This is the Woman Caught in Adultery, though you may see the fancy Latin term Pericope Adulterae (John 7:53-8:11). It is hotly debated whether it belongs in the Bible, because it’s pretty clear it doesn’t belong to John. Still, the lesson should be obvious either way: Jesus calls into question the standing the Jewish leadership…
Tag: Jesus Christ
JTMEE: Chapter 13a
This is about the two stories spanning Luke 18:35-19:10. As Bailey notes, they belong together. The blind man is oppressed, and Zacchaeus is an oppressor; Jesus has mercy on both. Bailey offers another elaborate rhetorical analysis of the story of the blind man, but what I see is frankly a Hebrew drama, a brief scene…
JTMEE: Chapter 12a
We turn now to the inauguration of Jesus’ public ministry in Luke 4:16-31. This is a long one. At his bar-mitzvah in Jerusalem, Jesus demonstrated how seriously He took the Covenant of Moses. Bailey neglects to mention that common Jewish folks were aware that Daniel’s prophecy said the Messiah was about due to show. There…
JTMEE: Chapter 11
The next three chapter cover dramatic acts of Jesus; some of the chapters are quite long. This next is the Call of Peter (Luke 5:1-11) and is relatively short. Bailey almost misses the point right off the bat with a Strawman argument. He talks about how Greeks thought the spirit realm was good and the…
A Different View of Christ
To me it looks like I’ve done these books in the right order. We are following the subject into deepening complexity. Our next book review is Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes by Kenneth E. Bailey (2008 InterVarsity Press, ISBN 13:9780830825684 paperback). Henceforth, I will abbreviate that to JTMEE. The author lived in the Middle East…
`Tis the Season
It’s the end of an era, in many ways. This is for the community. I woke up in the wee hours this morning with a burden on my heart. Normally I would have been rushing to send out a bunch of Christmas cards by now. This year I felt it was pointless. Of course, it’s…