The older I get, the more I realize I don’t know much. The things I thought I knew have evolved into things with new meanings or possibilities. I’m more flexible. My perspective is not the only one. In fact, my perspective may be wrong. And I’m willing to accept that. I’ve been reading scriptures more in context. And trying to understand what the original authors were trying to convey — which means learning about their world and culture. I can’t apply my life to their life. I can’t take scripture verses and just stick them up for some random meaning that I assign. I’ve talked about this before — how books need to be read as a whole, more like a journal. I really hate taking a verse — a sentence — and ascribing some meaning.
I began wondering about all the people and cultures — how there are similar customs, values, and beliefs — yet they are different. I just finished this book, Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes, which explained:
In many other stories, several different things may go without being said that will affect our interpretation. Take the story of the three wise men in the accounts of Jesus’ birth for example. In Jesus’ day, several things went without being said. First, people assumed stars know things that mere humans don’t. It goes without being said for us, by contrast, that stars don’t know anything; they are made of hydrogen (see chapter seven). Additionally, it goes without being said for us that God sent the star to the magi—how else would they know of Jesus’ birth?—which the text does not say. It went without being said for the Jewish audience, however, that God forbade seeking guidance from the stars. But we typically ignore this point when we tell the story; it doesn’t fit our values. Third, we assume that since there are three gifts, there must have been three wise men. Our cultural mores dictate that everybody at the party brings a gift (see chapter one). But this is unlikely. In Jesus’ day, three men traveling with treasure would have been robbed. Finally, since we misunderstand how God is involved, we assume the wise men’s journey must have been a good thing. After all, God works all things together for good (see chapter nine). Therefore, we turn the event into a positive children’s story, even though the outcome was that it nearly got Jesus killed, and it did indeed get a lot of innocent babies killed. In other words, be prepared to embrace complexity. We may import several presuppositions unto any given text. Sorting them out will take some work. Expect it.
Richards, E. Randolph; O’Brien, Brandon J.. Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes . InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.
I could go on and share more quotes, but I recommend you get the book for yourself — I got the Audible.com version to listen to while driving across the country, and then I bought the Kindle edition.
