The Parables of Jesus - (Hardcover)

About the Book

To most people, the most engaging and accessible part of The Urantia Book is Part IV: The Life and Teachings of Jesus. Encompassing the final third of the book, it is a panoramic and masterfully crafted narrative detailing thirty-six years of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth.

This illustrated collection of forty-two parables of Jesus is drawn entirely from The Urantia Book. It is presented in a beautifully designed layout and illustrated with modern photographic compositions and classic works of art. It is sure to become a favorite volume for those seeking to better understand and benefit from Jesus' teachings.

Jesus was a teacher who taught as the occasion served; he was not a systematic teacher. Jesus taught not so much from the law as from life, by parables. This was especially true during the last year of his public ministry as the parable allowed him to present new and startling truths to those who desired to know the better way while at the same time affording his enemies less opportunity to find cause for offense and for accusations against him.

These parables represent a mighty storehouse of moral and spiritual teachings which have come down through the ages unblemished by the doctrines and dogmas of men.

They are, quite simply, a pearl of great price.

Book Synopsis

To most people, the most engaging and accessible part of The Urantia Book is Part IV: The Life and Teachings of Jesus. Encompassing the final third of the book, it is a panoramic and masterfully crafted narrative detailing thirty-six years of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth.

This illustrated collection of forty-two parables of Jesus is drawn entirely from The Urantia Book. It is presented in a beautifully designed layout and illustrated with modern photographic compositions and classic works of art. It is sure to become a favorite volume for those seeking to better understand and benefit from Jesus' teachings.

Jesus was a teacher who taught as the occasion served; he was not a systematic teacher. Jesus taught not so much from the law as from life, by parables. This was especially true during the last year of his public ministry as the parable allowed him to present new and startling truths to those who desired to know the better way while at the same time affording his enemies less opportunity to find cause for offense and for accusations against him.

These parables represent a mighty storehouse of moral and spiritual teachings which have come down through the ages unblemished by the doctrines and dogmas of men.

They are, quite simply, a pearl of great price.

From the Back Cover

The parables of Jesus are not so much famous as they are familiar as sayings and metaphors. The good Samaritan is part of the lexicon, but how many people know the details of his story? The same might be said for lost sons or for good shepherds and their lost sheep. Talents are bought and sold for great sums, but did you know that the story of the lord who entrusted talents to his servants to invest while he was away is where we derive the meaning of the word?

Yet these simple stories run deep and have inspired and instructed countless souls in the two thousand years since they were first recorded. The Master made the parable the cornerstone of his public teaching especially during the last year of his earthly ministry; and while this method of teaching was not wholly new to Jesus, it became almost a new method of teaching as he employed it. The parable possesses these valuable benefits:

- It appeals to different levels of mind and spirit by stimulating the imagination and encouraging critical thinking; it promotes understanding without arousing resentment.
- It proceeds from things which are known to things unknown; the material and natural introduce the spiritual and the supernatural.
- Parables favor the making of impartial moral decisions. The parable evades much prejudice and puts new truth gracefully into the mind and does all this with the arousal of a minimum of the self-defense of personal resentment.
- To reject the truth contained in parabolical analogy requires conscious intellectual action which is directly in contempt of one's honest judgment and fair decision. The parable conduces to the forcing of thought through the sense of hearing.
- The use of the parable form of teaching enables the teacher to present new and even startling truths while at the same time he largely avoids all controversy and outward clashing with tradition and established authority.
- The parable also possesses the advantage of stimulating the memory of the truth taught when the same familiar scenes are subsequently encountered.

About the Author

Urantia Press is based in Chicago, IL.