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Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible Paperback – November 4, 2012
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What was clear to the original readers of Scripture is not always clear to us. Because of the cultural distance between the biblical world and our contemporary setting, we often bring modern Western biases to the text. For example:
- When Western readers hear Paul exhorting women to "dress modestly," we automatically think in terms of sexual modesty. But most women in that culture would never wear racy clothing. The context suggests that Paul is likely more concerned about economic modesty―that Christian women not flaunt their wealth through expensive clothes, braided hair and gold jewelry.
- Some readers might assume that Moses married "below himself" because his wife was a dark-skinned Cushite. Actually, Hebrews were the slave race, not the Cushites, who were highly respected. Aaron and Miriam probably thought Moses was being presumptuous by marrying "above himself."
- Western individualism leads us to assume that Mary and Joseph traveled alone to Bethlehem. What went without saying was that they were likely accompanied by a large entourage of extended family.
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 crosscultural 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.
Getting beyond our own cultural assumptions is increasingly important for being Christians in our interconnected and globalized world. Learn to read Scripture as a member of the global body of Christ.
- Print length240 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherIVP
- Publication dateNovember 4, 2012
- Dimensions5.5 x 0.8 x 8.25 inches
- ISBN-100830837825
- ISBN-13978-0830837823
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Since 1947, InterVarsity Press (IVP) has been publishing thoughtful Christian books that shape both the lives of readers and the cultures they inhabit. Throughout these seventy-five years, our books and authors have established a legacy of speaking boldly into important cultural moments, providing timeless tools for spiritual growth, and equipping Christians for a vibrant life of faith.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Whether rules over relationships or correctness over community, respective Western and non-Western worldviews may differ on appropriate conduct, discretion, and exceptions. Randolph and O'Brien write with grace and clarity. Though evangelical, they steer clear of moral or political agendas and give no hint of anti-Western sentiments; they even suggest someone write a complementary sequel: Misreading Scripture with Eastern Eyes. Their extensive range of biblical and contemporary samples makes this an excellent resource for confessional Bible study contexts or an entry-level textbook in undergraduate courses on biblical interpretation."
-- Martin W. Mittelstadt, Religious Studies Review 39, no. 2, June 2013"Written in engaging prose, Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes is a must-have for students of the Bible, and especially students of biblical apologetics. Any seasoned traveler knows that when someone visits a foreign country for the first time, he or she will be well served by a competent guide. When it comes to the social world of the Bible, Richards and O'Brien serve as tour guides par excellence."
-- James Patrick Holding, Christian Research Journal 36, no. 5"For many, [this] book will offer a dose of humility with hope. One is encouraged to admit, 'I don't know' while at the same time is spurred on to study the Bible more. Missionaries will be challenged to think more theologically and to listen respectfully to nationals who live around them. Theologians will be forced to consider how the adage 'context is king' applies to their own worldview. This is a perfect book to discuss within small groups at church or as teams on the mission field."
-- Jackson Wu, Evangelical Missions Quarterly, July 2013"This is an outstanding treatment of a complex and important topic. . . . This would make a good textbook for courses in hermeneutics or biblical interpretation, cultural studies, prolegomena, or theological method, as well as small-group studies in a local church. The book is written at a level that educated laypeople as well as pastors, teachers, and scholars will find helpful."
-- Glenn Rl. Kreider, Bibliotheca Sacra, October–December 2013"A politely confrontational book that bids you trade in your cultural spectacles and rethink how your worldview distorts your scriptural conclusions. Sex, money, food, self-focus, prejudices, and much more: developed with apt storytelling and enlightening examples."
-- Worship Leader Magazine, May 2013"A fascinating guide for any serious Bible reader! Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes reveals the 'habits of the mind' that might blind us to the Bible's intended message. Richards and O'Brien unpack the intricacies and nuances of cultural communication to help people better understand the Bible. To help you know--and live--the Christian life more faithfully."
