The Words of Jesus: A Gospel of the Sayings of Our Lord with Reflections by Phyllis Tickle (Hardcover)

by Phyllis Tickle (Author)
Key Phrases: whoever swears, The Words of Jesus, Son of Man, Kingdom of God (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Award-winning author and speaker Tickle (Rediscovering the Sacred; The Divine Hours), who is PW's former contributing editor in religion, chooses to take the red letter Bible one step further in this excellent study tool. The first section of this slim volume is a reflective essay on what Tickle learned from extracting the words of Jesus out of their narrative context in the Gospels. She writes of Jesus gradually becoming the heard rather than the seen, stripped of the sentimental images she had grown up with. She argues that the sayings, taken on their own merit, offer a third way between biblical literalists and literary critics: Jesus was an actualist, not a literalist or a metaphorist... [the words] don't mean; they are. As such, they must be absorbed with both heart and mind together. Tickle divides the sayings into five categories: public teaching, private instruction, healing dialogue, intimate conversation and postresurrection encounters. Each saying stands alone but has been given a brief descriptive title. Tickle used an amalgam of biblical translations and chronologies to produce a version that is accessible and vibrant. These sayings of Jesus will be a valuable tool to Christians looking for new ways to study and assimilate his core teachings and character. (Feb.)
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Review
Harsh. Testy. Uncompromising. These aren't words typically associated with Jesus, but Christian scholar Phyllis Tickle, a former religion editor of Publishers Weekly, says they often came to mind as she wrote her new book, "The Words of Jesus." The book, which arrives in stores next week, plucks Jesus' words out of the Gospels and Acts, leaving them to stand alone without the context of his actions. "His words come as a shock," says Tickle. "Readers will get a Jesus they never saw before." He is, of course, still the warm and compassionate man who said "Father, forgive them" and "Love one another." But when it comes to his mission, Jesus doesn't mince words. "Anyone who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me," he told his apostles. Tickle believes Christians err when they "domesticate Jesus," because they lose a sense of his power and the urgency of his message. "Obviously, he has an enormous amount of love," says Tickle. "But it is the love of a parent who knows the rules and who isn't going to soften the blow." Jesus was anxious to be understood. He asked Philip, an apostle, "Have I been so long a time among you … and still you do not know me?" It's a question that Tickle's book helps us answer today. (Newsweek, February 4, 2008)

Founding editor of the religion department at Publishers Weekly, Tickle is also the prolific author of God-Talk in America, Recovering the Sacred, and other books. This volume is a thoughtful reflection on the meaning of Jesus's words and the importance of various contexts for his followers, as well as on truth that emerges around unconsciously imposed cultural blinders. In the process, Tickle explains much of the thinking behind the Emergent Church movement. She also struggles with how to phrase certain "words" found with different nuances in more than one canonical Gospel. The book concludes with a recounting of Jesus's words from the canonical Gospels and the first chapter of Acts, dividing them into five different contexts, by delivery venue or topic: words of public teaching, of private instruction, of healing dialog, of intimate conversation, and of postresurrection encounters. For many readers, this book will fulfill Tickle's intent: to lead to a new appreciation of Jesus's words and of Jesus himself. Highly recommended for public and seminary libraries.—Carolyn M. Craft, formerly with Longwood Univ., Farmville, VA (Library Journal, February 1, 2008)

Award-winning author and speaker Tickle (Rediscovering the Sacred; The Divine Hours), who is PW's former contributing editor in religion, chooses to take the “red letter” Bible one step further in this excellent study tool. The first section of this slim volume is a reflective essay on what Tickle learned from extracting the words of Jesus out of their narrative context in the Gospels. She writes of Jesus gradually becoming “the heard” rather than “the seen,” stripped of the sentimental images she had grown up with. She argues that the sayings, taken on their own merit, offer a third way between biblical literalists and literary critics: “Jesus was an actualist, not a literalist or a metaphorist... [the words] don't mean; they are.” As such, they must be absorbed with both heart and mind together. Tickle divides the sayings into five categories: public teaching, private instruction, healing dialogue, intimate conversation and postresurrection encounters. Each saying stands alone but has been given a brief descriptive title. Tickle used an amalgam of biblical translations and chronologies to produce a version that is accessible and vibrant. These sayings of Jesus will be a valuable tool to Christians looking for new ways to study and assimilate his core teachings and character. (Feb.) (Publishers Weekly, December 3, 2007)

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass (February 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787987425
• ISBN-13: 978-0787987428
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #421,800 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars this is a very dangerous book, January 31, 2008

By	Pete J. Ceren (Memphis) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a dangerous book.

