Through Middle Eastern Eyes: A Life of Kenneth E. Bailey

Dr. Michael Parker — missionary, historian, biographer

Kenneth E. Bailey was both a missionary and a New Testament scholar. As a missionary, first in Egypt and later in Lebanon, Israel-Palestine, and Cyprus, he experienced first-hand the life of traditional Middle Eastern villagers, which led him to the conclusion that the village culture he witnessed in the 20th century had hardly changed since the 1st century. Consequently, he was able to reinterpret Jesus’ parables and life experiences through this traditional culture. In a remarkable series of acclaimed books, which include The Cross and the Prodigal (1973, 2005), Jacob & the Prodigal (2003), and Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes (2008), Bailey showed that Jesus was the first mind of the New Testament who used story and metaphor to challenge the leaders of his day in ways often unappreciated by contemporary readers.

This biography explains the origins of Bailey’s key ideas and recounts his often-fraught missionary career—one that included the austere and sometimes harsh life in the simple villages in Upper Egypt, the perils of life in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), and being evacuated four times during the military conflicts in the region—that made possible his groundbreaking insights into the New Testament.

Michael Parker served as a missionary and professor of church history for many years in Sudan, Rwanda, and Egypt. Most recently, he was the director of graduate studies at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo, Egypt, from 2012-2020. He is also the author of five previous books, including The Kingdom of Character: The Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions, 1886– 1926 (2008).

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For more information about Dr. Michael Parker, visit michael parker.info

View the complete series of video introductions to Dr. Parker’s Kenneth Bailey biography on the FoMENTS YouTube channel.

Read Michael Parker’s recent article on the biography for The Presbyterian Outlook