-- Nikki Toyama-Szeto, Urbana program director, coauthor of Partnering with the Global Church"Richards and O'Brien open our eyes to the crosscultural nature of the Bible. Their book is a helpful resource in understanding Scripture on its own terms, without imposing our assumptions on the biblical authors and their first readers."
-- Lindsay Olesberg, author, The Bible Study Handbook, and senior associate for Scripture engagement, Lausanne Movement"The authors of Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes make a convincing case that those who trust in the Bible should (for biblical reasons) be more self-conscious about themselves. Their demonstration of how unself-conscious mores influence the understanding of Scripture is as helpful as the many insights they draw from Scripture itself. This is a good book for better understanding ourselves, the Christian world as it now exists and the Bible."
-- Mark A. Noll, Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History, University of Notre Dame, coauthor, Clouds of Witnesses: Christian Voices from Africa and Asia"Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes is an important book that comes along at a critical moment in global evangelical history. Helpful examples reveal our cultural tendencies and biases that could hinder a deeper reading of Scripture. The authors help us to recognize our blind spots and offer insight that honors the intention of Scripture to be read in the context of community. I am grateful to the authors for their effort to be self-reflective and engage in a critical examination of our engagement with Scripture from within Western culture."
-- Soong-Chan Rah, Milton B. Engebretson Associate Professor of Church Growth and Evangelism at North Park Theological Seminary, author of The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity"This is a revolutionary book for evangelical Bible-believers. If its readers end the book motivated to ask the questions it invites and even inspired to identify other possible misreadings because of Western cultural blinders that have not been discussed, they will be more ready to live out the kind of biblically faithful, Christ-honoring and God-fearing lives that they desire to and that the world needs."
-- Amos Yong, J. Rodman Williams Professor of Theology, Regent University School of Divinity, Virginia"Randy Richards and Brandon O'Brien have written a useful and enjoyable book, which makes excellent use of good stories to illustrate the points they make. The reader will leave the book with plenty of challenging questions to ask about approaches to Scripture. Interesting, thoughtful, and user-friendly."
-- Philip Jenkins, distinguished professor of history, co-director for the program on historical studies of religion, Institute for Studies of Religion, Baylor University, author of The Next ChristendomReview
"Randy Richards and Brandon O'Brien have written a useful and enjoyable book, which makes excellent use of good stories to illustrate the points they make. The reader will leave the book with plenty of challenging questions to ask about approaches to Scripture. Interesting, thoughtful, and user-friendly."
-- Philip Jenkins, distinguished professor of history, co-director for the program on historical studies of religion, Institute for Studies of Religion, Baylor University, author of The Next ChristendomAbout the Author
E. Randolph Richards (Ph.D., Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary) is dean of the School of Ministry and professor of biblical studies at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, Florida. He is a coauthor of Rediscovering Paul and the author of Paul and First-Century Letter Writing.
Brandon J. O'Brien is editor-at-large for Leadership and an instructor of religion at the College of DuPage. He is completing his doctorate in theological studies at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. O'Brien is the author of The Strategically Small Church.
Product details
- Publisher : IVP; 1st edition (November 4, 2012)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 240 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0830837825
- ISBN-13 : 978-0830837823
- Item Weight : 9.9 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #6,080 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2 in Christian Bible Exegesis & Hermeneutics
- #6 in General Anthropology
- #23 in Historical Study (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
Brandon J. O'Brien (PhD, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) is Director of Content Development for Redeemer City to City in New York City. He has published in Leadership Journal, Christianity Today, Relevant, and the Out of Ur blog and has been interviewed by and quoted in USA Today and other national newspapers. He is author of The Strategically Small Church (Bethany House, 2010) and co-author, with Randy Richards, of Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible (IVP 2012) and Paul Behaving Badly (IVP 2016).
He has a wide range of interests, but Brandon's primary goals in writing are to help Christians better understand the Scriptures, themselves, and their place in God's mission in the world. He has spoken to groups of pastors and lay leaders on issues ranging from small-church ministry to national trends in religion and in a variety of formats, from pastors retreats to writing seminars.
