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    Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible
    Unavailable
    Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible
    Unavailable
    Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible
    Ebook349 pages5 hours

    Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible

    By E. Randolph Richards and Brandon J. O'Brien

    4.5/5

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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.
    • Some readers might assume that Moses married "below himself" because his wife was a dark-skinned Cushite. Actually, Hebrews were the slave race, not the Cushites, who were highly respected. Aaron and Miriam probably thought Moses was being presumptuous by marrying "above himself."
    • 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 crosscultural 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.

    Getting beyond our own cultural assumptions is increasingly important for being Christians in our interconnected and globalized world. Learn to read Scripture as a member of the global body of Christ.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherIndependent Publishers Group
    Release dateJul 31, 2012
    ISBN9780830863471
    Author

    E. Randolph Richards

    E. Randolph Richards (PhD, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary) is provost and professor of biblical studies in the School of Ministry at Palm Beach Atlantic University. He is a popular speaker and has authored and coauthored dozens of books and articles, including Paul Behaving Badly, A Little Book for New Bible Scholars, Rediscovering Jesus, Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes, The Story of Israel, and Paul and First-Century Letter Writing.

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    Reviews for Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes

    4.5/5

    78 ratings10 reviews

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    • 4/5
      The authors of this book challenge their readers to identify prejudices that are brought to their reading of Scripture simply because of their Western worldview. Citing numerous examples, they show how other cultures read Biblical stories differently because of cultural differences. The book is highly readable for both laity and Biblical scholars and will generate good discussion whether used in a Sunday School or in a college classroom.
    • 3/5
      An excellent reminder for people to think about their cultural assumptions and how they shape how they read the bible. Our modern ways of thinking are not always similar to the cultural ways people often thought in the time scripture was written. Worth the read if this is a subject that interests you.
    • 5/5
      Enfrentamos un gran reto cuando aplicamos los principios bíblicos porque vivimos en otro contexto. Por eso, si deseamos ser fieles a los textos antiguos y útiles a nuestras congregaciones debemos conocer la cultura que envuelve a la biblia.
      ⠀ ⠀
      Recomiendo leer a estos teólogos y misioneros que entienden tales diferencias, y nos ayudan a construir un puente entre ambas culturas.
    • 4/5
      Found the chapters on Individualism really helpful, good read, well worth a go if you love the bible.
    • 5/5
      Essential reading for any Christian pastor and missionary. It serves as an antidote to our own presuppositions.
    • 4/5
      In this informative book, the authors--E. Randolph Richards and Brandon J. O'Brien--take the reader through the multiple (but not all) ways Western Christians misread words written hundreds, if not thousands, of years ago, in cultures far removed from ours. This misreading is done by interpreting Scripture through the wrong lenses, and some of these lenses are: race & ethnicity, language, individualism and collectivism--where conduct isn't determined by an individual, but by a larger group--time, or virtue and vice.

      The strongest chapter, for me anyway since it's one of my own pet peeves, is toward the end of the book and is titled "It's All About Me: Finding the Center of God's Will." In this section, the authors tackle the huge problem that is endemic in evangelical Christianity--the cult of "me." When Scripture is interpreted through the lens of "me", fundamental differences arise between current belief and what the ancient words actually mean. The authors state in the conclusion to this section: "[t]his cultural assumption about the supremacy of me is the one to which we Westerners are perhaps blindest...When we realize that each passage of Scripture is not about me, we begin to gradually see that the true subject matter in the Bible, what the book is really about, is God's redeeming work in Christ...I am not the center of God's kingdom work" (207-208.)

      It's worth the price of the book if that is the only concept anyone walks away with.

      While I don't agree with everything in the authors say--what they say is very much worth reading. When Scripture is read without consideration of, or knowledge about, the societies, cultures, and time periods these passages were written in, reading Scripture becomes a selfish act, one that ignores what is our spiritual heritage, lived out by our spiritual ancestors. Our history is rendered irrelevant, which leads back to the cult of "me."

      The book is divided into chapters, with subheadings. Each chapter has a conclusion and a set of questions at the end, making this book ideal for group study.



      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      A really good and interesting read. While I don't agree with everything they talk about and there are times where they get a little too speculative, this book points out some excellent points to be aware of when reading Scripture. The premises is that the Bible is written not in American English but in Hebrew and Greek and that it takes places in a time, place, culture, and location that isn't present day American. As a result, what our expectations are and what we want to read into the passage maybe isn't what the passage is talking about.

      The book is great because it encourages an in depth, slow study of the Bible and causes you to "take a look around" when you read it. This book really knocks it out of the park. There are a few times where I wish they would have looked at things more in depth. This isn't a fully scholarly look into specifics but more of touch and go's on several broad themes such as collectivism vs. individualism, language, shame, time, etc. I wish there was a bit more focus on the Hebrew and Greek language although there is some parts of it discussed. There are also a few times where they make some assertions and, while they make the claim that a passage could include that aspect, they don't really prove it.

      Overall, I've been recommending this book a lot and going back to it again and again. This is a good challenge and lesson to every Christian to check what traditions, bias, and presuppositions you bring to the table of God's Word. Final Grade - A
    • 4/5
      Definitely an eye-opening, challenging book. Would recommend it to anyone who is interested in understanding how cultural bias affects everything we do - even how we interpret/view the Bible.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      It seemed to me the authors focused more on the many cultural differences (mores) of the world rather than the misreading of Scripture. As a cross-cultural worker living in a different country I appreciated the many illustrations and stories the authors used to compare the differences between eastern and western cultures. They did give plenty of examples of how often we inject our own cultural mores into our interpretations of Scripture, which too was very helpful. Ironically, much of the Bible was written from a people of eastern culture, which after having understood that culture more, the Bible seems to come more alive for me. Excellent book that I highly recommend especially to western missionaries doing cross-cultural ministry in eastern cultures.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      This is an easy reading book dealing with the challenges of properly understanding the Bible from a foreign culture. This is not at all about being “culturally relevant,” but it is a study of the fact that, "reading the Bible is a cross-cultural experience." Living in a third-world country, I can now understand better just how much a difference “culture” can make in how a person interprets what he sees, reads, or hears! Before living here in Brazil, I would probably have laughed at many of the cultural differences he discusses - our tendency is to assume we are right and others are just “ignorant.” For example, Brazilian inefficiency and lack of time management has driven me crazy, but to a Brazilian, Relationship trump schedules and it’s far more important to “be friendly and neighborly” by stopping to chat than to “rudely" hurry past a friend in order to get where you’re going on time! So, who is right? :) Instead of just scorning the “unlearned natives” I have to admit that many times they do have an equally valid point. 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.

      3 people found this helpful