Posted by Cultural Context in Biblical Interpretation
By Andy Tulenko
When someone picks up and reads the Bible, unless otherwise trained, they will understand the text in light of their own cultural prejudices. Is this a good thing or something to be avoided? Should the text be read within the cultural parameters of the author? When God inspired the Bible, wouldn’t He take into account the changing perspectives of the readers?
The Bible was written down by men, but it came from God. Having perfect foreknowledge of the future, God could have easily inspired the Bible to be written in such a way that it matters little which cultural perspective the reader holds, they would still be able to understand the intent of the text. Yet, we are constantly reminded as Bible students, that this is not the case. We are told that the Bible requires time and training to correctly understand the true meaning of the text the Translators have handed us. God may have had the originals written so that they were obvious to anyone in that day and age, but it is unlikely in view of passages such as 2 Peter 3:16-18, 1 Peter 2:22, Matthew 13:13, Matthew 13:34-35, Hebrews 5:11 and others. These passages show that scripture needs to be taught in order to be fully understood. The Bible itself teaches that it is not easily understood, even within the culture that it was written in. Why would God provide His word, and then cloud our ability to easily grasp its content? To find an answer it is only necessary to look at scripture itself, especially the teachings of Jesus. Everything that Christ taught was firmly rooted in the idea that what is important to God is the relationship each of us has with Him. Following the law is a mechanical aspect of life and does not demonstrate a relationship with God. However, it is difficult, nearly impossible, to study scripture in-depth in order to get the true meaning and not be affected by it in a way that moves one toward a closer relationship with God.
The point of reading something is to understand the message the author is attempting to share. With all written works, most especially the Bible, we are not able to fully extract the meaning the author intends without understanding the culture the text was written for. As an example, the word ‘cool’ means lower temperature, yet it is commonly used to mean that something is considered ‘very good’ in our culture. Without that information, it would be difficult to understand the real meaning behind statements that use the word ‘cool’ in the altered fashion.
This understanding leads us to believe that there is a solid reason for learning and understanding the culture that something was written in. What makes the original context so critical? In the case of the Bible, the contextual and cultural meaning is critical because it contains instructions from God for all of mankind. Not understanding these instructions correctly could lead to a person spending eternity in hell, which despite flippant responses from atheists, is not something anyone truly wants to experience.
Once we understand the message in the original context and culture, the next step is to analyze it for theological principles. A theological principle is a truth that can be extracted from the text that can be applied within any culture or context. It is these principles that are taught in sermons and Sunday school lessons. These are the lessons that Jesus was teaching about through all the parables He shared. An example of one of these principles is when Jesus taught the golden rule in Matthew 7:12. In modern English bibles, the principle is clearly stated, but it is not always this easy to extract the author’s real meaning from the text. Once we have the essential truth of the theological principle, we may begin applying the meaning to our lives within our own culture.
Another thing to understand is the level of maturity of the theology the author possessed when writing the text. In the case of Job, for example, the author seems to have a rudimentary understanding of theology in comparison to the mountains of thought that are currently available. Is it right to use our level of theological understanding to assess and interpret passages that were written even before Jesus came and modified all that was known then? Or do we stick to only what the text made obvious?
Knowing a fuller version of theology allows us to look deeper into the scriptures and find elements that God placed in them unbeknownst to the old testament authors. Having a more complete understanding of the scriptures gives man the assurance that his search for the correct path to heaven is possible. However, this greater level of learning should not cause us to discount things which were considered as fact in the time of Christ and are now thought to be nothing more than fantasy. As a teacher of mine once said, “I had trouble with Jonah until I read that Jesus believed it.” We must not allow modern prejudice to prevent a true understanding of things that are no longer popular in scripture, or in our day and time or we will eventually end up with nothing but a bedtime story.