Podcasts about jesus the enigmatic parables

Often, Catholics refer to Mary with the various honorifics we have attached to her over the centuries: Mother of God, Blessed Virgin, or Queen of Heaven. When we imagine her, we may think of famous paintings representing her as a queen, crowned and throned, holding baby Jesus. While these titles all highlight important theological truths about Mary, and our religious art helps us venerate her as the most important saint of the church, we may sometimes lose sight of who Mary was historically. Long before the church developed our various doctrinal understandings about her, Mary was a Jewish woman born into a particular family, culture, and political situation. But compared with the vast amount of theological writing on Mary, the historical material we have about her is pretty scant.  Who was Mary of Nazareth, really? What was her life like? How did she dress, what did she eat, and what level of education did she have? On this episode of the Glad You Asked podcast, guest AJ Levine helps us get a clearer picture of the historical Mary, beneath the halo and beyond the holy cards.  Levine is the Rabbi Stanley M. Kessler Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Hartford International University for Religion and Peace. She was the first Jew to teach the New Testament at Rome's Pontifical Biblical Institute. She has held office in the Society of Biblical Literature, the Catholic Biblical Association, and the Association for Jewish Studies. Her books include The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus (HarperOne) and Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi (HarperOne). Her most recent book is Jesus for Everyone: Not Just Christians (HarperOne). Learn more about this topic, and read some of Levine's writing, in these links. “Mary, Mary, quite contrary,” By Elizabeth Johnson https://uscatholic.org/articles/201101/mary-mary-quite-contrary/  “It is time to free Mary and let God have her own maternal face,” By Christine Schenk https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/simply-spirit/it-time-free-mary-and-let-god-have-her-own-maternal-face  “All mothers stand at the cross with Mary,” By Sister Laurie Brink, O.P. https://uscatholic.org/articles/202005/all-mothers-stand-at-the-cross-with-mary/  “Why did God choose Mary?” By LaRyssa Herrington https://uscatholic.org/articles/202305/why-did-god-choose-mary/  “Witnesses, patrons, faithful disciples: The women at the cross and the tomb,” By Amy-Jill Levine https://www.abc.net.au/religion/amy-jill-levine-women-at-the-cross-and-the-tomb/13843886  “A Jewish take on Jesus: Amy-Jill Levine talks the gospels.” A U.S. Catholic interview https://uscatholic.org/articles/201209/a-jewish-take-on-jesus-amy-jill-levine-talks-the-gospels/  Glad You Asked is sponsored by the Claretian Missionaries USA, an order of Catholic priests and brothers who live and work with the most vulnerable among us. To learn more, visit claretians.org.  

In the New Testament, Jesus often teaches through parables — short stories rich in symbolism and ethical dilemmas. "The Good Samaritan." "The Prodigal Son." We've heard these stories so many times it's easy to overlook how challenging and even shocking they would have sounded to 1st-century ears. In this episode, scholar Amy-Jill Levine joins Helen and Dave to explain the Jewish roots of parables and how Jesus wielded parables to shake up his audience. Parables were incredibly effective teaching tools in the ancient world and they're just as powerful today, especially when we understand their deeper historical background. If you enjoy this episode, pick up a copy of AJ's terrific book, Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi. Win an SBL Study Bible!We're giving away 10 copies of the newly revised SBL Study Bible. This study Bible is tailor-made for fans of Biblical Time Machine. It takes a scholarly approach to understanding the Bible — full of essays, footnotes, maps and more — and doesn't assume any past knowledge or religious background. It's the perfect companion for a fresh look at these ancient texts. Each week we'll randomly pick a winner from the members of the Time Travelers Club, our Patreon site. Subscribe today to support the show and put your name in the running for this useful and in-depth resource. For legal reasons, this giveaway is only available to Time Travelers Club members 18 or older and living in the continental United States. As an Amazon Associate, we earn a small percentage from books purchased through the Amazon links above. Support the showJoin the Time Travelers Club!Join our Patreon to support the podcast and get special perks like bonus content and direct messaging with the hosts. Learn more and subscribe at the Time Travelers Club. Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos

