Ancient Context, Ancient Faith (second in series)
A book review by Kenneth E. Bailey, The Layman, December 12, 2012
Gary M. Burge, Jesus the Middle Eastern Storyteller (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008) 101 pp.
Burge opens this brief thoughtful book with an introduction to Jesus as a teller of stories (parables) and continues with discussions of six passages in the Gospels that include eight parables. These are:
The Friend Who Came at Midnight (Luke 11:1-13)
Stories about Excuses (Luke 14:15-24
Stories about Compassion (Luke 10:215-37)
Stories of Forgiveness (Matthew 18:21-35)
Finding the Lost (Luke 15)
The Foolish Builder (Luke 12:13-21)
The author looks East from Galilee not West. That is, he is not focusing on understanding the parables from the point of view of Greek and Latin culture (the inheritance of the West) but rather is concerned to interpret the stories Jesus told from the point of view of the Semitic East with its Jewish heritage and its Hebrew and Aramaic languages.
The book rightly opens by pointing out that in our Western tradition “abstract reasoning and verbal prose are the measure of the teacher” (p. 9). While in the East, meaning is created through the use of the parable, simile, metaphor and dramatic action. As Burge writes, “The parables are like music being played out with rhythms from another world” (p. 19).
The author suggests three interpretive steps to follow. The first is to be drawn into “the familiar and sometimes arresting images in the story.” The second concerns the problem that the parable presents and finally the interpreter needs to concentrate “on the crisis and reflect on its main meanings” (p. 22). Burge is here rejecting the method of interpretation that tries to allegorize all the details of the parable, while at the same time he allows for more than one meaning per parable (an assumption that dominated much of the interpretation of the parables across the twentieth century).
The book includes many helpful pictures and the text is illuminated with personal incidents from the author’s many visits to the Middle East. Particularly telling is his account of a sermon on the parable of the Good Samaritan that he was invited to preach in worship in the leading mosque in Damascus and his story of a young Christian girl who during the Lebanese civil war was shot and paralyzed by attacking militiamen. From her wheelchair she told a friend of the author, “I am looking for the man who hurt me so I can tell him I forgive him” (p. 74).
Naturally, the interpreter of any story is obliged to try and enter into the story and as it were “read the minds” of the characters in it. Burge is convinced that the shepherd “sends the sheep back to the village…” and only then sets out to find the lost sheep. Another interpretive option is to take seriously the parable’s affirmation that the ninety-nine sheep are left “in the wilderness.” This would mean that for Jesus, the scribes and Pharisees are still “in the wilderness” and need to be brought home. There can be no rejoicing over them because they are still “lost.” It is enough to note that this short book is a fine introduction to the ever fascinating Eastern world of the Gospels.
In passing, it should be noted that Rembrandt’s famous painting of “the return of the prodigal” is reproduced on page 89. In that painting Rembrandt clearly understands that the prodigal returns in total abject surrender and falls on his knees before his father. The father then accepts his surrender and places his hands on the back of the kneeling son. However, Rembrandt portrays the critical actions of the story backwards. The father first demonstrates costly love and only then does the son give his truncated speech. This relates to the important question, “At the edge of the village, is the prodigal still lost?” I am convinced he is. In the first parable in this trilogy, Jesus discusses a sheep who is lost “in the wilderness.” In the second story the coin is lost “in the house” That is, there are two kinds of “lostness” the first is “far away” and the second is “at home.” The prodigal tells us his motive for returning home – he wants to eat. Yes, he prepares a smooth speech hoping to be taken on for job training so he can support himself. But when the father offers costly love to him in a dramatic demonstration, the son changes his mind and accepts to be found which is his authentic repentance. The reconciliation scene begins with the Father’s offer of love which triggers the son’s acceptance of that love.
Clearly, Dr. Burge and I are “on the same page” in our shared concern to interpret the parables of Jesus from a Middle Eastern cultural perspective. Burge has an extraordinary ability to connect with the Western reader through the use of a finely tuned phrase or metaphor, and his style is clear and engaging.
This brief work is a highly recommended starting point for all who seek a deeper understanding of the Parables of Jesus.
Kenneth E. Bailey, Th. D., is the Professor of New Testament at the Ecumenical Institute (Emeritus) and author and lecturer in Middle Eastern New Testament Studies. He resides in New Wilmington, Pa. This is the second of six reviews by Bailey on the Ancient Context, Ancient Faith series.