The Parables: Understanding the Stories Jesus Told

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Among the strengths of the book are Kistemaker's interaction with more liberal views on the parables, along with a very good introduction explaining the evolution of parabolic interpretation. Kistemaker wisely demonstrates early on that the allegorical methodology that prevailed for so long was/is rather notorious in advancing wildly speculative interpretations that helped obsure these critical teachings of Christ. As a result, Kistemaker appears to embrace a methodology that values historical considerations at the time Jesus spoke these teachings, as well as stressing what the parables actually say as driving the interpretation, rather than musing about what is not said and basing interpretation on such fanciful musings. In addition, in drawing wider conclusions about the messages and teachings that the parables are meant to convey, Kistemaker attempts to substantiate his application and interpretation comments in other Bible passages. Clearly, he is working from the view that Scripture is internally consistent and can interpret itself coherently as a result. While such a view might seem like the norm to evangelicals who hold to a high Bibliology, it is regretably not the view held by the majority of other scholars who have produced works on the parables. As a result, the conclusions reached by Kistemaker are quite different than those of Jeremias, Linneman, and others.

Kistemaker analyzes virtually all of Jesus' parabolic sayings as recorded in the Synoptic gospels. When applicable, Kistemaker analyzes terminology and structural differences between two different gospel accounts of the same parable. There is a chapter for each parable and each chapter is less than 10 pages. I thought Kistemaker did a good job of packing a lot of good material into compact analyses and as such, it is very accessible.

I gave the book 4 stars because I felt that many of the conclusions and applications made by Kistemaker could have been more in-depth. It appeared to me that Kistemaker clearly wanted to go down the road of sticking with the obvious rather than muddying the waters with fanciful and subjective speculation concerning these teachings. And while I certainly believe that such an approach is the right way to go, I still felt that there was room for deeper analysis of these teachings. Many of Christ's parables have profound eschatological and christological teachings associated with them, but other than the obvious conclusions, these aspects weren't explored to as high a degree as I would have liked.

Nevertheless, this is a very good book that is quite accessible and also quite substantive in many areas. A good antidote to the agenda driven approaches that have characterized much of parabolic scholarship up to this point.