It's easy to read the New Testament and think that Jesus's ministry and message ("grace, forgiveness, love") was somehow in stark opposition to Judaism ("the law, justice, purity"). In today's episode, guest Amy-Jill Levine explains how Jesus's teachings, actions and miracles fit squarely within 1st-century Jewish beliefs and practice, and why understanding Jesus's Jewishness is imperative for healing the centuries-old rift between Jews and Christians. Excellent books by Amy-Jill Levine:The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish JesusThe Jewish Annotated New TestamentShort Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial RabbiJoin the Time Travelers Club!Support the podcast and get special perks like bonus content and the ability ask your questions on air. Learn more about the Time Travelers Club. Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos

One of the great ironies of the Christian religion is that the person Christians worship isn't a Christian. Jesus was born, raised, and died a Jew. He might even find it odd that an entire new religion grew up out of his short life and painful death. He is without question, the most popular person to have ever walked the earth. But what do we really know about this first century Galilean? If we are honest, not much. He was born to humble parents under sketchy circumstances, he grew to become an itinerant preacher and wisdom teacher. The poor loved him, drunks drank with him, and sex workers called him friend. Some believed him a prophet, others thought he was the Messiah. The religious elite saw him as a threat and the Roman Empire eventually murdered him as a political revolutionary. But what cannot be questioned about the historic Jesus is his Jewish identity. He was rooted in first century Judaism. He celebrated the Jewish festivals. He went on pilgrimage to the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, he taught in the Synagogue. He was a miracle worker and mystic. If you grew up in the church, Jesus was presented as the first Christian, a man who dedicated his life to dismantling Judaism in route to founding a new religion. But this view is not only historically inaccurate, it fails to account for Jesus' Jewish identity. In this erudite episode, scholar Amy-Jill Levine helps Christians and Jews understand the "Jewishness" of Jesus so that our appreciation of him deepens and a greater interfaith dialogue can take place. Levine's humor and informed truth-telling provokes honest conversation and debate about how Christians and Jews should understand Jesus in the modern world. How have we gotten him right? How have we gotten him wrong? What might we learn about him by remembering and studying his Jewish identity? What would Jesus have believed about hell, sexuality, women, and the Bible in his first century Jewish context?We've all met Jesus before. Or, have we? Meeting Jesus as a first century Jew just might change not only how you see yourself, but your faith tradition as well. BioAmy 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.If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating and a review

Using Amy-Jill Levine's book “Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi”  I want to retell the story of Jesus and Zacchaeus a couple of different ways to open up the option of more than one way of reading a these stories as parable.·         How do we feel when we read this story? ·         Do we read verse 8 in the future tense, as something he will do in response to Jesus wanting to come to dinner, or in the present tense as a defence of against the grumbling. Or both? The Greek goes either way. ·         What echoes of other stories in Luke do we hear? ·         What uncomfortable questions does it ask of us?You can read the notes here

We welcome internationally renowned scholar and teacher, Amy-Jill Levine. Dr Levine is the author of numerous books including “The Difficult Words of Jesus: A Beginner's Guide to His Most Perplexing Teachings,”“Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi,” She is also the coeditor of the Jewish Annotated New Testament.  She has recently co-authored “The a Bible with and Without Jesus,” - which we discuss on this episode. AJ is the first Jew to teach New Testament at Rome's Pontifical Biblical Institute. In 2021 she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. AJ describes herself as an unorthodox member of an Orthodox synagogue and a Yankee Jewish feminist who until 2021 taught New Testament in a Christian divinity school in the buckle of the Bible Belt.This podcast was recorded on October 27th, 2021.

