{"id":2133,"date":"2008-07-09T19:54:30","date_gmt":"2008-07-09T19:54:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/?p=2133"},"modified":"2010-12-22T12:23:45","modified_gmt":"2010-12-22T17:23:45","slug":"6427","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2008\/07\/09\/6427\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Parables of Jesus\u2019 \u2013 Moving Beyond Misconception"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Stan Friedman<\/p>\n

CHICAGO, IL (July 9, 2008) – Klyne Snodgrass says his newly published opus, Stories with Intent: A Comprehensive Guide to the Parables of Jesus<\/em><\/a>, was written for selfish reasons.
\n
\n\u201cI wrote this for myself,\u201d says the longtime North Park Theological Seminary professor of New Testament studies. \u201cThis is what I want when I teach or preach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some Biblical scholars are predicting the book will become the premier work on the parables. Graham Stanton, professor of New Testament studies at the University of Cambridge, writes, \u201cThis book is simply a stunning achievement. It has no rival – it will be the book on the parables for the next decade and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Book\"Methodist bishop and renowned preacher William H. Willimon writes, \u201cHere in one volume is the latest and best interpretation of the parables of Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis book \u2026 ends the need for a dozen or so other books on your shelves,\u201d says North Park University professor Scot McKnight.<\/p>\n

Some liken it to a crowning achievement, but Snodgrass wants to take issue with that statement. \u201cI hope it\u2019s not the crowning achievement,\u201d he says, laughing. \u201cI have other projects I want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The book runs more than 800 pages, nearly 200 of which are endnotes. \u201cI didn\u2019t want it to be this long,\u201d Snodgrass says. \u201cIt took way longer than I thought. The process takes on its own life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stories with Intent<\/em> is the culmination of decades of study\u2014and frustration. Snodgrass has taught a class on the parables every other year for 35 years, but says, \u201cThere was never anything I felt good about using as a text that really did the job.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a relatively brief introduction, the book discusses all 35 of Jesus\u2019 parables. Each chapter is broken into sections that focus on the type of parable, issues requiring attention, excerpts from primary material including early Jewish and Christian writings, textual features, cultural information, explanations for each of the issues raised earlier, and ways of adapting the parable for the modern hearer.<\/p>\n

Snodgrass hopes the book will help others move beyond many of the common misconceptions and poor preaching on the parables. \u201cThe title is a protest because so often people manipulate the text to say other than what Jesus was saying as a prophet,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

He gives extensive attention to the contexts in which the parables were told, because \u201ccontext is the only determiner of meaning.\u201d Interpreters are walking on dangerous ground without that understanding, he believes.<\/p>\n

Snodgrass\u2019s view of parables has changed dramatically over the years. \u201cI grew up in a Baptist church with sermons that were three points and a poem,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI actually had a reaction against story. It took awhile of working with parables to bring me back around and deal with story as a terribly powerful media.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like other scholars, Snodgrass notes how relatively ordinary the stories are. The only parable in which God actually appears is the parable of the rich fool (Luke 12:16-21). However, \u201cthere are enough allusions in the others that anyone in First Century Judaism would know what was being talked about,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The parables are so powerful precisely because they are stories, Snodgrass says. \u201cStory is a place where a different world can be created. A narrator can control what happens – what the motives are, what the outcome is. Within that, you can make a theological point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Snodgrass says much of history has been an exercise in missing the message. \u201cTime after time after time, people have taken the parables and done whatever they want. Some interpretations are just weird.\u201d<\/p>\n

He notes that early church interpreters tended to allegorize even the minutiae of a parable, a practice that led to fanciful interpretations. Other misinterpretations have arisen from a later argument – popular until only recently – that parables could only have one point. But, Snodgrass contends, \u201cthese are prophetic stories written to Israel to confront and enlighten them, and in the process, to confront and enlighten us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe things that became quite clear to me over and over and over, is that parables are about three things: they\u2019re trying to make you listen, they want to enable you to see, and they want to make you act. The parables are pushing for obedience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the parables call followers to live out their identity. \u201cIf you don\u2019t show mercy and compassion, you can\u2019t be following Jesus,\u201d Snodgrass says.<\/p>\n

The stories Jesus told most often point to what happens if followers fail to act accordingly. \u201cThe parables are not primarily about grace; they are more likely to be about judgment,\u201d Snodgrass says. \u201cWhat prophet ever came that did not talk about judgment? Jesus is a prophet. He is telling the nation how they have failed God and what the consequences are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Snodgrass says that judgment is an unpopular word in many theological circles and all too popular in others. \u201cSome people say let\u2019s not talk about judgment because it makes people feel bad or suggests the wrong kind of God,\u201d Snodgrass says. \u201cThen you have other people who are mad at everybody else and all they want to talk about is judgment.\u201d<\/p>\n

To not discuss judgment at all, however, is to deny God\u2019s love, Snodgrass says. \u201cThere\u2019s too much evil in the world. If God is not going to judge evil, then what kind of God is he? If you don\u2019t have judgment, you don\u2019t have grace. You don\u2019t have salvation.\u201d<\/p>\n

To purchased a copy of the book, visit the online Covenant Bookstore<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Report This Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO, IL (July 9, 2008) – Klyne Snodgrass says his newly published opus, Stories with Intent: A Comprehensive Guide to the Parables of Jesus, was written for selfish reasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Parables of Jesus\u2019 \u2013 Moving Beyond Misconception - Covenant Newswire Archives<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2008\/07\/09\/6427\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Parables of Jesus\u2019 \u2013 Moving Beyond Misconception - 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