Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi

I picked up this book to supplement recent Torah study (utilizing the excellent ArtScroll Tanach series) and N.T. Wright reading. I liked the concept of the book, as I have found that the more Judaism I learn, the more my Catholic faith “comes alive”. As Brant Pitre likes to say “If you don’t understand why Catholics do something, it’s because we got it from the Jews”. That said, I found the book terribly difficult to read. It is by no means technically difficult (the intended audience is much closer to a “popular audience” than scholarly), but the problem is the tone of author. I find her constant insults, negativity, sarcasm, and complaints of men/society overwhelming. I would have thought that she’d write a book that charitably said “here is how I think a first century Jew would understand this parable”, but instead tries just as hard to belittle the (mostly) Protestant interpretations and interpreters themselves. Having never heard many of these Protestant interpretations myself, I certainty found myself doing “double takes” while reading them, but that is not an excuse to not be charitable in helping somebody understand the parables. The author seemingly contracts herself in the book as well. She talks about the important of applying parables to modern day, but then utterly rejects any allegorical readings of scripture. Allegory is but one method to apply a parable to a later time/place. The N.T. itself is a re-capitulation of the O.T., so understanding the parables by overlaying biblical events is not unreasonable. Are they likely to be the original understanding? Maybe not! And that’s all she needed to say on the topic, but [she admittedly] is the type of person who has no problem throwing punches and “making people feel uncomfortable”. Just as Jews have multiple ways of interpreting scripture, so do Catholic/Orthodox. I think the book would have been a whole lot better if the author ignored [later] scriptural interpretations, and kept the focus on perceived pre-AD 33 Judean interpretations.