What did Jesus Mean?: Explaining the Sermon on the Mount and the Parables in Simple and Universal Human Concepts [Paperback]

Anna Wierzbicka (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195137337 | ISBN-13: 978-0195137330 | Publication Date: April 5, 2001

In this highly interdisciplinary work, linguist Anna Wierzbicka casts new light on the words of Jesus by taking her well-known semantic theory of "universal human concepts"- concepts which are intuitively understandable and self-explanatory across languages-and bringing it to bear on Jesus' parables and the Sermon on the Mount. Her approach results in strikingly novel interpretations of the Gospels. Written in dialogue with other biblical commentators, What Did Jesus Mean? is both scholarly rigorous yet accessible.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This is an unusual book. The author is an internationally renowned linguist and a committed Christian. Theology

About the Author

Anna Wierzbicka Professor of Linguistics Australian National University, Canberra

Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (April 5, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195137337
• ISBN-13: 978-0195137330
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,673,075 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A more open book now, November 20, 2001

By 

René Dirven (Belgium, Europe) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What did Jesus Mean?: Explaining the Sermon on the Mount and the Parables in Simple and Universal Human Concepts (Paperback)

Anna Wierzbicka is the first person who has managed to make me see what Jesus really meant. Unlike most Bible commentators, Wierzbicka does not paraphrase what Jesus said. That is, she does not just replace Jesus' images by other new images, but in plain and simple words she makes explicit the meanings of those images, the presuppositions contained in what Jesus said, the implied negations and refutations, the implicatures, in one word: the deeper intentions of God's acting in and through Jesus. Her greatest merit is that she does not lead us, readers and believers, away from Jesus' words, but again and again takes us back to them with the fuller understanding enabled by her explications. Both for lay people and theologians her universal language, which is based on years of detailed research in many different languages and cultures, is the key to open the meaning of it all

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book makes me happy as a beliver and as a linguist., August 8, 2001

By 

"vifslan" (Sweden) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What did Jesus Mean?: Explaining the Sermon on the Mount and the Parables in Simple and Universal Human Concepts (Paperback)

Wierzbicka has relly succeede to make sence of linguistics with this book. She has been able to take away the layers that writers and translators have put on Jesus' words; the layers that have been influenced by time and culture. The book is good for everyone who want to know what Jesus really meant and for anybody who is interested in semantics and theology.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a linguist examines the meaning of jesus' words, July 13, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: What did Jesus Mean?: Explaining the Sermon on the Mount and the Parables in Simple and Universal Human Concepts (Paperback)

Although this book is also concerned with linguistics, the meditation on Jesus' words is done with such evident spiritual care that the lay person looking for devotional reading will be amply rewarded. I read a lot of work on biblical criticism, and Wierzbicka is terrific on Jesus and women and on the originality of his admonition to turn the other cheek. Wierzbicka canvasses many of the arguments of biblical critics on all points and offers her own, reasoned assessment on the authenticity and meaning of the words.