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Jesus, the Middle Eastern Storyteller is unavailable, but you can change that!

Communication in Jesus’ world involved the use of word pictures, dramatic actions, metaphors, and stories. Rather than lecture about religious corruption, Jesus refers to the Pharisees as “whitewashed tombs.” Rather than outline the failings of the Temple, he cures a fig tree. Without a perceptive and careful use of the culture of the ancient world, we read the stories of Jesus as foreigners.

THE SOUTH ENTRY STEPS TO THE ANCIENT JERUSALEM TEMPLE Todd Bolen/www.BiblePlaces.com Both of these men are offering manufactured excuses that preserve their honor while all along denying Jesus. To “say farewell” is an attempt to appeal to family duty and so shirk Jesus’ call. To “bury one’s father” actually means that the man is appealing to his duty to remain at home until his father dies (is buried) so that he can then make decisions for himself. The Middle East for centuries has been a world
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