Customer Reviews

The Cultural Dictionary of the Bible

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Dr. Pilch strips away the Western worldview baggage we Americans too often take into our interpretation of the Christian scriptures. By examining the Mediterranean culture from an anthropological perspective, he challenges us to understand the Bible in the same way the ancient writers did. Arranged in alphabetical order, each short chapter exposes the true cultural meaning behind key portions of Scripture. For example, Christ's desire for his disciples to be the "salt of the earth" had much more to do with being a catalyst to make fires burn than it ever had to do with enhancing the flavor of food. As important as this resource is, I recommend it only to mature believers who are spiritually ready to have their basic assumptions challenged. Devour this book and be prepared to critique your own pastor's use of Scripture on a weekly basis.

There is so much that is good about this book, I am hesitant to give it only three stars. I'll get to the (perceived) flaws below, but first I would like to say what is good about it. First, it is flat-out interesting. It's an entertaining read. It's the kind of book one can pick up, flip to a random page, and learn something interesting and perhaps useful. The book also works as a reference for the non-specialist; its organization lends itself to that.
The flaw is in the general tone of the book, which looks at holy scripture through the eyes of a cultural anthropologist, and ONLY through those eyes. It is a rather uni-dimensional approach to the scriptures. Perhaps the answer to this criticism is "Of course! This book, by its very nature, is intended to look upon scripture from just that one point of view." Well, maybe. But I got the impression in reading it that the author(s) would not admit of any OTHER way of looking at scripture.
A minor quibble as well (and being a non-specialist I am on shaky ground here): The author makes a big point that the Mediterranean Culture uses questions not so much to gain information, but to challenge or belittle. I submit that this is a more universal phenomenon. Every place I've ever been on this planet uses questions in the so-called "Mediterranean" manner.
Minor and major quibbles aside, I have enjoyed this book, and will probably buy a few more copies to give to my friends.

I enjoyed Pilch's book very much. I received some valuable insights into the culture of the New Testament. I was very excited about his comment that the salt in the passage in "salt of the earth" referred to a fire-starting agent. But when I looked all over on the internet to find any one else's reference to this idea, there was nothing. My family, who lived for years in Nigeria, never found salt as a fire starter. In fact, if I remember correctly, salt doesn't burn. That made me wary of the other information. I would double check before citing it.