Israel, the community to which Jesus belonged, took its name from their patriarch Jacob. His story of exile and return was their story as well. In the well-known tale of the prodigal son, Jesus reshaped the story in his own way and for his own purposes. In this work, Kenneth E. Bailey compares the Old Testament saga and the New Testament parable. He unpacks similarities freighted with theological significance and differences that often reveal Jesus' particular purposes. Drawing on a lifetime of study in both Middle Eastern culture and the Gospels, Bailey offers here a fresh view of how Jesus interpreted Israel's past, his present and their future.

FiguresPrefaceI: Introduction: What Does It Mean to Call Jesus a Theologian?1. Jesus as a Metaphorical Theologian and the Rabbinic World2. The Jesus Tradition and the Question of Authenticity3. The Importance of Middle Eastern Culture for New Testament Interpretation4. The Parable of the Prodigal Son and the "Travel Narrative" in Luke5. The One and the Many in Parabolic InterpretationII: The Parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15 Compared with the Saga of Jacob in Genesis 27--35: The Setting In Luke 156. Three Stories, One Parable: Seeing the Three Stories of Luke 15 as a Unity7. The Parable of the Lost Sheep: The First Warm-Up Story (Luke 15:3-7)8. The Lost Coin--And Also Some Women (Luke 15:8-10)9. To Find the Lost:The Parable of the Two Lost Sons (Luke 15:11-32)III. The Parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15 Compared with the Saga of Jacob in Genesis 27--35: The Saga and the Parable: Comparisons and Contrasts10. Jacob Revisited: The Jacob Story in Early Jewish Tradition and in the Mind of Jesus11. The Great Rebellion: The Family Before the Prodigal Leaves Home (Luke 15:11-13)12. The Exile: The Prodigal in the Far Country (Luke 15:13-19)13. Peace for the One Who is Far Off: The Father Finds the Prodigal (Luke 15:20-24)14. Peace for the One Who is Near: The Father's Search for the Older Son (Luke 15:25-32)15. Two Dancers in a Single Dance: Reflections on N.T. Wright's Interpretation of the Parable of the Prodigal SonIV: Significance of this Study for an Understanding of Jesus' Theology16. A Summary of the Significance of the Comparisons Between Jacob and the Prodigal for Aspects of Jesus' TheologyConclusionsAppendix: Index of the Various Types of Contrasts and ComparisonsBibliographyIndex of Authors