Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi

It’s been a while since I read anything about Christian scripture and Jesus. This was an excellent foray into that world, especially for someone who has left the church.

Levine provides a fresh perspective on Jesus’ parables, free from dogma and in contrast to traditional interpretations. To be completely honest, I think it showed me just how biased I still was in my understanding of these parables and how little I (and my old church leaders) really understood about Second Temple Judaism and the historical context in which Jesus lived.

It showed me, for example, how outrageously shallow the usual interpretation of “The Prodigal Son” is. Most interpretations, including the one I grew up with, focus on the younger son’s waywardness and eventual repentance, turning the parable into an allegory for sin and redemption. But before even getting to the younger son, Levine points out that anyone who had heard this parable in its original context would have been appalled by the father’s actions: He gave the younger son his inheritance while still alive and gave him half of the total inheritance instead of the expected one-third. These are scandalous and dishonorable actions. It’s no surprise he raised a son as wayward as the younger one turned out to be.

To the ears of Second Temple Jewish listeners, the story would not have been interpreted as an allegory for redemption. No one in the parable is redeemed. Instead, the focus is on reconciliation. The younger son returns home, and the father finally acknowledges his older son, going into the fields to fetch him so that all three can share in a banquet. The message, taking the parable at face value, is that even a completely dysfunctional family can, in the end, find a way to reconcile and restore relationships.

I won’t be returning to church as a result of this book, but Levine isn’t an apologist whose aim is to convert. She’s a scholar (and a Jew who doesn’t believe in Jesus’ divinity) who aims to illuminate the historical and cultural context of Jesus’ teachings and expose the misconceptions, oversimplifications, and, often, anti-Jewish biases in traditional interpretations.

At that, she is quite successful.