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49 of 52 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Clearly the best commentary on the parables, August 17, 2002
This review is from: The Parables of Jesus (William Barclay Library) (Paperback)
It is difficult to find the words that adequately convey the power and impact of William Barclay's writings. I believe that he was the finest commentator of the New Testament in the 20th century. This book is one of the crown jewels of his over 70 publications. Barclay's knowledge of the Greek language, the Jewish culture and religion, and the Roman occupation during the New Testament era is phenomenal. Furthermore, he has the unique ability to convey this immense knowledge in a manner which is very easy for any reader to understand. William Barclay has the ability to convey to the reader not only what that passage meant to the people to whom Jesus spoke to 2,000 years ago, but what those passages say to us today. On countless occasions, I have felt that Barclay was speaking to me personally as he discussed the relevance of the passage in his commentary. His insights have brought me to tears at times; he has both challenged and inspired me. William Barclay's writings have truly changed my life. Barclay's clearest message is to convey the unconditional love of Jesus for all people. The best way to convey the power of Barclay's writing is to convey two examples: (1) "The basis of God's judgment is our reaction to the needs of others. God will not some day ask us to recite the creed, or put us through an examination in scripture knowledge, or investigate the orthodoxy of our theology. The one question which is basic is: 'What did you do to make life easier for others?' And again, that question is not based on the great contributions to human welfare which the newspapers report and the history books recount, but on our action and interaction upon the people with whom we come into contact every day." (2) "No one can ever have hurt Jesus so much as Peter did and yet when He rose from the dead Jesus sent a message to Peter to tell him that He still believed in him. The very fact that Jesus believes in us should fill us with a new self respect and a new determination not to fail him...so long as we keep on trying to follow and serve Christ, however inadequately, we are never shut out; but when we refuse to make the effort we can in the end shut ourselves out and pass the final judgment on ourselves."
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Light In The Darkness, March 9, 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: The Parables of Jesus (William Barclay Library) (Paperback)
Each chapter is a magnetic sermon on each parable. Barclay's writing provides both scholarly insight and spiritual direction. There have been many books written on the parables, too many of which overanalyze the parables to the nth degree and which forget the basics. Barclay's is a more common-sense approach for the common man which keeps the lessons simple, straightforward, and illuminating. -wgl-
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
No one beats Barclay for history..., April 23, 2006
This review is from: The Parables of Jesus (William Barclay Library) (Paperback)
...that any layman can understand. We can read Jesus' story about the wheat and the tares in Matthew 13:24-30 and understand that in the end, there will be a separation between the fruitful plant and the poisonous one; Barclay adds illumination to the story by describing the three different ways that the tare (the darnel plant) could be separated from the wheat when it was full grown, and then going on to make application about why Jesus told this simple, powerful story.
A strong humanistic ethic runs through many of his applications - Barclay tends to minimize the miraculous in favor of both hard work and dependence on God as harbingers of the kingdom. This book was originally developed for use with students - you'll hear Barclay's "teacher voice" in the moral tone of the applications, as well as the care in explaining each parable's background.
The book is in desperate need of updated organization. Originally published in 1952, the table of contents lists each parable only by identifying phrase (The story of the wheat and the tares is listed in the table of contents only as "When it is grown"). There is no index at the back of the volume, either. These omissions can make the book a bit difficult to use if you're not familiar with the key phrase in the table of contents.
Even with those criticisms, I found this book very useful as a reference when I was writing my books on the parables (Parablelife: Living the stories Jesus told in real time - 2005, FaithWalk publishers and Uprooted: Growing a Parablelife from the Inside Out - scheduled for release in Fall 2006 - both available on amazon.com). If you're a pastor or Bible study leader, you may find Barclay's book a helpful addition to your parable collection.
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