book on them places staggering demands on an interpreter. To name just seven: literary aptitude, linguistic competence, critical shrewdness, cultural sagacity, theological acumen, spiritual sensitivity and hermeneutical sophistication. In this highly stimulating study Kenneth Bailey manages to reflect them all, and more besides, in part because he stands on the shoulders of Middle Eastern interpreters whom few in the West can even read. This book will sharpen historical understanding, improve much preaching and fuel new scholarship. It may shed as much new Licht vom Osten ('light from the ancient East') on Gospel passages as we have seen since Deissmann's book by that title a century ago. And in all of this, Bailey keeps the cross and the message of his sources at the center where they belong."
—Robert W. Yarbrough, associate professor and New Testament department chair, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
"Among the many New Testament scholars interpreting the Gospels today, few offer new and dramatic insights like Kenneth E. Bailey. From a childhood in Egypt to a career working within the Middle East, Bailey has established himself as the premier cultural interpreter of the life of Jesus. Using insights from cultural anthropology and skilled exegesis, suddenly the Gospels come alive as the Middle Eastern stories that they are. Long after other scholars' books are forgotten, Bailey's work on the Gospels will continue to be a timeless resource into the world of Jesus. This newest volume, written for the nonspecialist, is a splendid place to begin. Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes is guaranteed to become a favorite on many Christians' bookshelves."
—Gary M. Burge, professor of New Testament, Wheaton College & Graduate School
"I have long been an admirer of Kenneth Bailey's helpful insights. As in his earlier works, his breadth of knowledge of Middle Eastern culture sheds rich light on numerous points in the Gospels, providing fresh perspectives and often illumining details we have rarely considered. He provokes those of us who depend mostly on ancient written sources to consider new approaches, often cohering with but often supplementing such research."
—Craig Keener, professor of New Testament, Palmer Theological Seminary, and author of The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament
"Kenneth Bailey's Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes is rich with interpretive and cultural insight. He sheds light on what is so often missed in most commentaries and books about Jesus written from a Western perspective. Indeed, Bailey's book provides the much-needed corrective to the dubious results of the Jesus Seminar, whose distorted Jesus is a product of Greco-Roman culture and literature, instead of the Judaic culture and literature of Palestine. Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes is easy to read--students and pastors will benefit from it tremendously--but there is also much for scholars."
—Craig A. Evans, Payzant Distinguished Professor of New Testament, Acadia Divinity College, and author of Fabricating Jesus: How Modern Scholars Distort the Gospels
"Kenneth Bailey, a master storyteller and expert observer of Middle Eastern culture, applies his sixty years of experience living in this region to produce a groundbreaking work on Jesus' world. Bailey animates the Jewish cultural world of first-century Roman Palestine through clever, often humorous personal vignettes and observations of current Middle Eastern culture. The blurry outlines of enigmatic biblical characters such as King Herod or Zacchaeus take clearer shape, and unnamed women such as the Syro-Phoenician mother or the adulterous woman are painted with colorful, culturally sensitive strokes. Bailey offers a feast for the mind and heart in his brilliant discussion of the Lord's Prayer and Jesus' parables; each chapter has plenty to savor. Throughout, Bailey connects theological and christological significance to his cultural insights, producing an original, engaging study. Bailey's passion for the biblical story coupled with his conversational prose render Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes a captivating read for scholars, pastors and laypeople alike."
—Lynn Cohick, associate professor of New Testament, Wheaton College
"Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes is intended, explains its author, 'to contribute new perspectives from the Eastern tradition which have rarely, if ever, been considered outside the Arabic-speaking Christian world.' Strictly speaking, of course, Kenneth Bailey does not offer new perspectives, but ideas frequently as old as the earliest church and as the ancient church fathers, that may well be new to many of his Western readership. Here is an imaginative, humorous reading of key Gospel passages, an engaged and engaging set of studies that emphasize the concrete world presupposed in the New Testament. Bailey is informed not only by faithful contemporary scholarship, but also by the great exegetes of the past, and shows his humility by offering alternative explanations of passages where these may be of help to the reader. His writing and argument are cogent to the ordinary reader, tackling problems for the contemporary church, without allowing twenty-first-century debates to dictate the scope of his discussion."
—Edith M. Humphrey, William F. Orr Professor of New Testament, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
"Learning to read Scripture through other people's cultural spectacles, as well as our own, always brings huge enrichment. Kenneth Bailey has done a fantastic job in enabling us to put on the spectacles of a Middle Eastern believer and to therefore gain new insights into what was always there in Scripture but not quite so clear when only viewed through our lenses."
—Mary J. Evans, vice-principal emeritus, London School of Theology
Bailey attempts to bring his extensive background in history to the table to deepen his readers' understanding of the Gospels through understanding culture.
—Pulpit Helps, February 2008
I found myself fascinated as I read of the cultural and historical background behind familiar gospel stories and parables. Bailey's background information, rhetorical analysis, and commentary will provide valuable perspective on often-puzzling passages.
—C. W. for Discipleship Journal, March/April 2008
Average Rating: 5 out of 5 stars(5 out of 5 stars)
6 of 6 Reviews Showing:
4 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Wayne Wright (Brooksville, FL), June 27, 2009
Bailey puts our Western cultural understanding of Bible accounts in new refreshing light with accuracy to the culture in which they occured. Great reading for the serious Bible student.
5 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by R. HAXTON (Harrisonburg, VA), January 10, 2009
This is the book I have been looking for for many years. Dr. Bailey shows Jesus in His culture not in ours. Yet Jesus teachings have a stronger meaning when we realize what He was teaching to the Jewish people in early first century A.D. Palestine. I found this book added not only to my knowledge but most important to my faith. There is much material here that every Christian needs to study, enjoy and learn.
5 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Martha Curzon (Broken Arrow, OK), August 07, 2008
It is interesting and challenges the average readers traditional views of parables etc. from the Bible.
4.5 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Claudia Williams (Clifton, NJ), July 21, 2008
I truly enjoyed thıs book both from ıts scholarshıp and from Mr. Bailey's insight into typical middle eastern. We often read the gospels with a western point of view, and Jesus grew up in the middle east. I lived for many years in Turkey, so I could envision the interpretations Mr. Bailey revealed in the book. I have seen some of the same attitudes in my Turkish friends. I highly recommend this book to anyone who really wants to understand the world in which Jesus walked as a human being on the earth.
5 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Kim Vidler (Greene, NY), July 11, 2008
An incredible eye opener! Every woman alive should read the chapter on Jesus and women. It will absolutely change your life in that your self esteem will never be the same! Your view of Jesus will be expanded beyond your wildest dreams and you will truly get a glimpse into the love of God for us!
5 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Diane Stout (Zeeland, MI), March 10, 2008
This book makes the gospels come alive! There is so much we miss out on by not understanding the culture of Biblical times, and the impact that the teachings of Jesus had on it. At the same time, this will impact the reader with what it really means to be a follower of Jesus. I highly recommend this book.
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