Difficult Words of Jesus

The Difficult Words of Jesus A Beginner's Guide to His Most Perplexing Teachings Amy-Jill LevineAbingdon, 2021ISBN 9781791007577 Softcover, 176 pp.5.43 X 8.27 X 0.79 inches | 0.35 pounds Examine the most difficult teachings of Jesus with Dr. Amy-Jill Levine. Jesus provided his disciples teachings for how to follow Torah, God's word; he told them parables to help them discern questions of ethics and of human nature; he offered them beatitudes for comfort and encouragement. But sometimes Jesus spoke words that followers then and now have found difficult. He instructs disciples to hate members of their own families (Luke 14:26), to act as if they were slaves (Matthew 20:27), and to sell their belongings and give to the poor (Luke 18:22). He restricts his mission (Matthew 10:6); he speaks of damnation (Matthew 8:12); he calls Jews the devil's children (John 8:44). In The Difficult Words of Jesus, Amy-Jill Levine shows how these difficult teachings would have sounded to the people who first