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What was clear to the original readers of Scripture is not always clear to us. Because of the cultural distance between the biblical world and our contemporary setting, we often bring modern Western biases to the text. For example, when Western readers hear Paul exhorting women to "dress modestly," we automatically think in terms of sexual modesty. But most women in that culture would never wear racy clothing. The context suggests that Paul is likely more concerned about economic modesty-that Christian women not flaunt their wealth through expensive clothes, braided hair, and gold jewelry. By the same token, Western individualism leads us to assume that Mary and Joseph traveled alone to Bethlehem. What went without saying was that they were likely accompanied by a large entourage of extended family. Biblical scholars Brandon O'Brien and Randy Richards shed light on the ways that Western readers often misunderstand the cultural dynamics of the Bible. They identify nine key areas where modern Westerners have significantly different assumptions about what might be going on in a text. Drawing on their own cross-cultural experience in global mission, O'Brien and Richards show how better self-awareness and understanding of cultural differences in language, time, and social mores allow us to see the Bible in fresh and unexpected ways.… (more)
User reviews
Living in a third-world country, I
The authors focus on cultural aspects that “just go without needing to be said.” It’s these areas where we can easily mis-read the Bible by assuming the characters involved had the same values that we do. You can understand better the difficulty when you consider the phrase, “Fido was a good dog.” If you live in the Scottish Highlands you’ll interpret that to mean that Fido handled sheep well; if you live in America, you’ll understand that Fido didn’t chew your slippers; if you live in Indonesia, you’ll acknowledge that Fido was perfectly seasoned...
There are many “values” that are so revered for us as americans (Efficiency, Individuality, Planning, Predictability, Self-Sufficiency, Free Market) that we read them into scriptures and determine they must be “right,” but many of these are foreign concepts to other cultures and the culture of the Bible! (Has it ever occurred to you that Paul was completely unfamiliar with, and would have probably opposed, the idea of a free-trade market?)
Of course I have to write a disclaimer. The book has a few heresies, (at one point he seems to argue that David was not bothered by an internal conscience but only by external shame. I understand David’s greater emphasis on the public shame, but based on Ps. 32:3 and 51:2, I argue David did have an internal guilt as well)
But I think the book can be helpful if read, not as a source of new doctrine or a radical change from what you believe (they even warn against that) but as a challenge to your way of thinking. Having grown up in church, it’s so easy for us to look at a passage and mentally “sum it up,” but I think it’s good to take another look and reconsider what it meant to the original readers at that time. So, this book is definitely a good place to start challenging yourself to understand the Bible as it was written - not merely as a 21st century middle-class american.