Tag Archives: word of God

The Cultural Context of Scripture

creation, family, Genesis, imago Dei, interpretation, revelation, women, ,

This, the fourth installment in my response to a former student, turns attention to the second axiom that can provide a guardrail against reading into Scripture our own preferences, namely careful attention to the three contexts against which any biblical passage should be read: the cultural context it reflects, the literary context in which it is situated, and the cultural context of its reader. Scripture is culturally and historically rooted. The individuals who composed the various sections of the Bible quite naturally reflected the worldviews, the cultural practices, the societal norms, the crises, etc. of the times in which they lived. Interpreters of scripture should not automatically assume that these cultural and historical contexts, in themselves, convey any information concerning the will or character of God. Often such cultural artefacts trouble contemporary readers of the scripture. If, however, we recognize them as such, we can forgive the ancients for being ancients. (One day our descendants will look back on us with horror, or, if we’re lucky, pity.) Examples abound.

  • The author of Genesis 1 shared with the Egyptians, the Assyrians, and the Babylonians (remember that Abraham came originally from Ur in Mesopotamia) a cosmology that envisioned a solid dome suspended above the earth, separating the space beneath it from the waters above (Gen 1:6-8).  The Hebrew word translated “firmament” in the KJV (raqiya`) comes from the world of the metal-smith and means “a thing hammered into a shape.” The ancients had no concepts of the vast expanse of space, of the difference between stars, planets, and moons, or of a solar system. The Bible does not want to tell us to replace what we know today with ancient ideas.  Instead, with the author of Genesis 1, we can assert that the existent universe (regardless of its shape) is God’s good creation.
  • The ancient Israelites lived in the midst of cultures that practiced polygamy. It was a given, so the Israelites practiced polygamy. God did not endorse the practice. God did not inspire or require them to do so. Neither, however, as far as the Bible records, did God prohibit the practice until, arguably, the New Testament era. Consequently, we should regard biblical polygamy as a cultural artefact, not a vital component of the scriptural witness.
  • For the ancient Israelite, the death of a man before he could father children posed a compound threat. He would be without memory, his heritage would revert to another line of the family, and his wife would be without means of support. They found a solution, so-called levirate marriage, in which a younger brother of the deceased married the widow and the first child conceived in that marriage was considered the child of the deceased in a legal fiction. Even those who claim to interpret the Bible “literally” recognize the culture-bound nature of this practice and the texts that call for it (Deut 25:5-10).
  • Patriarchy functions as a substrate in both Testaments because it characterized the cultures of the world in which Israel and later the Church came into existence. As early as Genesis, however, the Bible undercuts the idea that gender hierarchy conforms to God’s will. God created humankind in God’s image; both male and female reflect God’s likeness (Gen 1:26-27).  According to the account of the creation of Eve from Adam’s rib, God did so because God recognized that Adam was alone.  God decided to make Adam a nigdo (Gen 2:18, 20), a unique Hebrew word comprising a preposition that means “opposite, over against” with a pronoun that means “him/his” and that functions grammatically here as a noun.  Although many translations render it “helper,” which hints at a secondary or subservient role, it ‘literally’ means “his opposite” or “his counterpart.” In fact, the Genesis 2 account explains that, because of the way God created Eve, a man leaves his parental home and “cleaves” to his wife – not the other way around. A range of other texts about prominent women in the Hebrew Bible contribute to a critique of the notion that gender hierarchy represents God’s intention:  Deborah, Jael, Huldah, etc.
  • Examples of culture-boundedness appear in the New Testament, too, and one of the clearest examples also reflects a patriarchal substrate. The author of 1 Tim 2:8-12 wrote:

I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling; also that women should adorn themselves modestly and sensibly in seemly apparel, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly attire but by good deeds, as befits women who profess religion. Let a woman learn in silence with all submissiveness. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over men; she is to keep silent. (RSV)

