Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus

All right, it's time for another book study on the culture of first century Israel! Are you ready? We're going to be reading:

This is another book by Lois Tverberg (and this one is also with Ann Spangler), and (spoiler alert!) I have two more in my "to be read" pile. I can't wait to see what I learn from these authors!

See you next week for our first post!

Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Get this Book!

That's it for our series on Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes. I honestly could keep going, but I believe that anyone who went to the trouble to write a book deserves to have people read it, not the reviews on summaries. I hope my series on it has piqued your interest!

I can't state strongly enough just how much I believe every Western Christian should read this book. It will not only give great insight into other cultures (and our own), but it will reveal things we didn't even know we were reading (or missing) in the Bible. It's so good that I'm already on my second read through!

You can get it on Amazon here. Check it out and then let me know what you think!

Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Honor and Shame

Fast-forwarding ahead to Part II of Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes, the authors take us deeper into the 'iceberg' of understanding culture and worldview.

In chapter 4, they talk about the difference between Individualist (Western) and Collectivist cultures (Eastern), and give examples of this from the Bible.

Then, in chapter 5, they explore what it means that Individualist cultures are right/wrong cultures and Collectivist cultures are honor/shame cultures—and why this is important in the Bible, which was an honor/shame world (page 114). If that sentence doesn't make sense, I definitely recommend researching this topic. It's fascinating!

To oversimplify this, Westerners see the world through right and wrong, and believe the Holy Spirit (or their own conscience) will convict them of right and wrong. Yes, actions have impact on others, but ultimately, conviction and repentance is about the individual.

In the East, "people are more likely to choose right behavior on the basis of what society expects from them. It's not a matter of guilt, or an inner voice of direction, but outer pressures and opinions that direct a person to behave a certain way. Rules and laws are less a deterrent for bad behavior than the risk of bringing shame on oneself or one's family.... If a person from a shame culture commits a 'sin', he will not likely feel guilty about it if no one else knows, for it is the community (not the individual) that determines where one has lost face" (page 116-117). The authors continue to unpack this on pages 120-127 by talking about the honor/shame language, customs, and actions in the story of David and Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 11-12. It's too long for me to summarize, but WOW- seeing this influence in this well known story really gave me another perspective!

Here are some short examples, however. In Exodus 32, when God is angry and wants to destroy the Israelites for worshipping the golden calf, Moses appeals to God's honor. "He makes a two-pronged argument to persuade God to change His mind: 1) think about what the Egyptians will say about Your name, and 2) You swore on Your name and You don't want to get a bad name! Moses doesn't appeal to God's sense of justice ('it wouldn't be right') but to His sense of honor ('You will be shamed')" p. 128.

Another example comes from Jesus. In this example, it's also important to realize something important about the concept of honor/shame. Basically, there's only so much honor. For someone to gain honor through interpersonal interaction, it means that they gained honor by shaming someone else (again, an oversimplification). Richards and O'Brien say that, "Public questions were contests. The winner was determined by the audience, who represented the community. If you silenced your opponent, you gained honor and they lost some" (page 129). This is why the disciples asked Jesus questions privately instead of publicly, as well as Nicodemus. But when the Pharisees asked questions in the open, at the Temple, it was a challenge, and every time they "lost", they lost honor. It was so enraging that they decided to kill Jesus as a criminal—this public disgrace would get their honor back (page 130).

WOW! How do these concepts impact how we can read the Scriptures? The authors conclude the chapter by recommending Bible readers to pay attention to where stories take place in Scripture (in private or in public). For us, it's a good clue as to what is a true quest for truth or a challenge.

Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: the Insignificance of Jerusalem

In Chapter 2 of Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes, authors Richards and O'Brien explore the influence of ethnicity in both the Old and New Testaments. They assert that missing the ethnic markers and their importance in the ancient world can lead the modern reader to missing key elements in the text.

In addition to cultural, lingual, physical, and citizenship significance, the regional world played a key role as well. On page 65, they say, "It's easy for us to assume, for example, that Jerusalem was the center of the action in the ancient world. The city was certainly important to the Jews....But Jerusalem was insignificant in Jesus' time."

