SCRIPTURE WITH
WESTERN EYES
Removing Cultural Blinders
to Better Understand the Bible
E. Randolph Richards
and Brandon J. O’Brien
An imprint of InterVarsity Press
Downers Grove, Illinois
P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426
World Wide Web: www.ivpress.com
E-mail: email@ivpress.com
©2012 by E. Randolph Richards and Brandon J. O’Brien
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from InterVarsity Press.
InterVarsity Press® is the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA®, a movement of students and faculty active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, write Public Relations Dept., InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, 6400 Schroeder Rd., P.O. Box 7895, Madison, WI 53707-7895, or visit the IVCF website at <www.intervarsity.org>.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. niv®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved worldwide.
While all stories in this book are true, some names and identifying information in this book have been changed to protect the privacy of the individuals involved.
Cover design: Cindy Kiple
Interior design: Beth Hagenberg
Images: young man: Alexander Ryabov/Getty Images
open Bible: © Soren Pilman/iStockphoto
globe: © DNY59/iStockphoto
ISBN 978-0-8308-6347-1
Josh Richards
Jacob Richards
and
James David O’Brien
Introduction: Coming to Terms with Our Cultural Blinders
2. The Bible in Color: Race and Ethnicity
PART TWO: Just Below the Surface
4. Captain of My Soul: Individualism and Collectivism
5. Have You No Shame? Honor/Shame and Right/Wrong
6. Sand Through the Hourglass: Time
PART THREE: Deep Below the Surface
7. First Things First: Rules and Relationships
8. Getting Right Wrong: Virtue and Vice
9. It’s All About Me: Finding the Center of God’s Will
Conclusion: Three Easy Steps for Removing Our Cultural Blinders?
Resources for Further Exploration
Coming to Terms with Our Cultural Blinders
On a warm, clear afternoon in the summer of 2002, we stood among the few visible stones that remain of the ancient city of Laodicea. Randy was the professor and Brandon a student in a class earning biblical studies credit by walking for several weeks “In the Footsteps of Paul” through Turkey and Greece. While we were in the neighborhood, we also visited the cities that were home to the seven churches in the Revelation of John. Laodicea was one of these. Of that now-ruined city, the risen Lord had said, “I know your deeds, that ...
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About Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the BibleWhat was clear to the original readers of Scripture is not always clear to us as modern readers. Because of the cultural distance between the biblical world and our contemporary setting, we often bring modern Western biases to the text. In this highly readable book, the insights of biblical scholars Brandon O’Brien and E. Randolph Richards shed light on the ways Western readers often misunderstand the cultural dynamics of the Bible. They identify nine key areas where modern Westerners have significantly different assumptions about what is going on in a text than what the context actually suggests. Drawing on their own cross-cultural experience in global missions, the authors show how greater understanding of cultural differences in language, time, and social mores allow us to see the Bible in fresh and unexpected ways. Throughout this text, Richards and O’Brien point out numerous examples of misconceptions as they bring awareness to the distorting factors we can bring to biblical texts. For example: when we as Western readers hear Paul exhorting women to “dress modestly,” our first response is to think in terms of sexual modesty. But, most women in the culture Paul was addressing would never have been wearing racy clothing; rather, the authors argue, the context actually suggests Paul is more concerned about economic modesty—that Christian women not flaunt their wealth through expensive clothes, braided hair, and gold jewelry. Other examples include that readers might assume that Moses married “below himself” because his wife was a dark-skinned Cushite. However, as the authors point out, it was the Hebrews who were the slave race, not the Cushites who were highly respected. Aaron and Miriam probably thought Moses was being presumptuous by marrying “above himself.” |
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