Parables: Putting Jesus's Stories in Their Place

by Josh Scott

Read the stories of Jesus in a new light.

When Jesus taught in parables, he was doing more than telling simple morality tales. His stories were grounded in the world in which he lived and his vision of the Kingdom of God. This book explores six parables that give us a window into Jesus’s message and movement, and, once they are heard in their own context, ask what they might mean for us today. Parables the New Wine and Wineskins, the Mustard Seed, the Leaven, the Wedding Party, the Workers in the Vineyard, and the Wicked Tenants.

Other components for the study include a leader guide and teaching video are available.

Genres: Christian

135 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 4, 2025

Reviews

[Matt LeFevers · Rating 5 out of 5]

As always with a Josh Scott book, I was both reassured and challenged by this one. This is not your typical book on parables, with well-worn interpretations we’ve all heard a thousand times (sprinkled with maybe one or two fresh insights.) Instead, Scott is willing to upset the entire history of interpretation on some of these stories, by sidestepping shallow and convenient readings and going back to the original context. How would a subsistence-level, first century audience in a political powder keg of a region have heard some of these parables? Would the wealthy and vindictive king have been understood by those folks as the hero of the story? Would the wealthy landowner?

Some of these readings just push my own understanding of the parable a little farther, and others completely turn it on its head in a way that can be (honestly) a bit uncomfortable. These are very familiar stories to many of us, and the standard readings are pretty well embedded. One or two of these chapters I’m going to have to chew on some more, and I’ll continue to process these new (or old?) ideas over time. But that’s the beauty of a book like this — it’s bold, and fresh, and hard to dismiss.

More than anything, this book is written with an unwavering love for Jesus, the Bible, and the least of these, that inspires me to reflect more deeply on how well I’m doing the same.

[Lypenner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book fostered all kinds of lively discussion in our house church’s Bible study, helping us ponder parables many of us knew all our lives. Or should I say, parables we thought we knew. Josh definitely broke them open for us in new ways. The short videos that come with the book were excellent launching pads, and each week’s facilitator said how helpful they found the leader’s guide. The discussion starting prompts were excellent. The writing is very clear and relatable. Our group was drawn closer to Jesus with this thought-provoking and enlivening study book. The gospel came alive. Highly recommended.

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

We just finished this book in our Bible study. I was enjoying reading about these parables from a different perspective, but others in the abible study felt that he was often in left field somewhere. When I was reading through chapter six and he stated that Ananias and Sapphira died because they did not give enough money to the church...I had to look up the scripture because that is not how I remembered it. They died because they were being decietful, even after they were confronted about it. After reading that, I had to consider everything else he wrote, and I think that I now agree with everyone else in the Bible study.

[Julie Melander · Rating 5 out of 5]

A new brighter light on well known Parables of Jesus

Josh thoughtfully takes us through a reinterpretation of commonly known parables with the lens of the economic and political times in which Jesus and the Gospel authors lived. We come away with profound changes to our common interpretations of these stories which bring their meaning into a brighter, more meaningful light.

[Patty Corwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for Tuesday study that I co-lead. Very interesting and thought provoking takes on familiar probes in light of the times and circumstances Jesus lived. It is great food for thought and introduces new and perhaps controversial spins on what I traditionally thought.

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perspective that overcomes the cognitive dissonance of the typical western interpretations.