Curtis Hefner > Recent Status Updates

I read part of this book while at a friend’s home. I doubt I’ll finish it. It was pretty good, though I would have appreciated more material to establish the claims contained within about apostles.

"Young dreams may be wild ones, but they are never corrected by ridiculing them. They must be steered by a loving voice that has earned the right to be heard, not one enforced by means of power." P. 11

So far I am conflicted by Jeremias' approach. He seems to draw quite heavily from Dodd's previous treatment of the Text. Resultantly, he is exceptionally well informed and simultaneously skeptical about Scriptural authority. Or so it seems. Perhaps he merely craves the original tellings of the parables. But he seems to reject some of their interpretations, attributing 'additions' to tradition. It leaves me pensive.

It has taken me about 6 months of treating this book like a course textbook to get to this point. All of the commentary has been enlightening and cohesive. When Stern wanders away from the text, it is only to grab an enlightening passage from the Talmud, Mishna, Midrash, or other Jewish or Messianic Jewish source. The result further explains the cultural aspects which escape philological illumination.