Time Magazine recently listed the shift to viewing Jesus in a Jewish context as one of the Top 10 ideas that is changing the world. I agree, and that context is, now, widely considered by most Christian academics as necessary. But there is another context that is not yet so widespread and not especially trumpeted in this day and age. Yes, Jesus of Nazareth was a Jew. But he was also something else, something which is imperative to realize if we are to properly interpret his words and actions.

Jesus was a Middle Easterner.

Yes, viewing Jesus of Nazareth as a first century Jew is imperative for understanding the message He was relaying, the life He was living, the death He was dying, and...

But we must never loose sight of one context when concentrating on another. Kenneth Bailey has spent a lifetime reminding us that Jesus was not only a Jew, He was a Middle Eastern Jew. And that fact brings to the table a entire world of cultural, linguistic, historical and, perhaps most importantly, rhetorical texture to the task of understanding Him.

In his latest and perhaps more wide-reaching endeavor to remind us of that fact, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels, Bailey brings the Middle Eastern lens to bare on the birth narratives, the Beatitudes, a number of Jesus' parables, and, the topic of this brief series, the Lord's Prayer.

I chose to focus on Bailey's handling of the Lord's Prayer for several reasons, many of them difficult to articulate. One reason I can articulate is that in my cultural/linguistic tradition (Armenian), the Lord's Prayer, and much of the Bible as a whole, has been taught and recited in the ancient Armenian language, a language all but the most learned scholars today no longer understand. Most Armenians have recited or heard recited the Lord's Prayer on a daily basis, but I would venture to guess that about half could not tell you what the words meant. Through the centuries, the great prayer has been reduced to something of a magical chant, with little consideration given to the hugely important message(s) contained therein.

For that and many other reasons, I have been fascinated, since my decision to become a disciple of the Lord's, to examine the Prayer in more detail. And Bailey has provided me with much fresh new context in that realm. In Part 3 of the book, he looks at the Prayer line-by-line. Over the next few posts, I want to discuss a number of issues Bailey raises in an effort to better allow all of us, my fellow Armenians in particular, to come to understand the world of meaning Jesus sought to condense into this (purposefully) short but magnificent piece of poetry, for lack of a better word.

I do this in an effort, with fear and trembling, to aid in the central goal of Jesus and his disciples throughout the centuries: that His Kingdom may come, and His will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Grace and Peace,

Raffi