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Revisiting the Parables of Jesus: Ancient stories, contemporary audience
The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who lost his iPhone at a subway station...
Not quite the image of the Kingdom you would expect? For audiences in Jesus’ day, his parables sounded just as bizarre—if not shocking and unsettling!
It’s sometimes difficult for modern readers to feel the original power of the Jesus’ parables. Two thousand years of history has made us too familiar with them and too far removed from their ancient themes and cultural settings.
Lisa López Smith revisits the parables with a modern take to help us feel the emotional impact they had at the moment of their first telling. These stories were collected in the gospels because they changed the lives of Jesus’ followers. They can change our lives too. And when lives are changed, the world changes.
Eight parables are revisited, including some of the most complicated stories such as the parable of the minas, the shrewd manager and the banquet, as well as well-known ones like the good Samaritan and the prodigal son. Hear his parables as if for the first time, and understand why they were meant to turn the world upside down.
Not quite the image of the Kingdom you would expect? For audiences in Jesus’ day, his parables sounded just as bizarre—if not shocking and unsettling!
It’s sometimes difficult for modern readers to feel the original power of the Jesus’ parables. Two thousand years of history has made us too familiar with them and too far removed from their ancient themes and cultural settings.
Lisa López Smith revisits the parables with a modern take to help us feel the emotional impact they had at the moment of their first telling. These stories were collected in the gospels because they changed the lives of Jesus’ followers. They can change our lives too. And when lives are changed, the world changes.
Eight parables are revisited, including some of the most complicated stories such as the parable of the minas, the shrewd manager and the banquet, as well as well-known ones like the good Samaritan and the prodigal son. Hear his parables as if for the first time, and understand why they were meant to turn the world upside down.
122 pages, Paperback
First published October 30, 2013
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179 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 18, 2014
This book takes stories we have heard again and again, so many times we could repeat them back almost word for word without really thinking about what we are saying, it takes nine of these stories and makes them fresh and new and shocking.
Each story gives both the original text, a short summary of the relevant historical and cultural details, and then re-creates this story - either set in modern times or in retold in the original time but in a more ‘storytelling’ way with extra details and audience reactions. While I didn’t always 100% agree with what the lesson of the parable was reported to be, I do agree that all of these retellings put new emotion and importance back into these parables. They make them more than something we heard back in Sunday school and make you really think about what this parable was meant to do - to teach you a lesson and really make you think. Sometimes the stories seemed a little one-dimensional or forced, but not back considering the bravery one has to have to retell parts of the Bible.
The book is fairly short - there are only 9 parables covered - but was about the length I was expecting. Also included are discussion questions for each of the parables for self or group study.
Received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads.
Each story gives both the original text, a short summary of the relevant historical and cultural details, and then re-creates this story - either set in modern times or in retold in the original time but in a more ‘storytelling’ way with extra details and audience reactions. While I didn’t always 100% agree with what the lesson of the parable was reported to be, I do agree that all of these retellings put new emotion and importance back into these parables. They make them more than something we heard back in Sunday school and make you really think about what this parable was meant to do - to teach you a lesson and really make you think. Sometimes the stories seemed a little one-dimensional or forced, but not back considering the bravery one has to have to retell parts of the Bible.
The book is fairly short - there are only 9 parables covered - but was about the length I was expecting. Also included are discussion questions for each of the parables for self or group study.
Received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads.
August 26, 2017
I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway. I entered to win this book because it was a retelling of familiar Bible stories. One of my favorite authors is Liz Curtis Higgs. She often writes familiar bible stories using a different setting. Since I enjoy her retellings so much, I thought I would also enjoy the parables retold. Smith delivers parables retold in our language. She has done her ground work of study and has made the parables more relatable to our modern ears. Smith brought new insights into the parables showing that they may have meant something very different to their original audience then how we have understood them. Each parable is told in it's original form followed by background information, the retelling, and then thoughts to ponder. The set up makes this book great to read on your own or with a study group.
November 4, 2014
"Perhaps modern readers often find the parables to be annoyingly short on details because we lack the background knowledge that was obvious to them." "These people had intimate knowledge of Jewish laws and the Roman occupation, and they possessed specific cultural traditions and expectations of a Messiah." This book is great for those with limited Biblical knowledge, those looking for a fresh perspective, and those who just enjoy exposure to different viewpoints.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews