Kenneth E. Bailey

Ken Bailey draws from extended studies and firsthand experience of the Middle East's peasant class to help us read the Gospels as they were meant to be read. The work dispels the obscurity of Western interpretations with a stark vision of Jesus in his original context.

Cultural Studies in the Gospels

Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes

Uses a thorough understanding of Middle Eastern peasant culture and modern literary criticism to analyze the New Testament parables in Luke

A Literary-Cultural Approach to the Parables in Luke

Poet & Peasant and Through Peasant Eyes

2012 Christianity Today Book Award winner! Paul was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, steeped in the learning of his people. But he was also a Roman citizen who widely traveled the Mediterranean basin, and was very knowledgeable of the dominant Greek and Roman culture of his day. These two mighty rivers of influence converge in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. With razor-sharp attention to the text, Kenneth Bailey examines the cultural milieu and rhetorical strategies that shaped this pivotal epistle. He discovers the deep layers of the Hebraic prophetic tradition informing Paul's writing, linking the Apostle with the great prophets of the Old Testament. Throughout, Bailey employs his expert knowledge of Near Eastern and Mediterranean culture to deliver to readers a new understanding of Paul and his world. Familiar passages take on a new hue as they are stripped of standard Western interpretations and rendered back into their ancient setting.

Cultural Studies in 1 Corinthians

Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes

Drawing on a lifetime of study in both Middle Eastern culture and the Gospels, Kenneth E. Bailey compares the Old Testament saga of Jacob and the New Testament parable of the prodigal son, offering a fresh view of how Jesus interpreted Israel's past, his present, and their future.

How Jesus Retold Israel's Story

Jacob & the Prodigal

In this groundbreaking study of Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians, Kenneth Bailey examines the canonical letter through Paul's Jewish socio-cultural and rhetorical background and through the Mediterranean context of its Corinthian recipients.

Explores the four parables in Luke 15. Shows how the cultural background of Arabic and Muslim theology affects the interpretation of these parables.

Cultural Keys to Luke 15

Finding the Lost

die biblische Geschichte vom verlorenen Sohn aus nahöstlicher Perspektive in Szene gesetzt

Der ganz andere Vater

Kenneth E. Bailey draws on his expertise in both the New Testament and Middle Eastern culture to interpret the parable of the prodigal son from a Middle Eastern perspective. When we approach it with the correct cultural lens, Bailey argues, the parable's true Christological character is revealed.

Luke 15 Through the Eyes of Middle Eastern Peasants

The Cross and the Prodigal

Drawing on his extensive knowledge of both the New Testament and Middle Eastern culture, Kenneth E. Bailey presents an interpretation of the parable of the prodigal son from a Middle Eastern perspective and, in doing so, powerfully demonstrates its essentially Christian message.

Kenneth E. Bailey

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