Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies In The Gospels

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Deborah Haarsma and Scott Hoezee explain how worship that honors God as Creator can defuse culture wars between science and faith.

Bailey on Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes Kenneth E. Bailey on Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes

In 1990 Dr. Bailey accepted the additional responsibility of Canon Theologian for the Episcopal Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf, residing in Nicosia, Cyprus and returned a third of each year to Jerusalem to continue teaching at the Ecumenical Institute. By now you may wonder whether Bailey believes the Bible is true. He does, andso passionatelythat he’s devoted his life to helping Christians “strip away layers of interpretive mythology that have built up around” biblical texts.Over the past forty years or so as Bailey has worked through this text, he says "at critical points in the text, I have asked, 'How did Middle Eastern Christians across the centuries understand this text?'" Bailey sets out to answer this question throughout his examination of 1 Corinthians. He has three basic concerns in his approach to 1 Corinthians: 1) Paul, a Middle Eastern Jewish Christian, uses rhetorical styles that were available to him in the writings of the Hebrew prophets; 2) Middle Eastern life and literature is of assistance in recovering and bringing to life Paul's metaphors and parables; and 3) he examines 23 representative samples of the long heritage of Syriac, Arabic, and Hebrew translations of 1 Corinthians. (19)

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Bailey says we often don’t see that “the way we reason and what becomes reasonable for us is influenced by our language, culture, history, tradition, economic system, and our military. That’s the sieve through which we perceive the world and come up with what is reasonable. But somebody halfway around the world processes the same data and comes up with a different conclusion.” Dr. Bailey provides a perspective into interpreting 1 Corinthians that is different from most other commentaries. The rhetorical approach that sees the Hebrew rhetorical structure is valuable in uncovering meanings that may be missed or undeveloped in the typical linear reading of the epistle.A conceptual theologian creates meaning through logic and philosophy, which he or she may, then, illustrate. But an illustration is not a parable. An illustration is an attempt to understand an idea. A parable is a way to create meaning,” Bailey says. So, overall, the book contained some interesting information, but I didn't feel like reading it cleared up any potential confusions I had about 1 Corinthians. It was more than it pointed out possible nuances that I might not have otherwise noticed.

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I particularly enjoyed his egalitarian insights on men and women as partners in marriage and leadership of the church. In this section, he interspersed deft analysis with personal anecdotes of his experiences working among Mediterranean people. His perspectives on the commands for silence, and what that command did in fact mean were both intelligent, and easy to pass on to others as I teach this passage. This was their sign, a sign for lowly shepherds,” he adds. Luke says the shepherds left Bethlehem “praising God for all the things they had heard and seen.” Bailey explains that the “all” refers to the quality of the hospitality that welcomed Mary, Joseph, Jesus…and the shepherds.

We did this book in our Men’s weekly a bible study. It is a deep dive and I learned from it. However, the repeated discussion on the structure of the prose of Paul gets a little tired after a while. That's not to dismiss them, however. I think us Euro-American centric interpreters need the voices from across the ocean and throughout the past, especially the ones closer to the moment and closer to the environment. My caution is that sometimes such a method can bring things to the text that simply weren't there before or intended by the author, but we shall see. In his latest book, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes , Kenneth Bailey provides further discussion of various parts of the New Testament Gospels, from the perspective that has been his own unique contribution over the past three decades or so. To my knowledge, there is no comparable New Testament scholar who is a native speaker of English and yet who has grown up, lived and taught in the Middle East and been fluent in Arabic, and as a result has been able to mediate the cultural perspective of that region on the New Testament to English-speaking readers. As such, Bailey provides a genuinely unique perspective, and I expect anyone interested in understanding the New Testament will want to read his latest book, as well as earlier ones.

Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the

Bailey affirms that the Spirit of God guided the process of the Bible. “God as Jesus invites disciples to participate with him in an inspired process to produce a book which has changed all our lives,” he said. The text is inspired—not the translationKenneth E. Bailey (1930–2016) was an acclaimed author and lecturer in Middle Eastern New Testament studies. An ordained Presbyterian minister, he served as canon theologian of the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh. The author of more than 150 articles in English and in Arabic, his writings include Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, The Good Shepherd, Open Hearts in Bethlehem (A Christmas Musical), and The Cross and the Prodigal.