The importance of Israel was only geographic in Bible times. Situated at the crossroads of Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, it was the best place to transport goods to and from the different continents. "It was important that Roman controlled the land [for tax reasons], but the activities that took place there were rarely of Roman interest. Pilate was more than the main finance officer or tax collector than anything else. 

"The events of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, so important for Jews and Christians at the time, were marginal events in a nothing town on the edge of an empire with more important matters to consider. If we fail to recognize this, we can fail to recognize just how remarkable the rapid growth of the earth church really was" (page 65).

Jerusalem was not an 'important' city in the eyes of the world. Israel was not an important piece of land. It's easy to read the Bible and see it as the center of the action, with great significance, but this wasn't the case.

How does this regional distinction affect how we read the Bible?

I highly recommend going through the questions at the end of every chapter of this book, as the authors point out key passages and ask the reader to consider the impact of the chapter's them on that story. Are you ready to read the Bible with a new perspective?

Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Race and Ethnicity

In Chapter 2 of Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes, the authors focus on the issues of race and ethnicity in the Bible.

There were so many "WHOA" moments for me in this chapter that I'm going to make it two posts, and even then, I won't hit it all. (Basically, every Western Christian needs to read this book).

The title of this chapter is "The Bible in Color", and wow—they did a GREAT job of showing this in just a few pages. I want to read a whole book just on this topic! On page 56, they state the reason for this chapter: "Being oblivious to ethnicities can cause us to miss things in the Bible.... Like the world we inhabit today, the worlds of both the Old and New Testaments were ethnically diverse and richly textured by an assortment of cultures, languages, and customs."

Ethnicity goes beyond skin color and national boundaries... it touches lingual, regional, and cultural significance as well.

It's easy to read the Bible and miss the mentions of ethnicity because we weren't alive then (and don't live there now), and as the authors convinced me, to do that would be to miss SO MUCH. 

Example #1: For instance, the authors give an example how in the time New Testament, anyone who didn't speak Greek were (from a Greek and Roman perspective) considered uneducated barbarians, because the Greeks equivocated speech with reason. "Barbarian" comes from the sound they made to imitate out languages... the equivalent of English speakers today saying, "blah, blah, blah" when imitating non-English speakers today.

So, in Acts 21, when the Romans were looking for Paul, they didn't know who he was—and when they caught him, they assumed he was Egyptian. Why? Because he was undergoing a purification ritual and had shaved his head. To a Roman, all of "those barbarians" looked alike. "The Roman who arrested Paul was surprised he could speak Greek (Acts 21:37). He never imagined Paul, a barbarian, might be a fellow Roman citizen." (pages 57-58)

Example #2: Here is another example they give: Moses married a Cushite woman and his brother and sister were upset. Why? Cushites were from the southern Nile Valley and were dark-skinned Africans. But the difference in skin color and cultural practices were not why Aaron and Miriam were upset. 

The authors point out that the Israelites had just left Egypt after 400 years of slavery. There were a slave race. "The Cushites were not demeaned as a slave race in the ancient world they were respected as highly skilled soldiers. It is more likely that Miriam and Aaron though Moses was being presumptuous by marrying above himself" (pages 59-61). There was a distinctive class system at play here that modern Western readers can miss because we don't understand the dynamics at play—Moses, from a slave race, married a woman from the people who enslaved the Jews. 

Example #3: Here is a final example, another one from Paul's world. On page 66, the authors point out how Paul, in talking to the church in Corinth, placed ethnic markers in the text, for example, "Apollos the Alexandrian Jew" or calling Peter by his Aramaic name, Cephas. The authors say Paul isn't addressing any theological differences between all of these people. Why? "There weren't any. The problem was ethnic division: Aramaic-speaking Jews, Greek-speaking Jews, Romans, and Alexandrians". 

How do these three examples impact how you read the Bible? How can we, as Western readers, be more aware of the influence of ethnicity in the Bible?

Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Social Mores

On August 6, 2018, post from Reading the Bible with Rabbi Jesus, I talk about author Lois Tverberg's concept of WEIRD filters. Tverberg claims that being Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (in countries with voting systems) affects our interpretation of the Bible.

She then goes on to use an example concerning money and the accumulation of wealth, and shows how it could be read differently to Middle Eastern readers.

Authors E. Randolph Richards and Brandon J. O'Brien continue this idea in Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes by talking about social "mores" (or social conventions that dictate which behaviors are considered appropriate or inappropriate) and how those from the West influence Western readers.

