The Good Shepherd

Author Kenneth E. Bailey
Publisher SPCK £12.99
Format pbk
ISBN 9780281073504
first issued by IVP 2014,
this edition is also in print.

We all know and love Psalm 23, but Kenneth Bailey’s latest Bible study provides many fresh insights. Read his book and you will learn the difference between a rod and a staff, and much more besides. He goes on to show how the metaphor of the Good Shepherd is used and developed throughout the Bible, including Jeremiah (on bad shepherds), Ezekiel (bad sheep), Zechariah and the four Gospels (sending shepherds out to seek the lost sheep) and 1 Peter, who told us to be good shepherds, too. All this is illuminated by the author’s extensive first-hand experience of life in the Holy Land and his deep knowledge of Bibles in Arabic. After you have read this fine book, Psalm 23 will never seem the same again.

PETER THORNTON

Psalms, Biblical analysis