Perhaps the first thing one should note in this text involves the fact that, as discussed in the first installment of this blog series concerning 1 Cor 7:25-26, the author reports his own position and practice:  “I desire,” “I permit.” He makes no claim to be proclaiming a divine mandate.  Second, as mentioned in the immediately preceding installment, the text notably expresses as much concern for women’s appearance as it does for their silence. The description of a well-dressed and well-coiffed woman speaking before a group of men calls to mind the hetairai or “courtesans” known in the Hellenistic Mediterranean world. Paul elsewhere expressed concern that Hellenistic converts who came from unsavory backgrounds (“And such were some of you,” 1 Cor 6:11, RSV) take care to distance themselves from their pasts. In our culture, expensive clothing, fashionable hairstyles, pearl necklaces, and rhetorical skill do not encode “courtesan,” although we might agree with Paul that Christians who wish to represent a holy God to the world may wisely give some attention to appearances.  Third, as I will discuss at greater length in the next installment, 1 Tim 2:8-12 should also be read in the literary context of the entirety of scripture, including Paul’s statement concerning the equality in Christ of Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female (Gen 3:28).

While, in many cases, we should not and cannot replicate the assumptions and practices that constitute the background for many biblical texts, the fact that ancient culture shines through biblical texts does not negate their capacity to become Word of God for us. They are not, or need not be, merely historical artefacts.  Instead, interpreting scripture well requires us to undertake ‘cultural translation,’ as it were. If we transpose the thrust of a given passage into a comparable contemporary context, we will find that an insight into God’s will and character or a principle for human conduct sounds across the ages.

The Literary Character of the Bible

interpretation, revelation, Uncategorized, , ,

This second installment of my response to a former student concerning my understanding of the authority of scripture will deal with the importance of reading any literature, including the Bible, in accordance with its inherent character.  Science fiction books are not science textbooks.  It is important to listen to the Bible regarding its nature instead of applying a priori definitions to it. So, what is the literary character of the Bible?

A Literary Anthology

First, the name itself reveals something important, namely that the Bible is not monolithic.  “Bible” derives from the Greek expression ta biblia (“the [collection of] little books”) used in the early Church to designate the books of the canon in aggregate.  Although modern editions of the Bible have the appearance of a single book, appearance masks the long history of composition and compilation that produced it. No one knows how many authors and editors contributed to the books that comprise the Bible. The books of Psalms (Asaph, the sons of Korah, Ethan, Heman, etc.) and Proverbs (Agur, Lemuel, a number of unnamed wisdom teachers, etc.) mention multiple authors and, along with Lamentations and probably Song of Songs, constitute anthologies. Ecclesiastes represents the work of an editor who collected the teachings of Qoheleth, “The Preacher,” and published them with a brief editorial introduction (Eccl 1:1) and postscript (Ecc 12:9-14) admonishing readers to handle the words of Qoheleth with caution.

The Process of Collection or Canonization

Writing over more than a millennium, the authors and editors of the sixty-six (as enumerated in the Protestant tradition) components of the scriptural anthology had no awareness that their works would one day become part of the collection that came to be called the Bible.  God did not first reveal the Table of Contents of the Bible. When the Evangelist wrote the Gospel of Matthew, he did not think that he had written the first book of the New Testament! (In fact, in historical order, the first New Testament book written was probably either Galatians or 1 Thessalonians). At the time, there was no New Testament and no “plan” on the part of its authors to produce it.  Instead, a centuries-long process in which the community of faith, first the Jews and then the Christians, came to recognize these books as a necessary source for their faith.

It is helpful to think historically.  No one can be sure which of the books of the Hebrew Bible, or portions of books like the Psalms, were written first, or when. They will have circulated individually, probably on scrolls. Incidentally, we probably would not even think of “the Bible” as a single book were it not for the Greek invention of the codex (book with turnable pages).  In the era when “books” were written on “scrolls” one would have needed a wagon to transport the individual books of the canon.  One could certainly not have carried it in its entirety in one’s hands.

Scholars can say with relative certainty that, sometime in the late exilic or post-exilic periods, probably circa 300 BCE, the believing community had come to regard the five books grouped together to comprise the Torah (the Law, also called the Pentateuch or “five books”) as authoritative.  Books like Isaiah and Jeremiah existed and circulated alongside the Pentateuch, but did not attain canonical status until a century or so later (cf. the “Letter of Aristeas”).  Significantly, this second section of the Hebrew canon, the Nebi’im or Prophets, contains Joshua, Judges, 1-2 Samuel, and 1-2 Kings (the so-called “Former Prophets”), the three major prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel), and the twelve minor prophets (usually written on one scroll and referred to as “the Book of the Twelve” or the Dodekaprofeton). The Hebrew canon remained ‘open,’ as it were, to the inclusion of still other books until sometime after Jesus, who regularly referred to the scriptures as “the law and the prophets” (Matt 7:12; 22:20; Luke 16:16; cf. John 1:45; Rom 3:21), reflecting the fact that, in his day, the third section of the Hebrew Bible had not yet been defined as canon.  Sometime after Jesus, probably motivated by a perceived need to close the canon to Jewish-Christian literature, the Jewish community acknowledged the significance of a series of other books, known collectively as the Kethubim or “the Writings.”