The authors specifically focus on the "mores" of sex, food, and money. On page 41, they highlight an interesting dichotomy:

"Westerners instinctively consider wealth an unlimited resource. There's more than enough to go around, we believe. Everyone could be wealthy, if only they tried hard enough. So if you don't have all the money you want, it's because you lack the virtues required for success—industry, frugality, and determination.....

"This understanding of wealth is the very opposite of how many non-Western cultures view it. Outside the West, wealth is often viewed as a limited resource. There is only so much money to be had, so if one person has a lot of it, then everyone else has less to divide among themselves. If you make your slice of the pie larger, then my slice is smaller. In those cultures, folks are more likely to consider the accumulation of wealth to be immoral, since you can only become wealthy if other people become poor."

Having already discussed the "more" of sex, the authors references mentions of modesty in the Bible and point out that to an Eastern reader, they could also be reading "financial modesty" into the text, as well as physical modesty.

How does this affect how we read references to the wealth, the wealthy, and modesty in Scripture?

This book has made me think beyond my WEIRD filters in a new way, and I'm so thankful to have read it. I highly recommend it! Check it out on Amazon if you haven't already!

Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes

I'm going to continue in my series on books talking about removing our Western lenses with another book that I think is incredible: Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes by E. Randolph Richards and Brandon J. O'Brien.

Here is a brief description from Amazon about this book:

"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 cross-cultural 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."

Over the next few posts, I'm going to dive into some of the themes that really made me think. I highly recommend this book, as the examples given in it really made me read things with fresh eyes!

Reading Through the Bible with Rabbi Jesus: Read it Yourself!

That's all for this series on Reading the Bible with Rabbi Jesus!

Lois Tverberg talked about SO MUCH MORE than I summarized, and it is all sooooo good. But I'm going to stop here because she went to a lot of work on this book, and I think everyone should read it and not my summaries of the points that really hit home to me.

So, go out and read this book! And then please come back and tell me what you think!

Reading the Bible with Rabbi Jesus: Y'all

In chapter 7 of Reading the Bible with Rabbi Jesus, Lois Tverberg dives deep into a description of what it means to be from a collective society (community-oriented).

She begins by pointing out itself how the language in the Bible is community-oriented. A primary example is the word "you". In English, we don't have an official word for "you plural"... unless you count the southern "y'all" (and I do!). Officially, "you" can mean 1 person or a group.

But many languages, including Hebrew, differentiate between the two forms. And Tverberg says that many places in the Bible where English speakers see "you" and automatically think "me" should think "us". For instance, on page 132 she uses the example of 1 Corinthians 6:19, where Paul says, "Don't you know that you are the temple of the living God?" The "you" there is plural (y'all). How does that change how we read this verse? Or Jesus saying, "You are the light of the world"?

This concept ties in directly with the idea of the importance of family and group identity, as we talked about in the last post, and it is mind-boggling (in a good way) for a Western reader. 

How would our understanding of the Bible be different if we looked for the "y'all" in the context?

Reading the Bible with Rabbi Jesus: Family is important

In Chapter 6 of Reading the Bible with Rabbi Jesus, Lois Tverberg talks about the importance of family in a way I've never thought of before.

Being from the West, while family is important in my culture, it doesn't have the same focus and weight as in the East. Maybe it's because my country is less than 300 years old. My family's "memory" is really only goes back around 3-4 generations. 

But for those from the East, it's very different. 

In the West, we say, "I'm so and so and I do this job". We put our identities in what we do.

In the East, Tverberg says they say, "I am so and so, from the family of _____". Their identity is bound up in the identity of their family. Why? Because the family is what will last long after the individual passes away (p. 119). This is why it's so important for your family to have a good reputation, why honor and shame is so important, and why every action needs to be thought of in terms of what it means for the family name, not the individual. (Edited April 4, 2020: For more about this, check out the post on names in Near Eastern culture here).

This is also why it is so important for people to marry and have children, and why barrenness is a curse. And why when God says He will bless someone's name and family, it is so important. It means a great, lasting reputation.

But the coolest thing to me, is how in Romans, Paul says that Gentiles who accept Him are grafted into the family of God. We have that legacy, and are part of it—not because of birth, but because of grace. 

