Parables of Jesus

I read this book when I was a seminary student in the late 70's. Sad to say, it wasn't required reading. I read it on my own, and it's one of the few books from that era in my life that I remember having read. I know Koine Greek, so Jeremias' quoting the original language of the New Testament was wonderful to me. However, for those who don't know Greek, there is a condensed Greek-free version of this book titled, "Rediscovering the Parables." It's probably available somewhere used. If you're reading this review, then you're interested enough in this topic to get your hands on either version. "The Parables of Jesus" is a book you will read and revisit through the years. Get it.

Forget about those silly ... over at the Jesus Seminar. Jeremias is the real deal. He dedicated his life to building a bridge from the primitive church back to the actual words of Jesus and I think he was remarkably successful. The heart of Jesus' message is the parables and this book takes us into the company of Jesus. It's as if we're hearing him for the first time. A simplifed version of this book under the title "Rediscovering the Parables" was published back in the sixties. It shouldn't be too hard to find in a used book store specializing in religious books. That edition translates all the Greek and eliminates some of the scholarly detail without at all blunting the power of this profoundly insightful key to Jesus' teachings. It's a shame that so much of Jeremias' work is out of print. John P. Meier in his Marginal Jew series makes great use of Jeremias and in many ways agrees with his findings.

A challenging but rewarding book. In the first half, Jeremias uses ten methods to discover the original intent and situation of the sayings (parables and more) of Jesus. The second half of the book is devoted to his grouping of the parables into the ten main points made by Jesus in his sayings. In general, he claims that Jesus spoke in particular, rather than universal, situations, situations that have to be decoded for today's audience. The book is frustrating in that specific examples of his textual criticism are given using the Greek, and there is no English translation.