Parables And Riddles In Ancient And Modern Teaching

This book is about the difference between parables and riddles, and between different views and definitions of wisdom and various attitudes towards the possibility of its attainment. Both parables and riddles go beyond a simple rote presentation of facts, which may become tedious and likely to be tuned out or rejected. However, there is a major difference between the two. Parables are a dominant form of transmission of information in biblical writings, while riddles dominate those of ancient Greece. Parables transmit an underlying, useful life-message in a way that will not be rejected. Riddles, in contrast, are largely unintelligible, leaving one helpless, unable to derive any life-lesson. This book will be of intellectual value to educators, writers, therapists, story-tellers, clergy, and classicists, as well as anyone interested in the implications of ancient views of wisdom for modern education.

This book is about the difference between parables and riddles, and between different views and definitions of wisdom and various attitudes towards the possibility of its attainment. Both parables and riddles go beyond a simple rote presentation of facts, which may become tedious and likely to be tuned out or rejected. However, there is a major difference between the two. Parables are a dominant form of transmission of information in biblical writings, while riddles dominate those of ancient Greece. Parables transmit an underlying, useful life-message in a way that will not be rejected. Riddles, in contrast, are largely unintelligible, leaving one helpless, unable to derive any life-lesson. This book will be of intellectual value to educators, writers, therapists, story-tellers, clergy, and classicists, as well as anyone interested in the implications of ancient views of wisdom for modern education.

While meaning and purpose are often seen as synonymous, this book argues that they sometimes are in opposition, the search for meaning at times suicidal, and living with purpose life-enhancing and invigorating. No people seemed to search for meaning in their lives more than did the ancient and classical Greeks. They were not content with living simple lives but oftentimes took on gargantuan tasks which resulted in a great deal of upheaval and unpleasantness in their everyday lives, and oftentimes to disaster, indeed suicide. The biblical human being, in contrast, is not driven to search for meaning in this way. One's purpose is inherent in daily life. He does not need to search for it. The God of the Hebrew Bible makes the human being, man and woman, in His own image. He then breathes life into man. Life has an inherent purpose. Man must be a steward of God's creation.

What was the relationship of ancient education to early Christianity? This volume provides an in-depth look at different approaches currently employed by scholars who draw upon educational settings in the ancient world to inform their historical research in Christian origins. The book is divided into two sections: one consisting of essays on education in the ancient world, and one consisting of exegetical studies dealing with various passages where motifs emerging from ancient educational culture provide illumination. The chapters summarize the state of the discussion on ancient education in classical and biblical studies, examine obstacles to arriving at a comprehensive theory of early Christianity's relationship to ancient education, compare different approaches, and compile the diverse methodologies into one comparative study. Several educational motifs are integrated in order to demonstrate the exegetical insights that they may yield when utilized in New Testament historical investigation and interpretation.

Christianity Today Critics' Choice Award In this newly revised and expanded edition, Grant Osborne provides seminary students and working pastors with the full set of tools they need to move from sound exegesis to the development of biblical and systematic theologies and to the preparation of sound, biblical sermons. Osborne contends that hermeneutics is a spiral from text to context--a movement between the horizon of the text and the horizon of the reader that spirals nearer and nearer toward the intended meaning of the text and its significance for today. Well-established as the standard evangelical work in the field since its first publication in 1991, The Hermeneutical Spiral has been updated to meet the needs of a new generation of students and pastors. General revisions have been made throughout, new chapters have been added on Old Testament law and the use of the Old Testament in the New, and the bibliography has been thoroughly updated. A 1993 Christianity Today Critics' Choice Award winner in theology and biblical studies.

Everyone loves a good story--one with interesting characters, an intriguing plot, lots of twists and turns, and a surprise ending. Jesus was a master storyteller, teaching primarily through a technique we call parables. In fact, over one third of the gospel material in the New Testament is parabolic in nature. Examining the parables of Jesus, Living Water views parables as a wisdom genre belonging to mashal, the Jewish tradition of sacred poetry, stories, proverbs, riddles, and dialogues through which wisdom is conveyed. In the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament), mashal is often associated with perplexing sayings, for its meaning is deliberately obscured in order to force the reader or listener to deeper thought and higher consciousness. While examining the parables of Jesus, Living Water focuses not so much on traditional explanations and interpretations but on their paradoxical and perplexing nature. In addition, this book encourages us to take a parabolic approach to all Scripture, viewing it as an aid to help us move from egoic existence to unitive existence. This Spirit-led way of living, thinking, and being requires a transformation from our False Self to our True Self, from dualist self-obsession to nondualist consciousness characterized by risk-taking, compassion, generosity, availability, and joy, a path charted by the parables of Jesus. Benefitting from recent scholarly research, Living Water is unique in content and conception and is useful for individual or group study. Each chapter concludes with questions suitable for discussion or reflection.

This is the first one-volume resource to introduce readers to the Bible by providing a complete overview of the world of biblical history and scholarship, plus commentary on the text Indexable 1,824 pp.

The Dictionary of the Bible and Ancient Media is a convenient and authoritative reference tool, introducing specific terms and concepts helpful to the study of the Bible and related literature in ancient communications culture. Since the early 1980s, biblical scholars have begun to explore the potentials of interdisciplinary theories of oral tradition, oral performance, personal and collective memory, ancient literacy and scribality, visual culture and ritual. Over time these theories have been combined with considerations of critical and exegetical problems in the study of the Bible, the history of Israel, Christian origins, and rabbinics. The Dictionary of the Bible and Ancient Media responds to the rapid growth of the field by providing a source of reference that offers clear definitions, and in-depth discussions of relevant terms and concepts, and the relationships between them. The volume begins with an overview of 'ancient media studies' and a brief history of research to orient the reader to the field and the broader research context of the book, with individual entries on terms and topics commonly encountered in studies of the Bible in ancient media culture. Each entry defines the term/ concept under consideration, then offers more sustained discussion of the topic, paying particular attention to its relevance for the study of the Bible and related literature