Kenneth Bailey Archives – J. David Stark

Free Richards, O’Brien with discount on Bailey @Logos

For April, Logos Bible Software’s “free book of the month” and discounted companion focus on Scripture in its cultural contexts.

The free text is Randolph Richards and Brandon O’Brien’s Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible (IVP, 2012). According to the book’s blub:

Brandon O’Brien and E. Randolph Richards shed light on the ways Western readers often misunderstand the cultural dynamics of the Bible. They identify nine key areas where modern Westerners have significantly different assumptions about what is going on in a text than what the context actually suggests. Drawing on their own cross-cultural experience in global missions, the authors show how greater understanding of cultural differences in language, time, and social mores allow us to see the Bible in fresh and unexpected ways.

The companion reduced-price text for $1.99 is Kenneth Bailey’s Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels (IVP, 2008). According to it’s blurb:

Beginning with Jesus’ birth, Ken Bailey leads you on a kaleidoscopic study of Jesus throughout the four Gospels. Bailey examines the life and ministry of Jesus with attention to the Lord’s Prayer, the Beatitudes, Jesus’ relationship to women, and especially Jesus’ parables.

Even if you’re not otherwise a Logos user, you can get Logos 7 basic for free also and add these digital resources to your virtual research library.

Review of Biblical Literature Newsletter (August 9, 2012)

The latest reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature include the following:

Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Studies

Stéphanie Anthonioz, « À qui me comparerez-vous ? » (Is 40,25): La polémique contre l’idolâtrie dans le Deutéro-Isaïe, reviewed by Sven Petry
Jason Bembry, Yahweh’s Coming of Age, reviewed by Johannes de Moor
Francesca Stavrakopoulou, Land of Our Fathers: The Roles of Ancestor Veneration in Biblical Land Claims, reviewed by Bob Becking
Michael P. Streck, Altbabylonisches Lehrbuch, reviewed by Gerhard Karner

New Testament and Cognate Studies

Kenneth E. Bailey, Paul through Mediterranean Eyes: Cultural Studies in 1 Corinthians, reviewed by Ben Witherington III
Matthew S. Rindge, Jesus’ Parable of the Rich Fool: Luke 12:13-34 among Ancient Conversations on Death and Possessions, reviewed by Nils Neumann

Hermeneutics

Martin J. Buss; ed. Nickie M. Stipe, The Changing Shape of Form Criticism: A Relational Approach, reviewed by Colin Toffelmire
Marielle Frigge, Beginning Biblical Studies, reviewed by Coleman Baker
Teresa J. Hornsby and Ken Stone, eds., Bible Trouble: Queer Reading at the Boundaries of Biblical Scholarship, reviewed by Juliana Claassens
Timothy Larsen, A People of One Book: The Bible and the Victorians, reviewed by Mark Elliott

Kenneth Bailey – Summary

Poet and Peasant and Through Peasant’s Eyes

Kenneth Bailey, Poet and Peasant and Through Peasant Eyes: A Literary-Cultural Approach to the Parables in Luke, (combined ed.; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983).

Bailey’s works, Poet and Peasant and Through Peasant Eyes, explicitly attempt to approach Jesus’ parables from the perspective of an Oriental worldview. Poet and Peasant contains a lengthy section that provides a history of parable research and describes Bailey’s methodology for approaching the parables (13–75). His methodology contains two major parts: “Oriental exegesis” and close attention to parallelism (29–75). For Bailey, “Oriental exegesis” means: (1) examining the interpretations and perspectives present in ancient literature; (2) asking contemporary Middle-Easterners for their insights; and (3) examining Oriental versions of Scripture to see their particular ways of understanding and rendering various portions of the text (27, 30–37). Bailey pays close attention to parallelism because he thinks it can help determine the turning point, or climax, of a given pericope and illumine points of later shaping (50, 74–75). The second part of Poet and Peasant presents the results of Bailey’s methodology as applied to three Lucan sections, including (as Bailey titles them) the parables of the unjust steward, God and mammon, the friend at midnight, the Father’s gifts, the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost sons (77–206). The work concludes by briefly summarizing Bailey’s methodology and findings (207).

Through Peasant Eyes begins with a briefer and less technical history of research and description of methodology and a concise checklist for applying Jesus’ parables to a modern context (ix–xxiii). The work proceeds by presenting Bailey’s views on ten other Lucan parables not covered in Poet and Peasant, including the parables of the: two debtors; fox, funeral, and furrow; good Samaritan; rich fool; tower and fig tree; great banquet; obedient servant; judge and widow; Pharisee and tax collector; and camel and needle (1–170). As in Poet and Peasant, when Bailey comments on these parables, he diligently observes his prescribed regimen of Oriental exegesis and close attention to parallelism. Bailey’s concluding remarks again concisely summarize his methodology and present some of the themes that frequently recur in the parables (171–2).