The Power of Parables

Essays on the Comparative Study of Jewish and Christian Parables
Erscheinungsjahr 2023
ISBN: 978-90-04-68002-9
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 39, 478 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 940 g

Reihe: Jewish and Christian Perspectives Series

The Power of Parables documents the surprising ways in which Jewish and Christian parables bridge religion with daily life.
This 2019 conference volume rediscovers the original power of parables to shock and affect their audience, which has since been reduced by centuries of preaching and repetition. Not only do parables enhance the perspective on Scripture or the kingdom of heaven, they also change the sensory regime of the audience in perceiving the outer world. The theological differences in their applications appear secondary in view of their powerful rhetoric and suggest a shared genre.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Weitere Mitwirkende

Merz, Annette

Ottenheijm, Eric

Poorthuis, Marcel

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Jüdische Studien Jüdische Studien

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Contents

Abbreviations

Contributors

Introduction

Eric Ottenheijm, Marcel Poorthuis and Annette Merz

Part 1: Parables and Realism

1 Genres of Parables: A Cognitive Approach

Gerd Theissen

2 A Parable of the Lost Temple? Archaeology, Intertextuality, and Rhetoric in Matt 21:33-46

Eric Ottenheijm and Boaz Zissu

3 Whom Do You Invite to the Table? Connections between the Dropsical Guest and the Meal Parables in Luke 14:1–24

Bart J. Koet

4 Parable and Ritual in Changing Contexts

Adiel Kadari

5 Sorting out “New and Old” (Matt 13:52) as Changing Money: Rabbinic and Synoptic Parables on Scriptural Knowledge

Eric Ottenheijm

6 The Rabbinic Mashal and the Ancient Fable: Prospects for a Changing Perspective

Justin David Strong

Part 2: Parables and Application

7 Parables between Folk and Elite

Tal Ilan

8 Money and Torah in Early Christian and Early Rabbinic Parables

Lieve M. Teugels

9 On Fields, the Poor Human Condition, and the Advantage of One Teacher: Four Rabbinic Parables in Avot de Rabbi Nathan

Marcel Poorthuis

10 Honouring Human Agency and Autonomy: Children as Agents in New Testament and Early Rabbinic Parables

Annette Merz and Albertina Oegema

11 Father’s Child: Fatherhood in the Rabbinic Parables of Song of Songs Rabbah

Tamar Kadari

12 Why Are Biblical Verses Not Quoted in Parables? A Cultural-Cognitive Explanation

Ronit Nikolsky

13 Moses’s Prayer and the Nimshal as Scriptural Mosaic

Arnon Atzmon

Part 3: Parables and Social Reality

14 Metaphors, Parables, and the Bildfeld

Petra von Gemünden

15 Jesus’s Parables Create Collective Identity: Parables of Growth through the Lens of Social Identity Theory

Ruben Zimmermann

16 Host and Guests: Some Features of the Eschatological Banquet in Rabbinic Parables and Gospels

Reuven Kiperwasser

17 New Testament and Rabbinic Slave Parables at the Intersection between Fiction and Reality

Catherine Hezser

18 Parables between Realism and Ideology

Anders Martinsen

19 Building a Fence Around the Vineyard: The Shepherd of Hermas’s Fifth Parable in Light of Comparative Parable Research

Martijn J. Stoutjesdijk

20 The Land of Israel as Diasporic Topos in Rabbinic Parables

Constanza Cordoni

Index of Ancient Sources

Index of Modern Authors

Index of Names and Subjects

Über Autor(innen)

Eric Ottenheijm is Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and Biblical Studies at Utrecht University. Ottenheijm is president of the Compendia Foundation (CRINT Series, Brill), and member of the Editorial Board of Jewish and Christian Perspectives (Brill). His research focusses on rabbinic and Synoptic parables and the Jewish context of the Gospel of Matthew.

Marcel Poorthuis is Emeritus Professor in Interreligious Dialogue at Tilburg University. His dissertation (1992, Utrecht) dealt with the French-Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas. He published about Catholicism, Judaism, Buddhism, and philosophy. He is co-editor of the international series Jewish and Christian Perspectives (Brill). His latest book publication is Rituals in interreligious dialogue: bridge or barrier? (Cambridge Scholars 2020).



Annette Merz is Professor of New Testament at the Protestant Theological University in Amsterdam and Groningen. Her dissertation (2001, Heidelberg) dealt with the Pastoral Epistles in the New Testament. She has published monographs and articles on the Historical Jesus and the Synoptic tradition on miracles and parables and on the later Pauline tradition, especially on the Pastoral Epistles and the Acts of Paul. Another focus is the reception history of New Testament texts regarding gender and slavery.