But these are dangerous words. They always have been, but we have forgotten and let them become comfortable through the centuries. Too comfortable.

Like The Sayings of Chairman Mao and the words of Confucius, the concentrated wisdom the Eastern mind works best undiluted and unexplained.

Jesus spoke just words, they didn't come from His mouth wrapped in narrative explanation. The words of Jesus were real conversations with real people. People close and intimate who shared the dusty roads with him, and also people who hung at the edge of curious crowds listening with skeptical ears.

The naked words ripped from the cocoon of expectations hit us the same way they hit the first ears that heard them. Intimate and corporate they work beyond reason to disturb the heart. Familiar words now new, shocking like unexpected words from a long known lover or spouse who changes your world with a word.

This is not a book to enter unwarned and unprepared. Expect to be shocked and angered and touched and changed. That is always what he intended. These are dangerous words.

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We Would Have Crucified Him, Too, February 6, 2008

By	Robert M. Khoury (Charlotte, NC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Finally ... the true Jesus, in his own words. It's no wonder, after domesticating Jesus like an obedient poodle wearing pink nail polish and a tiara, that this book is so shocking to us. Jesus said a lot of things that even today would get him locked up, blacklisted, wiretapped, put on the no-fly list, and sent to Gitmo with a black bag over his head. Think hard before you read this book. Wouldn't you rather be happy with your illusions than know the truth and be disappointed? It's the real Jesus all right. But it's not the Jesus you and I have been hearing about almost from the moment of birth. This guy had a lot of strange, revolutionary ideas. He was scary then, and still is. So why can't we seem to turn away ...

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Encounter the words of Jesus in a new way!, July 14, 2008

By	FaithfulReader.com (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

We've heard them from the pulpit, scanned the red-letter words in our Bibles and quoted them in scripture memorization. But when we listen --- really listen --- to the words of Jesus, they may change us irrevocably. So says renowned religion writer Phyllis Tickle in THE WORDS OF JESUS, which offers a new way of looking and listening to familiar passages.

The book began with a simple question from a colleague who asked Tickle, "Did you ever wonder what you would really find if you took out the duplications and triplications and connective tissue of the Gospels and stripped it all down again to just His words?" The question stunned her, and she admits, "I had never wondered such a thing...I was also fascinated by the potency of the Sayings format and drawn to the intellectual game and pleasure of trying to tease out just how and why that format works so well."

The "Sayings" format is indeed unique. All of the words of Jesus from the four gospels and the first chapter of Acts are compiled and arranged into five different "books" and then organized by topic. In each book, Jesus' personality is "shaded and shaped by the particularity of either his audience --- public, private, or intimate --- or an activity --- healing." Rather than relying on a particular translation, Tickle brings her own scholarship and the texts of several translations to bear to recreate Jesus' words.

Tickle suggests that the reader begin with Book Two, Christ's words of private instruction to His followers. Here, He is "most self-revelatory and open to us." Bits and pieces of Jesus' words reach out and pull the reader in. "Be careful that you do not look down on one who seems small or unimportant and trivial...," Jesus says in one passage. In another, "Sit down in the humblest place." And, "Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour." Each saying in each "book" is grouped under a topical header.

Tickle divides the other four books of Jesus' Sayings into The Words of Public Teaching, The Words of Healing Dialogue, The Words of Intimate Conversation and The Words of Post-Resurrection Encounters. The 21 Sayings under "healing" are interesting, Tickle points out, as most of them have little or nothing to do with the healing itself: "Rather, they read now as if much of the time the act of healing becomes a platform for teaching health of more than just the body." Good food for thought.

One of Tickle's passages that resonates particularly well is the idea that the brain and the heart are both organs of perceiving and being. "We must assume that there is in the human being a means of knowing other than that of the brain." Her surprise, she said, was that the Sayings of Jesus "entered prayerfully" are first heard somewhere other than the mind. "The heart, it would seem, has its own consciousness and knowledge and ways that can be experienced just as the brain's consciousness and knowledge and ways are experienced. They are just not as scientifically measurable at the moment, and may never be."

Tickle, who has worked with other sacred writings before (The Divine Hours series), has a delightful blend of humbleness and confidence in her reflections on the Sayings. As she began compiling the "words" of Jesus through the past two years, Tickle said she wrestled with new perceptions about what it is to be a Christian, as well as to be herself.

So reader be warned. If, as Tickle says, "It is the correct and proper business of followers to try to discern the meaning of God's words," then THE WORDS OF JESUS is a good place to be about our business. But readers will encounter the sayings of Jesus through this book in new ways --- and may come away changed.

--- Reviewed by Cindy Crosby