Fortress Press

"In this book James Breech helps us get behind and beyond canonized commonplaces in our views of Jesus and his sayings, and opens up his momentous originality. By locating this originality in the everyday world of Jesus' parables, which here receive a searching analysis in terms of contemporary narrative-study, the author uncovers a world-shaper who was above even his first interpreters but whose vision can speak all the more directly to our own secularity and its quest for reality.... The Silence of Jesus represents a contribution both to the study of Christianity and modern culture."
– Amos N. Wilder, Hollis Professor of Divinity Emeritus, Harvard University

"The Silence of Jesus is one of the most interesting works on the New Testament I have read ... and certainly the most penetrating study and interpretation of Jesus parables that I have seen. The translations of the reconstructed original parables are probably as close to the impissima vox of Jesus as we will ever be."
– Helmut Koester, John H. Morison Research Professor of Divinity, Harvard Divinity School

"... a bold and creative synthesis of historical method, literary criticism, and philosophical and psychological insight.... Breech has provided us with a powerful interpretation of Jesus for our time, one which does resonate with historically established elements of Jesus' life."
– Adela Yarbro Collins, Buckingham Professor of New Testament Criticism and Interpretation, Yale Divinity School