Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes

by E. Randolph Richards

  Taking stock of the cultural assumptions that affect our interpretation of Scripture is important for several reasons. To begin with, we can no longer pretend that a Western interpretation of the Bible is normative for all Christians everywhere. Christianity is growing at such a rate in South America, Africa and Asia that soon the majority of Christians worldwide will be not be white or Western. In The Next Christendom, Philip Jenkins notes, “By 2050, only about one-fifth of the world’s 3 billion Christians will be non-Hispanic Whites. Soon, the phrase ‘a White Christian’ may sound like a curious oxymoron, as mildly surprising as ‘a Swedish Buddhist.’” In terms of sheer numbers, then, non-Western interpretations of Scripture will soon be “typical” and “average.”[7]

  These changes in the global distribution of Christians are also taking place closer to home. Many sociologists estimate that by 2050, the majority of U.S. citizens will be nonwhite. Demographic changes in the United States population in general are changing the face of Christianity in the U.S. The “average” American church will look very different twenty years in the future than it did twenty years ago. “Contrary to popular opinion,” writes Soong-Chan Rah, “the church is not dying in America; it is alive and well, but it is alive and well among the immigrant and ethnic minority communities and not among the majority white churches in the United States.”[8] We need to be aware of the way our cultural assumptions affect how we read the Bible so we are prepared to hear what our non-Western brothers and sisters have to teach us about Christian faith and practice.

  Moreover, the question about how our cultural and historical context influences our reading of Scripture has practical and pastoral implications. If our cultural blind spots keep us from reading the Bible correctly, then they can also keep us from applying the Bible correctly. If we want to follow Jesus faithfully and help others do the same, we need to do all we can to allow the Scriptures to speak to us on their own terms.

  In 1988, I (Randy) moved with my wife and two sons (ages two and eight weeks) from Texas to Sulawesi, an island north of Australia and south of the Philippines. We served as missionaries to a cluster of islands in eastern Indonesia until returning in 1996, where I taught at a small Christian college in Arkansas. While in Indonesia, I taught in a small, indigenous Bible college and worked with churches scattered from Borneo to Papua.

  One day, I was sitting in a hut with a group of church elders from a remote island village off the coast of Borneo. They asked my opinion about a thorny church issue. A young couple had relocated to their village many years before because they had committed a grievous sin in their home village. For as long as they had resided here, they had lived exemplary lives of godliness and had attended church faithfully. Now, a decade later, they wanted to join the church.

  “Should we let them?” asked the obviously troubled elders.

  Attempting to avoid the question, I replied, “Well, what grievous sin did they commit?”

  The elders were reluctant to air the village’s dirty laundry before a guest, but finally one of them replied, “They married on the run.”

  In America, we call that eloping.

  “That’s it?” I blurted out. “What was the sin?”

  Quite shocked, they stared at this young (and foolish) missionary and asked, “Have you never read Paul?”

  I certainly thought I had. My Ph.D. was in Paul.

  They reminded me that Paul told believers to obey their parents (Eph 6:1). They were willing to admit that everyone makes mistakes. We don’t always obey. But surely one should obey in what is likely the most important decision of his or her life: choosing a spouse.

  I suddenly found myself wondering if I had, in fact, ever really read Paul. My “American Paul” clearly did not expect his command to include adult children deciding whom to marry. Moreover, it was clear that my reading (or misreading?) had implications for how I counseled church leaders committed to faithful and obedient discipleship.

  Thus, because we are well aware that all questions of interpretation are, in the end, questions about application, we will comment throughout the book on how we understand the implications of our Western (mis)readings for our piety, worship and ministry.

  There will also be a historical element to our presentation. Culture changes according to place, to be sure. But culture also changes across time. Twenty-first-century America, for example, is a very different place than eighteenth-century America was. As a church historian, I (Brandon) am regularly forced to try to understand the presuppositions—what went without being said—of Christians of previous eras. This means I am constantly identifying and challenging my own cultural and historical assumptions. Church history is a two-thousand-year-long conversation about how the eternal truth of Scripture applies in different cultures at different times. Whether we think they had it right or wrong, earlier Christians’ interpretations are invaluable for helping us identify what goes without being said for us. So, when appropriate, we will bring in historical perspectives to round out the discussion. Additionally, since habits have histories, we will try to point out not only what we assume when we read the Bible but also why we assume these things.

  Some Caveats

  This sort of project has its challenges. To begin with, making generalized statements about Eastern and Western cultures is ill advised. Unfortunately, we must. But bear in mind that your authors are well aware that a term such as Eastern, which tries to account for the remarkable cultural, ethnic and sociopolitical diversity of everyone from Mongolia to Morocco or Korea to the Congo, is almost too broad to be helpful. The term Western is not much better, as there are profound cultural differences between Europeans, Canadians and residents of the United States. Even so, we are limited by space and language. We like to say that generalizations are always wrong and usually helpful. We ask you for the benefit of the doubt.

