To turn away a descendant of David in ‘the City of David’ would be an unspeakable shame on the entire village,” Bailey writes in Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes.

Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural [PDF] [EPUB] Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural

In the stories Luke chooses to tell he makes it clear that this Savior came for both women and men. A careful examination of the book of Luke unearths at least twenty-seve A simple village home in the time of King David, up until the Second World War, in the Holy Land, had two rooms—one for guests, one for the family. The family room had an area, usually about four feet lower, for the family donkey, the family cow, and two or three sheep. They are brought in last thing at night and taken out and tied up in the courtyard first thing in the morning. If you think your church has problems, consider the church in first century Corinth. Members were split in their allegiance to various leaders. A member was openly involved in an incestuous relationship. People became drunk while celebrating the Lord's Supper. Perhaps you’ve said (or been told), “Cut to the chase! Just give me facts.” Bailey explained why bare facts aren’t always enough—even though “our current Western scientific mentality tempts us into reductionism.

Cultural Studies in the Gospels

Again, an interesting methodological position, but also seemingly innovative in comparison to the modern exegetical tradition. That's not to say it's a bad thing. But I think it's a supplemental position, since it does seem to be an unusual one. Bailey joins the likes of Ben Witherington--for which he is eminently known--in examining the socio-rhetorical-culture milieu that Paul's First Letter to the Church at Corinth is mired in. And Bailey seeks to pull the reader's head out of the sand of Euro-American centrism and into the new, fresh air of the Middle East by giving them Middle Eastern eyes. As Bailey states, "in the wider world, Middle Eastern Christians are often forgotten. The current discussions of the emergence of the Christian 'Global South' and its numerical dominance over Christians in Western Europe and North America, overlooks the Middle East entirely. Have already discussed a few topics in the Gospels in the light of important Middle Eastern Christian sources, this volume intends to focus similar attention on 1 Corinthians." (18) Bailey begins by arguing that 1 Cor is Paul's most contemporary letter, holding along with an apparent cloud of witnesses throughout the historic Church (including Ambrosiaster, Chrysostom, Bishr ibn al-Sari, and Calvin) that this letter is not simply occasional but written to all the Church. And it's a letter "with a carefully designed inner coherence that exhibits amazing precision in composition and admirable grandeur in overall theological concept" with "five carefully constructed essays, which themselves showcase a discernible theological method." (25)

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

I recall learning in seminary that the ancient Hebrews thought, and wrote, differently then we do today and this difference is a big obstacle to understanding their writing. Where we tend to write in a linear way so that the argument builds to a climax at the end (A-B-C-D), the Hebrews (Biblical prophets, Psalms)often wrote in a way that the main point is in the middle and everything surrounding it mirrors each other (A-B-C-B-A). He laments that Christians “too often understand Jesus as a simple man, telling simple tales to children. We see him as the perfect example of love, the agent of salvation, the Word made flesh among us, all of which is true. But he’s also a theologian, once you see him as a metaphorical theologian rather than a conceptual theologian. Bailey shared an insight from Bishop Kenneth Cragg, a scholar who has written extensively on Arab Christiansand Islam. He compared gospel writers to a filmmaker who has to squeeze the death of John F. Kennedy into a documentary only an hour long. More importantly, Bailey lost his credibility in my eyes as an expert on 1st century culture by making several critical cultural exegetical errors. If he is making fundamental errors, then I cannot even trust those things that sound like they might be true (because there aren't footnotes). Examples of fundamental mistakes (in my eyes and the eyes of modern scholarship):

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Open Hearts in Bethlehem: A Christmas Musical Dramawas written byKenneth E. Bailey, with songs by David M. Bailey. Read excerpts from the introduction and chapter on Jesus’ birthof Bailey’s newest book, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels. The intentional comparisons between the Israelite prophetic writing tradition (of Isaiah and Amos in particular), while at the same time incorporating the Greek funeral oration of Pericles Of the additional points made that go beyond Bailey’s earlier article, perhaps the most provocative is his discussion about the shepherds in the context of Middle Eastern hospitality. If the shepherds had found Joseph, Mary and Jesus huddling in a stable, they would have insisted they come and stay in their own homes. Also worth mentioning is that Bailey, in addition to scholarly and popular works on the Biblical narrative itself, has composed a Christmas musical based on his understanding of the story, entitled Open Hearts in Bethlehem . For more than ten centuries, Christians who translate the gospels into Arabic have not seen the prodigal as repenting in the far country. They say he’s returned to his senses. He’s figured out how to play his father and earn money for food and land. This was an insightful read. Bailey explains the composition styles of the Middle East in the Biblical times, and walks through various parables and historical accounts, showing how the original authors and readers of the texts understood them. This information was very helpful, especially when it came to some hard-to-understand stories, like Jesus talking to a woman about feeding scraps to dogs.

Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in

Kenneth E. Bailey brings an extensive knowledge of middle eastern culture to his commentary on 1 Corinthians, most importantly his experience in middle eastern village life. He previously wrote "Jesus through Middle-Eastern Eyes", which I think is a good representative of his passion and area of interest. Here he expands this focus to apply the same sort of “cultural studies” approach to the world from which (he understands) Paul to have penned this letter. Bailey argues that with the East/West discussion much attention has been given to the emergence of Christianity in the global south, but very little attention has been given to the Middle Eastern part of the world from which his passion and experience and knowledge is formed, and from which this text would have been formed. When confronted with Kenneth E. Bailey’s book, my initial reaction was that this is going to be “yet another book on the life and ministry of Jesus.” However, it was a pleasant surprise to discover that a lot could be learned from this volume. These new insights stemmed primarily from the approach conveyed by the title of this volume: Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes. It is this particular point of view that gives the book its distinctiveness. The Baileys now reside in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania. Dr. Bailey continues his ministry of lecturing, writing and recording in the field of New Testament. In June 1997, he was installed as Canon Theologian of the Diocese of Pittsburgh of the Episcopal Church, USA. Bailey is emeritus research professor of Middle Eastern New Testament studies for the Tantur Ecumenical Institute in Jerusalem. As he writes in the introduction, his childhood years were spent in Egypt, and for forty years he taught New Testament “in seminaries and institutes in Egypt, Lebanon, Jerusalem, and Cypress” (p. 11). His “academic efforts have focused on trying to understand more adequately the stories of the Gospels in the light of Middle Eastern culture” (ibid.).Not that we’ve got the story necessarily wrong, but there’s an excitement that’s missing if we don’t try to penetrate the world of which Jesus was a part. Worship takes on new intensity and meaning,” Bailey says. The power of story and metaphor