Of all Jesus' parables concerning wealth and poverty, perhaps none has a more scathing denunciation of the excesses of the wealthy than the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, found in Luke 16:19-31. In this episode, we find that the parable provides a sharp critique of the wealth inequality of Jesus' time and of our own.https://www.hermeneuticofresistance.com/Episode Bibliography:Barram, Michael. Missional Economics: Biblical Justice and Christian Formation. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2018.Blomberg, Craig. Interpreting the Parables. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1990.Craddock, Fred. Luke (Interpretation). Louisville: John Knox Press, 1990.Herzog, William R. Parables as Subversive Speech: Jesus as Pedagogue of the Oppressed. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994.Levine, Amy-Jill. Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi. New York: HarperCollins, 2014.Miranda, Jose Porfirio. Communism in the Bible. Translated by Robert R. Barr. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1982.

The Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30) and the Parable of Minas (Luke 19:11-27) are two similar stories. They both involve a master going away on a journey and entrusting different sums of money to his servants. Almost invariably, popular interpreters have these parables as allegories for the time in between and first and second comings of Jesus. In this readings, the master represents Jesus, who expects to find his disciples hard at work using their gifts in service of his kingdom. However popular, such interpretations are deeply problematic. In this episode, I will explore alternative ways of reading these parables, and suggest an interpretation where the master does not represent Jesus and the third servant, though condemned by the master, is actually a kind of tragic hero.https://www.hermeneuticofresistance.com/Episode Bibliography:Craddock, Fred. Luke (Interpretation). Louisville: John Knox Press, 1990.Herzog, William R. Parables as Subversive Speech: Jesus as Pedagogue of the Oppressed. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994.Johnson, Luke Timothy. “The Lukan Kingship Parable.” Novum Testamentum 24:139-159.Levine, Amy-Jill. Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi. New York: HarperCollins, 2014.

The parable of the workers in the vineyard, found in Matthew 20:1-16, is a story about a vineyard owner, a group of workers, and the wages they are paid. In both scholarly interpretation and popular preaching, this parable is often made into a story about the afterlife and eternal rewards. But what if, in telling a story about workers and wages, Jesus actually intended to say something about workers and wages? In this episode, I offer three readings of this parable, each of which focuses on what the parable might teach us about the economics of God’s kingdom. https://www.hermeneuticofresistance.com/Episode Bibliography:Carter, Warren. Matthew and the Margins: A Sociopolitical and Religious Reading. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2000.Herzog, William R. Parables as Subversive Speech: Jesus as Pedagogue of the Oppressed. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994.Levine, Amy-Jill. Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi. New York: HarperCollins, 2014.Osborne, Grant R. Matthew (ZECNT). Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010.

Jewish Vanderbilt Divinity school Professor of New Testament AJ Levine, self-described as a Yankee Feminist, joins Tokens to talk about two of her books; but more, how she once wanted to be the pope, what she does not like about liberal Christians, and a marvelous telling of the parable of the Good Samaritan. LINKS: Amy-Jill's books: The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus https://amzn.to/38mDY3d Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi https://amzn.to/3dP2gEm Update on Jameel McGee: Tokensshow.com/ac More about Tokens: Tokensshow.com/2020 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Luke 15: 1-10; "Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi," by Amy-Jill Levine, p.44-45, 48; "Reflections on the Lectionary," Melissa Earley, The Christian Century, p.19, 8/28/19.

On this episode of The Bible for Normal People Podcast, we look back to our time with Dr. Amy-Jill Levine on understanding Jesus is his Jewish context. Levine is University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt Divinity School and the author of a number of books including Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi.   Show Notes →     Support the podcast: The Bible for Normal People Patreon

Weekly JourneywithJesus.net postings, read by Dan Clendenin. Essay by Debie Thomas: *What the Body Knows* for Sunday, 12 June 2016; book review by Debie Thomas: *Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi* by Amy-Jill Levine (2014); film review by Dan Clendenin: *Everybody Wants Some* (2016); poem selected by Dan Clendenin: *Address to the Lord (7)* by John Berryman.

Amy-Jill Levine is a Jewish scholar with a deep love for the New Testament. Her latest book is a detailed, scholarly, and witty investigation of some of Jesus's parables. It's called Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi. Levine exposes ways the parables have been misinterpreted from the past to the present and shows that they are as relevant today as they were when they were recorded centuries ago. The post #28—The parables of Jesus, with Amy-Jill Levine [MIPodcast] appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.