  Besides scholarship, we draw on our own crosscultural experiences. Many of my (Randy’s) illustrations come from my time as a missionary in Indonesia. I (Brandon) speak more often of time spent in Europe and of insight gleaned from historical study. Anecdotes aren’t hard science, but we hope that these stories will help you see that many of the things that went without being said for the Bible’s original audience still go without being said in much of the non-Western world.

  Next, we speak as insiders, and this has its own challenges. We speak as white, Western males. In fact, we always speak as white, Western males. Everything either of us has ever written has come from the perspective of middle-class, white males with a traditionally Western education. There’s really nothing we can do about that except be aware of and honest about it. That said, we write as white, Western males who have been chastened to read the Bible through the eyes of our non-Western sisters and brothers in the Lord.

  For example, I (Randy) remember grading my first multiple-choice exam in Indonesia. I was surprised by how many students left answers unmarked. So I asked the first student when handing back exams, “Why didn’t you select an answer on question number three?”

  The student looked up and said, “I didn’t know the answer.”

  “You should have at least guessed,” I replied.

  He looked at me, appalled. “What if I accidentally guessed the correct answer? I would be implying that I knew the answer when I didn’t. That would be lying!”

  I opened my mouth to respond, but then realized I was about to argue him to a lower standard! I shut my mouth. My American pragmatism had been winning out over my Christian standard of honesty. What was worse was that I hadn’t even noticed until a non-Western person pointed it out. What I have found equally interesting is that my Christian students in the United States today don’t enjoy this story—because they still want to guess answers. Nonetheless, the challenges of reading with others’ eyes should not deter us. We can learn so much from each other.

  Our perspective as writers implies something about our audience. The generalizations we make about Westerners will probably most accurately describe
white, American males. This is not because we consider this group the most important or even the most representative of a Western worldview. But this is the group that has dominated the conversation about theology and biblical interpretation for the last few centuries. We’re trying to prod people like us—white, Western men—to think differently about the Bible and the Christian life. That’s why we talk most often about people like “us.” If you are not a white, Western male and the generalizations we make don’t apply to you, we hope that you can benefit from this book nonetheless. Wherever you disagree with our generalizations, take a moment to consider why. If you think to yourself, That’s not true of me. I don’t assume X. I assume Y: well, then you’ve begun to identify what goes without being said for you. That’s our goal, and we would consider that a success. It’s worth noting here that bicultural or “third culture” readers likely have a marked advantage in this process; your experience of navigating cultural differences can make you more aware of differences of which others are rarely conscious.

  Similarly, we’ll use the words America and American to refer to the United States and its residents. We don’t mean to exclude Canadian readers, but we don’t presume to generalize about Canadian culture. Please feel free to read yourself into our observations about “Americans” where you feel they apply to you.

  Because we speak as insiders, we won’t tell you how to read like a non-Western Christian. For one thing, there is no single “non-Western” way to read the Bible (just as there is no single “Western” way to read the Bible). Even if there were, we wouldn’t be qualified to tell you what it is. And we aren’t implying that all our Western reading habits are wrong. Some characteristics of the West actually help us to read some passages more faithfully, such as those encouraging forgiveness or generosity. So while we aren’t planning to point out places that non-Western Christians instinctively get the Bible wrong, we do think someone else could—and probably should—write a book called Misreading Scripture with Eastern Eyes. Our illustrations are simply intended to highlight what is normal and instinctual for us so that we become aware of our habits of reading. We want to unsettle you just enough that you remember biblical interpretation is a crosscultural experience and to help you be more aware of what you take for granted when you read.

  Finally, we have been necessarily selective in what we’ve chosen to address and what we’ve left untouched. We will not talk much, for example, about the impact that sociopolitical realities have on our biblical interpretation. As interesting as it would be to consider how interpretation of Romans 13:1 (“Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God”) might vary among readers from democratic America, socialist Europe or communist Asia, we simply don’t have the space or expertise to cover everything.

  What bothers us more is that we have been forced to oversimplify complex issues. Each chapter in this book could be a book itself. Wherever we suspect readers will have more questions or need further direction, we try to offer guidance in the Resources for Further Exploration and in the endnotes.

  In short, what we offer here is a conversation starter. We hope scholars, students and congregations will begin with this volume and move on to deeper exploration of this important subject. We hope, then, that you will read this book as Christians should read everything—prayerfully and carefully.

  Questions to Ponder

  We want this book to enrich your reading of the Bible, not detract from it. We want it to give you greater confidence, not less, in the Word of God and your reading of it. Yet the challenge to read a text differently can be unsettling. What risks do you see in opening yourself up to new readings?

  Sometimes Christians are comfortable with old misreadings. Since we believe we are responsible to apply and not merely study Scripture, a better interpretation may challenge you to new applications. How ready are you to remove some cultural blinders and better read the text?

