Amy-Jill Levine's "Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi"

In her sermon this past Sunday, guest preacher Leah Martens (Lead Pastor at Haven Berkeley Faith Community) explored the meaning of Jesus's "Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector" (Luke 18:9-14) for our world today. 

Leah spoke about the ways that superficial readings of this passage (where we automatically identify ourselves as the "good guy" tax collector) have led us to miss the challenge of Jesus’s words for us today and have also contributed to antisemitic narratives (by promoting stereotypes about the Pharisees and Judaism as a whole). 

By diving deeper into the parable’s original context, Leah was able to illuminate the ways that this passage invites us to reject bounded-set mindsets in favor of centered-set approaches to life and faith; the ways that Jesus invites us to focus less on who is in vs. out, good vs. bad, and more on what will help us move toward alignment with the ways of the Divine.

If you appreciated Leah's exploration of this parable, then we think you’ll enjoy this book by Amy-Jill Levine: Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi. Details are included below. Feel free to check out the copy from the River Lending Library!

Or, alternatively, you may enjoy this podcast episode from Amy-Jill Levine and The Bible for Normal People: "Episode 278: Amy-Jill Levine – Who Are the Pharisees Actually?"

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About the Book
The renowned biblical scholar, author of The Misunderstood Jew, and general editor for The Jewish Annotated New Testament interweaves history and spiritual analysis to explore Jesus’ most popular teaching parables, exposing their misinterpretations and making them lively and relevant for modern readers.

Jesus was a skilled storyteller and perceptive teacher who used parables from everyday life to effectively convey his message and meaning. Life in first-century Palestine was very different from our world today, and many traditional interpretations of Jesus’ stories ignore this disparity and have often allowed anti-Semitism and misogyny to color their perspectives.

In this wise, entertaining, and educational book, Amy-Jill Levine offers a fresh, timely reinterpretation of Jesus’ narratives. In Short Stories by Jesus, she analyzes these “problems with parables,” taking readers back in time to understand how their original Jewish audience understood them. Levine reveals the parables’ connections to first-century economic and agricultural life, social customs and morality, Jewish scriptures and Roman culture. With this revitalized understanding, she interprets these moving stories for the contemporary reader, showing how the parables are not just about Jesus, but are also about us—and when read rightly, still challenge and provoke us two thousand years later.

About Amy-Jill Levine
Amy Jill Levine (“AJ”) is Rabbi Stanley M. Kessler Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Hartford International University for Religion and Peace and University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies Emerita and Mary Jane Werthan Professor of Jewish Studies Emerita, at Vanderbilt.

Her publications include The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus, Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi; six children’s books (with Sandy Sasso); The Gospel of Luke (with Ben Witherington III, the first biblical commentary by a Jew and an Evangelical); The Jewish Annotated New Testament (co-edited with Marc Brettler), The Bible With and Without Jesus: How Jews and Christians Read the Same Stories Differently (with Marc Brettler), The Pharisees (co-edited with Joseph Sievers), and thirteen edited volumes of the Feminist Companions to the New Testament and Early Christian Literature.

Along with Introduction to the Old Testament for the Teaching Company, her Beginner’s Guide series for Abingdon Press includes Sermon on the Mount, Light of the World, Entering the Passion of Jesus, The Difficult Words of Jesus, Witness at the Cross, and Signs and Wonders. The first Jew to teach New Testament at Rome’s Pontifical Biblical Institute, an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the first winner of the Seelisberg Prize for Jewish-Christian Relations, AJ describes herself as an unorthodox member of an Orthodox synagogue and a Yankee Jewish feminist who works to counter biblical interpretations that exclude and oppress.