An impressive book

Looking aside from 1 Peter studies for awhile, I would like to mention an impressive book that arrived a few days ago. Its really an achievment: Klyne R. Snodgrass, Stories with Intent. A Comprehensive Guide to the Parables of Jesus (Eerdmans Publishing, Grand Rapids, Mi., 2008) 846 pp. I have several of the most recent volumes published on the parables; now it loooks like I don't need to buy any more such books for some years to come. It is really comprehensive: It starts out with the obligatory Introduction to the parables of Jesus, then a chapter on Parables in the Ancient World. The next 9 chapters then deal with the various parables. Each parable is discussed using the following outline: Parable type, Issues requiring attention, Helpful primary source material, Textual features worth noting, Cultural information, Explanation of the parable,Adapting the parable , and Further Reading. See list of contents here.

This is not a book to read through from start to beginning, but a 'comprehensive guide' as the subtitle says, to the parables. I especially like his sections on primary source material, which dig up a lot of material from biblical and other Jewish writings, and Greaco-Roman literature. Then his sections on Cultural information are also very well informed, not to speak of his sections on Explanation that deal with the wide range of present scholarship on the parables. For those of us who preach from time to time, the last sections are also very suggestive (Adapting the parable).

The publisher and the author is to be congratulated with this volume. It will serve me well for a long time.