The Provocation of the Parables

Amy-Jill Levine “Le parabole di Gesù - I racconti enigmatici di un rabbi controverso”
[Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi], Effatà, 2020

I am intrigued by the perspective of an Orthodox Jewish scholar in looking at Jesus as a storyteller of Parables. The author teaches New Testament at the Divinity School of Vanderbilt University in Tennessee and is a member of the editorial board of Women Church World.

In bringing together the world of early Christianity with the Jewish background in which Jesus’ message was enculturated and received is no small feat. Nevertheless, Amy-Jill Levine, as stated in the preface, is monstrously skilled at combining profound exegetical analysis with a popular style (often ironic and in some cases extremely amusing). Levine is keen on unmasking the oversimplification with which these parables have been received and, above all, explained and disseminated, when instead in the minds of Jesus and the evangelists, they were meant to provoke the audience and evoke a reaction that would lead to a real change of life.

The author suggests that we learn not to resist the provocations of the parables, and reminds us that we are “a little less than divine” (Psalm 8:6) and should begin to act more divinely.

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