Customer Reviews

Poet and Peasant and Through Peasant Eyes: A Literary-Cultural Approach to the Parables in Luke (Combined edition)

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I have read several books on the parables, but this is the most enlightening, most preachable and most interesting there is. When you have done a great deal of reading in an area, you begin to doubt how much even a good book is going to help you learn. This book is like someone provided you with a whole new insight in to meaning of the parables. Scholarly yet down to earth! The genuis of the book is that he combines over thirty years of Biblical scholarship and living among the culture of the Middle East. You learn what it meant to the people who Jesus was teaching 2,000 years ago. The only negative for me was the poetry portion of the book, which will probably excite poetry scholars, but was a mystery to me. If you are a Biblical scholar or learner or teacher, it is a must read.

Bailey shares cultural information from the Middle East to illuminate the parables of Luke. I read this book as a text for a course in Hermeneutics and am fully impressed with his understanding of the more "obscure" parables. Bailey also uses ancient translations of the New Testament as well as Western scholarship in his search for the true meaning of the texts. There are indeed two chices for understanding the Parables, one is to come at them from a Western mindset. The more logical approach is to observe the modern Middle East and assume that much remains largely unchanged from the first century. Bailey's observations allow one to think in a much different way, not only in regard to the parables, but to the entire bible.

Bailey's unique contribution is that he sat down with a number of trusted Palestinian nomads and listened carefully to their take on the cultural issues behind various parables. He contends, with some justice, that this group of people have something in contact with the original culture that these parables arose in, and thus can help us understand the unstated assumptions and cultural implications of the texts. He invested many years in this and did it with care and precision. On top of that, he has explored the early translations of the New Testament into Syrac and related languages. The result is nothing short of stunning. His analysis of the puzzling parable of the unjust steward (Luke 16:1-13) is worth the price of admission alone, and even on the well-trod parable of the Good Samaritan, he has much valuable insight to share.

Bailey has also written other works including "Finding the Lost: Cultural Keys to Luke 15" that focus on the lost sheep, lost coin, lost son, parables of that chapter. All of his works I especially recommended.

* Bailey does an absolutely outstanding job of identifying thought patterns within the parables and paradigms for parable interpretation in the first book. For those familiar with Blomburg's work on Parables, Bailey is excellent complement. He recognizes a clearly allegorical element in the parables, but advises caution and responsibility (as does Blomburg). In the second, he highlights wonderful cultural clues for interpreting Lucan parables. Many of the social patterns he identifies are applicable to the rest of the NT as well. I do have a few criticisms though. 1) He borders on anachronism throughout the book by importing modern near-eastern cultural paradigms into the NT sitz im leben. Similarly, he gives excessive weight to rabbinical literature (see Horsely's Prophets, Bandits and Messiahs for a forthright critique of this methodology). 2) In my opinion, he falls under the trap of over estimating the import of social anthropology, at the expense of plain biblical evidence. As I write this review, no particular example is coming to mind, so feel free to disregard it. However, this is one thought that occurred to me throughout my reading of the book. An example of this type of mistake would be assuming that, because many Jewish sects practiced self-baptism, so did John and Jesus. This, while possible according to cultural evidence, fails to accord with the biblical evidence of men 'coming to John' to be baptized 'by him.' This is a small criticism, and criteria thinking will alert the reader to its arrival. I highly recommend this book for informed bible students.

One of the other reviews described this book as "The best and the worst". His main complaint was that the language was dry.

This is two books included in one volume. The first book is described by Bailey himself as being "more technical".

If you find the first book hard going, then read the second book first. By the time you have finished reading the second book you will have the motivation to read the first book - and it will mean more to you.

This is one of Dr. Ken Bailey's most accessible works in which he makes the wealth of his Biblical and cultural insights available for wide study. Dr. Bailey has long characterized his work with the catch-phrase "To rescue truth from familarity". There are certainly few passages of Scripture more familiar than Luke 15 and the Parable of the Lost Sheep, Lost Coin, and Lost Sons. How many of us see that this familar teaching of Jesus is really a profound theological teaching on Who Jesus is? Jesus is the theologican who tells stories by taking familar Old Testament passages, here Psalm 23, and retelling them to make Himself the center. To top it off, this book closes with a delightful play that retells the parable in daramatic form and underscores its deep truth. You will thoroughly enjoy and learn from this book.
John Watson, Theologian in Residence, Mandarin Preswbyterian Church, Jacksonville, Flordia.

This text was recommended by my homiletics professor for preparation of parable text sermons. It clearly explains the cultural hermeneutic necessary to fully understand the meaning of the parables. I worked with the Parable of the 99 sheep and learned the importance of things like why he carried the sheep, the importance of joy restoring the sheep. Did he actually leave 99 sheep unprotected? Is the number of sheep important? It was extremely insightful on just this one parable and there are many, many more similar exegetical explanations for other parables. This is a MUST for any pastor's library.

Having grown up with his missionary parents in the Near East, among the very cultures that spawned the Judaeo-Christian Scriptures, Dr. Kenneth Bailey is uniquely qualified to translate their cultural nuances into such idioms as modern Western minds can grasp. Note that I did not say "readily grasp": as is the case with his other books, 'Poet and Peasant' and 'Through Peasant Eyes' (actually two books in one volume) is a VERY heavy and scholarly treatment of the subject matter. As the titles suggest, the author takes the positions that both Jesus and His first-century audience were peasants and that the Biblical writers were both poets and peasants. Hence, the key to understanding the Christian Parables--a form of poetry themselves--is to be found in the cultures and bodies of literature of the region.

As is the case with 'Jacob and the Prodigal' (which I have also reviewed here), 'Poet and Peasant' and 'Through Peasant Eyes' will be best appreciated by serious Bible scholars interested in exegetical study. If this category excludes you, pass on this one; there are lots of other decent commentaries out there that won't confuse or bore you to death.

Dr. Kenneth Bailey spent most of his life in the Middle East and as result has a great appreciation and understanding for its culture and its spiritual history. This book is actually two previously released books combined that examine in extensive detail the parables of Jesus in the book of Luke in their first century Palestinian context.

The first fifty or so pages in the first book goes into exhaustive analysis of the structure of parables showing that they have four basic types of patterns and there is sometimes a predictable symmetry to them. This segment is highly technical and can be overwhelming for the layman. But once you get through that part of the book and begin the chapters dedicated to each parable, it becomes a literary treasure, revealing the hidden cultural nuances in the setting of first century Palestine and unlocks many spiritual truths for 21st century Westerners.

Overall I strongly recommend this book - especially for someone who gives sermons or leads a Bible study on these parables. I only have a few minor criticisms. One is that I strongly disagree with Bailey's exegesis on the Parable of the Unrighteous Steward in Luke 16 and also but to a much lesser degree, his exegesis on the Parable of the Fig Tree in Luke 13. My other criticism is that Bailey does not cover every parable in the book of Luke. Fortunately he covers most including the Prodigal Son. In spite of these two issues, I still enthusiastically recommend this book.

One of the most important books of New Testament exegesis written in the last century with probably the most important analysis of the Parable of the Prodigal Son ever written.