The cases of the books of Esther, Song of Songs, and Ecclesiastes offer instructive perspectives on the process whereby the faith community came to recognize certain individual books as authoritative during the period of the formation of the Kethubim. According to the Mishnah (mYad III:5), during the time of Rabbi Akiba (c. 50-135 CE), there was some uncertainty concerning canonicity of these three books: Esther because it does not even mention God (cf. bMeg 7a); Song of Songs both because it does not mention God and because of its undeniable eroticism; and Ecclesiastes because of its skeptical tone. According to the Talmud (bSan 101a) and the Tosefta (San XII:10), Rabbi Akiba argued strongly against acknowledging the eroticism in Songs by singing it in a secular “banquet house.” In the end, the association in popular practice between each of these books and an important festival (Esther – Purim; Song of Songs – Passover; Ecclesiastes – Feast of Booths or Tabernacles) seems to have swayed sentiment in favor of their canonicity.

The New Testament canon took shape over a much shorter period. Several positions regarding which books should be considered authority surfaced in the early centuries of the church. When Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria issued his pastoral Easter letter of 367 CE, he listed the familiar 27 books of the New Testament, although in a different order.

It is important to remember that the believing communities, both Jewish and Christian, produced scores of other books during the period of the formation of the canon. Some books seemed to speak more clearly to the community than others, however. In fact, for Christians, two criteria seemed to determine whether a book would be considered canonical:  apostolicity and catholicity (in the sense of universal). First, the book in question must have been able to claim connection directly to the generation of those who knew Jesus during his lifetime. (Paul dealt with the accusation that he was not truly an apostle on these grounds. He maintained that the Damascus Road experience qualified him as such.)  Contact with Jesus of Nazareth lent authenticity. Second-hand information would have been unreliable.  Second, the book must not be parochial, but speak to the whole church everywhere and across time.

A Collection of Diverse Genres

In accordance with its character as an anthology, “Bible” is not, itself, a literary genre. The books in this anthology represent tens, if not scores, of distinct genres, each requiring a distinct interpretive approach. As already mentioned, the book of Psalms contains prayers; Deuteronomy offers guidance on applying the axiomatic principles of the Decalogue in concrete situations. Song of Songs comprises a cycle of, sometimes quite erotic, love songs.  Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the rest are prophetic books. Daniel and Revelation are apocalyptic literature. Each of these genres calls for different interpretive approaches.  One could say that one can hear the word of God in them on different frequencies.

Of course, many biblical books contain narratives of various sub-genres. They do not purport to be something like “scripts” written by God directing human beings to do and say what God wanted done and said. They are stories that report what people did and said, often contrary to God’s will, in fact. Here, it may be well to point out the distinction between prescriptive texts (love your neighbor) and narrative or descriptive texts (just about anything David ever did).

Since the Bible records God’s relationship with God’s people, it includes a significant proportion of narrative material relating events in the life of God’s people.  David committed adultery with Bathsheba and arranged the death of her husband, Uriah, to hide his crime.  God did not direct David to do so; David did these things on his own. The Bible records it because it was an important event in David’s relationship with God – a negative event, but an important one.  The Bible abounds in accounts of human misbehavior: violence, sex, deceit, theft – the whole range of possibilities for human wrongdoing.  God inspired none of these acts.  The Bible faithfully records it all, however, because to say that God enters into relationship with people is to say that God becomes involved in messy human lives.