What do you think? How does our concept of identity change when we think in terms of family and relational status, instead of our profession? How does that impact our thinking of what it means to be part of the family of God?

Reading the Bible with Rabbi Jesus: Words and the Meaning of Words

In Chapter 4 of Reading the Bible with Rabbi Jesus, Lois Tverberg talks about understanding the depth and breadth of Hebrew words can really help in understanding what is being said.

An example she uses is found on page 64, where she says that the word for "work" is the same word for "worship", and the word for "listen" as "obey".

What I think is so interesting for that is the implied action involved in each of those words. Each have a "forward action", if you will. There's an assumption, almost, that if you are working, you are worshipping. And if you are listening, you need to obey.

She also talks about the words "remember" and "forget" also as having accompanying meanings—which makes sense. When God tells the Israelites, "I will remember you", He's not just saying that He'll think of them. It means He'll act on their behalf. "Forget" has the opposite connotation—it's not just an absence in the mind, but a removal.

How can the deeper meanings of these words have significance to us as we read the Bible in 2018?

Reading the Bible with Rabbi Jesus: What does it mean to have a King?

In Chapter 3 of her book, Reading the Bible with Rabbi Jesus, Lois Tverberg asks the question, "What does 'Christ' mean, anyway?"

When I first read that, I thought, Well, Messiah, of course. After all, that's what I was taught: Jesus the Messiah. "Christ" isn't a last name, but a title.

But as Tverberg explored the true meaning of Messiah (you really need to read this book!) and takes it so much deeper.

Through example after example, verse after verse, Tverberg proves that "Christ" means "God's chosen King"—something a first century reader would have understood.

This really got me thinking. What does it mean to live under a king? As an American, I come from a political system where every 4 years, I have the opportunity to vote for the leader of my country. Any leader cannot serve for more than 8 years (or 10, for special circumstances*). Even if I am not a fan of my current leader, I have a voice in choosing the next one, and I know that no matter what, he will be gone in a few years.

In the Western world, we glamorize the word "king". All the best stories have a king. In fact, it's not even the West that does this. Proof of this is the enormous international audience during both Prince William and Princess Kate's wedding in 2011 and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding earlier this year. The numbers of people who watched were astronomical... one source even says 1.9 billion people watched Harry and Meghan's. 

But having a king, in some countries, might seem more like a nightmare than a fairy tale. After all, kings have absolute power. They can help their countries; or they can seriously hurt them. We see this time and time again throughout history. And maybe the hardest of all, they can do this for life. They don't lose their power after a few years.

I don't know what it means to live in a system where I don't have a vote and maybe won't see a change in power in my lifetime. I don't know what it means to pledge allegiance to a king in a practical sense. Yet, we talk about God as the King of Kings and we sing praise songs referring to Him as such. But do we, do I, really understand what that means?

First century readers did. They would have known immediately what the word "Messiah" meant, and what it could mean for them. This is why, when Peter made his declaration in Matthew 16 at Caesarea Philippi, Jesus shushed him. The time for him to be proclaimed as king wasn't ready.

What else can we, as 21st century readers in the Western, glean from this concept of having a king?

Reading the Bible with Rabbi Jesus: WEIRD Filters

In her book, Reading the Bible with Rabbi Jesus, Lois Tverberg writes about how American, European, and Australian readers we have WEIRD filters.

WEIRD doesn't mean bad or strange*. In fact, it's an acronym for:

• Western (they are Eastern)
• Educated (we think in abstractions and logic, they thought in pictures and parables)
• Industrialized (We focus on work outside of the home; they focus on growth and strength of family)
• Rich (easy access to food and housing)
• Democratic- in voting countries. (We focus on individual good versus the good of the community)

Tverberg shares an example I've never thought of before in her description for "Rich". She mentions the story of Luke 12:15-21, how the rich man built barns for his overflowing crops, in order to take care of him in the future. This makes sense to a modern, Western reader. But Tverberg points out that this would have shocked readers in the first century, because it means he didn't share his wealth with the community first. 

What does this example and the WEIRD filters show us about the difference in first-world life? How can it help us read the Bible differently?

*from pages 36-38

Update on September 24, 2018—check out this updated discussion here!