  Perhaps you have already begun to recognize the ways in which your cultural assumptions affect your interpretation of Scripture. Take a moment to think through any biblical passages or issues you hope to understand better after reading this book.

  PART ONE

  Above the Surface

  I (Randy) was recently in Scotland to visit an American friend who teaches there. A British New Testament scholar was driving the car and telling a story. Even from the back seat, I could see she was still quite flustered and embarrassed about what had happened. She explained that a Baptist pastor and his wife had been visiting from Georgia. As their hosting professor, she had picked them up at the airport. The pastor’s wife was going to ride in the back seat so that her husband could ride up front.

  My British friend then stopped the story and exclaimed, “The wife opened the door, said the F-word and sat down in the seat!”

  I looked wide-eyed at my North American colleague. He started laughing. “You know what the F-word is, don’t you?”

  Pastoral ministry has changed, but I still couldn’t imagine a scenario in which a pastor’s wife would say such a thing. I was appalled. Our British friend was aghast. My friend continued laughing and said, “She means fanny.”

  Our British colleague in the front seat grimaced. “Yes. The woman said, ‘I’m just going to park my’—oh, that word—‘right here on the seat.’” My British friend couldn’t even bring herself to say “that word,” since in British usage, fanny is impolite slang for female genitalia. (Our apologies to British readers.)

  This story illustrates at least two cultural differences that we’ll discuss in the chapters that follow. One is language. Language is perhaps the most obvious difference between cultures. It’s the tip of the iceberg, the part of worldview that is clearly visible. Whether we are traveling from the United States to France or from Germany to the Philippines, we are well aware of the fact that one language is spoken in our home country, while another language is spoken elsewhere. That is to say, language differences come as no surprise to travelers. Granted, language differences may be more surprising if one travels between countries that share a language (such as the United States and Scotland). We use the word fanny in the U.S., but we use it quite differently than our British friends do. Even so, it is easy enough—once warned—to expect differences of this sort. We discuss language in chapter three.

  This story also touches on another source of cultural differences. Mores are the social conventions that dictate which behaviors are considered appropriate or inappropriate. For example, profanity exists emotionally only in one’s mother tongue. When we learn a new language, we have to learn the naughty words so we don’t accidentally say them and offend our hosts. To us, though, it is just a list. Native speakers may blanch and have a difficult time telling us the words; even spelling the words may rattle them. Missionaries have to be careful or they can easily develop foul mouths. The fact that we know what fanny means in British English but are not bothered by writing it just goes to show that the word itself is neutral. After all, in North America, Fanny can even be a woman’s first name! It is culture that supplies the connotations of a word. This raises an important question. Paul said to avoid “obscenity” (Eph 5:4). But who defines obscenity? We address that issue in chapter one. Then we’ll take on the touchy topic of ethnicity in chapter two.

  On the whole, the cultural differences we discuss in this section are harmless enough once we’re made aware of them. They surprise and may even delight us. For tourists, this is often where the fun occurs. A miscommunication due to language confusion, a taxi ride in a country where driving seems to be a contact sport, eating as a meal in a foreign land something that would be a family pet or a household pest in your own: these make for great stories to tell when you return home. In this case, what is true of traveling can also be true of biblical interpretation. Some differences between our Western perspective and that of ancient readers are obvious enough that they
don’t result in profound misinterpretation.

  Even so, if left unconscious, our presuppositions (what goes without being said) about the following cultural differences—mores, race and language—can lead us to misread the Bible.

  -1-

  Serving Two Masters

  Mores

  Don’t smoke, drink, cuss or chew or run around with girls that do.”

  This proverb served as the summary statement for moral conduct for both of us growing up in the American South. To be fair, people grinned when they said it. They knew it was an insufficient statement on Christian ethics. But make no mistake: they were serious. And they seemed to have the Bible on their side. Didn’t Paul say that your “bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 6:19)? Doesn’t that mean we should take good care of them? Didn’t he say, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths” (Eph 4:29)? And isn’t it true that “bad company corrupts good character” (1 Cor 15:33)?

  The technical term for behaviors like smoking, drinking and cussing is mores (pronounced mawr-eyz). Webster’s Dictionary defines mores as “folkways of central importance accepted without question and embodying the fundamental moral views of a group.” A couple of phrases in that definition are worth pointing out.

  First, mores are “accepted without question.” That is, they are views a community considers closed to debate. People don’t think about them as closed to debate; they simply don’t think of them at all. They go without being said. This is because mores are taught to us while we are children and before we can reason them out. I (Randy) remember one example vividly. My wife and I don’t cuss—we were taught not to—and we taught our children not to. Unfortunately, we taught them by never using cuss words. This more went without being said—literally. While we were missionaries in a remote place in Indonesia, the only people our children knew who spoke English were my wife and me. On rare occasions, another missionary would visit us. When our elder son was five years old, an older, very proper, hair-in-a-bun missionary came to visit us. We introduced our son, who very politely said, “Very nice to meet you.”