We are called to tell people what God thinks as revealed in the biblical text. Karl Barth said that he preached with a newspaper in one hand—but not both! We must hold onto the Bible—and understand what it says. • You have to be an expert of ancient culture. Understanding biblical texts is wonderful, but you also have to know the people for whom they were written. How, for example, did they select a spouse? Get married? Raise children? Prepare for old age? Bury their loved ones? And it is not enough