Poet & Peasant and Through Peasant Eyes: A Literary-Cultural Approach to the Parables in Luke

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.

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.

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.

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.