Since the Bible records God’s relationship with God’s people, it records God’s involvement in a specific branch of human history.  God called Abraham, a native of Ur in Mesopotamia; God called Moses, an adoptive Egyptian prince.  Israel took shape as a people and a nation amid cultures that had already developed writing, that had legal systems, that had established societal norms and practices. It should not be surprising that Abraham continued many of the customs and practices (polygamy, for example) he had learned in Ur, nor that Moses and the Israelites of the Exodus would continue the institution of slavery.  God met these people where they were; God did not create their culture.  Over time, through relationship with God, the people of God came to clearer understandings of God’s character and God’ will. The Bible records the history of that growth.  To take a snapshot of a moment in that history and make it definitive is to miss the grander, broader picture.

The Bible is not a monolith. It does not communicate God’s will unfiltered by the experience of the human beings who fill its pages and who authored it. The Bible can become God’s word for the reader who engages with it profoundly, for a prolonged period, and with wise hearts, and open ears.

Ethical Interpretation of the Bible

interpretation, Paul, Pauline epistles, revelation, Uncategorized, wisdom literature

Ethical Interpretation of the Bible

A beloved former student whom I taught early in my career at the undergraduate level recently contacted me via social media to ask whether some of the views I express there represent changes in my thinking since that earlier time in my life and career. Specifically, this former student equated my public positions regarding a number of hot button social issues with an abandonment of confidence in the authority of Scripture. I responded that a fulsome treatment of the questions put to me would far exceed the scope of social media communications and promised to publish such a treatment on my blog very soon. Over the next several weeks I will publish here a detailed explanation of the principles or axioms that guide me as I read Scripture.

This first installment of my response will, by way of preamble, assert that simply reading the Bible guided by the slogan, “the Bible says it – that settles it,” as though the Bible requires no interpretation leads one into a number of dangers. It is important, for example, to distinguish between the WORD of God, the word of God, and the words of God. The first is the Logos incarnate, the second is a term the church uses to acknowledge the Bible as a source for our faith; yet, the Bible is neither per se nor in toto the “words” of God. Lengthy speeches by Job’s friends constitute about half of the book. They make arguments that sound very orthodox and pious. Eliphaz the Temanite can represent them here:

“Agree with God, and be at peace; thereby good will come to you. Receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart…For God abases the proud, but he saves the lowly. He delivers the innocent man; you will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands” (Job 22:21-22, 29-30 RSV).

These statements sound like some good memory verses, but the end of the book reports that, after speaking with Job, God spoke also to this same Eliphaz: “My wrath is kindled against you and against your friends; for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has” (Job 42:5 RSV). In other words, the speeches of Job’s friends do NOT communicate God’s will. Instead, they function in scripture as part of its rich dialogue in the effort of the faithful to seek understanding.

No less than the Apostle Paul made clear on one occasion that one should distinguish between his personal opinion and the will of God.  In response to a question from the Corinthian church concerning the desirability of remaining celibate in light of, what they thought would be, the imminent Parousia, Paul advised them: “Now concerning the unmarried, I have no command of the Lord, but I give my opinion as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy.I think that in view of the present distress it is well for a person to remain as he is…I want you to be free from anxieties” (1 Cor 7:25-26 RSV, italics added). One wonders how often Paul may have stated a personal opinion without indicating it as such. In much the same way, the Bible’s narratives report what Abraham, Naomi, David, Mary, and Peter said, not God’s words. It is simply dangerous to regard everything in the Scriptures as a statement directly from God.

Indeed, often the challenge is to comprehend how a particular passage can possibly be understood as word of God. The so-called imprecatory psalms clearly belong in this category. What is God’s word for God’s people in statements such as the conclusion of Psalm 139 (vv 8-9), an exilic prayer asking God to take vengeance on the Edomites and the Babylonians.

O daughter of Babylon, you devastator!

Happy shall he be who requites you

with what you have done to us!

Happy shall he be who takes your little ones

and dashes them against the rock! (RSV)

The entire Psalter, of course, asks readers to grapple with how to consider it the word of God.  After all, every psalm represents human speech addressed to or about God. The psalter includes not only imprecatory psalms such as Psa 139, but complaints and laments charging God with inaction (cf. Ps 74, esp. v 11; Ps 79) alongside prayers of thanksgiving and hymns of praise. They are not the words of God, but, in the context of the overall witness of Scripture to a God who desires relationship, they constitute the human side of the dialogue.  God’s people need them as models. It is important to distinguish between the WORD of God, the word of God, and the words of God.