Visit Brandon online at www.brandonjobrien.com
E. Randolph Richards, PhD. Randy loves training students for ministry, both domestically and internationally. He has been teaching since 1986, originally at a state university and then abroad at an Indonesian seminary. Randy is honored to serve as the provost at Palm Beach Atlantic University, Florida’s premier Christian university and seminary.
He is a popular speaker and teacher in churches and workshops. He has authored and coauthored dozens of books and articles including A Little Book for New Biblical Scholars, Paul Behaving Badly, Rediscovering Jesus, Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes, Rediscovering Paul, The Story of Israel and Paul and First-Century Letter Writing. He is currently writing What Went Without Being Said: Cultural Values in the Biblical World with Richard James, and Rediscovering the New Testament with Capes and Reeves. He is also working on the new John volume in the Word Biblical Commentary series.
His wife Stacia has joyfully accompanied him from jungles of Indonesia to rice fields in Arkansas to beautiful South Florida. They have two fine sons: Josh (Ph.D. 2012, University of St. Andrews, Scotland), an English professor in Arkansas, and Jacob (Ph.D. 2014, College of Medicine, University of Florida), in pharmaceuticals in Illinois.
Missions remain on the hearts of Randy and Stacia. Randy leads mission trips and conducts missionary training workshops and regularly leads tours of the Holy Land, Turkey, Greece and Italy. He has served as interim pastor of numerous churches, but down inside, he is just an old Bible teacher. He and Stacia reside in Palm Beach, Florida.
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Through the lenses of the two authors, who have each had significant cross-cultural experiences, they share their experiences of grappling to communicate and understand Scripture cross-culturally. Through their combined experiences, the authors share their blunders and frustrations in trying to convey Biblical truths across cultures. They revealed their own personal biases and the impact that these biases had on their own biblical interpretations. It is through these examples that a student beginning to study hermeneutics can learn not only the principles of biblical interpretation, but also attain awareness of their own cultural biases.
In the first chapter, the premise of the book was presented. The primary goal of this book was to remind, or convince, the reader of the book about the cross-cultural nature of biblical interpretation. Based on the collective cross-cultural experience of the authors, their perceptions were presented of the pitfalls in cross-cultural communication, especially communication of scriptural truth across cultures.
Praises
Written at an 11th grade level, the stories used to illustrate the points being made were told in a perspicuous style. Because the stories were mostly from the authors own collective experience, the stories were unique, illuminating, sometimes humorous, and often fascinating. One of the authors had spent a significant number of years as a missionary in Sulawesi, an Indonesian island north of Australia and to the west of Papua New Guinea. The other author shared from his personal experience in Europe.
As the chapters unfolded, the examples and stories nicely illustrated and contrasted the differences in western verses non-western culture, especially in the area of scriptural interpretation.
Before embarking on a section on criticism of this text, a bit of disclosure is necessary. This was a thoroughly enjoyable and enlightening book from the standpoint of it being a mirror reflecting my own cultural biases, and exposing my own western presuppositions. As a fellow sojourner who has spent time as a missionary in Papua New Guinea, not too geographically distant from the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, the stories that were told to illustrate the points of the book were like well-aimed arrows piercing into my consciousness.
However, prior to writing this review, the views of the supporters and detractors of this book, as published online on Amazon.com, were reviewed, causing me to consider this book far more critically.
Somewhat surprisingly, the editors tolerated a literary aberration where the authors used an atypical literary form when referring to their own experiences. This took the form of, “I (Randy)” or “I (Brandon)” to designate which author was sharing his (Randy)’s or his (Brandon)’s experience. At first this left me (Allan), a bit amused, but as the book progressed, the incessant use of this designation of authorship and experience seemed superfluous and somewhat irritating.
Although the stories were appropriate and entertaining, many of the stories were straw man arguments followed by far-reaching generalizations. To illustrate this point, an example of Edgar Allan Poe’s well-known short story, Tell-Tale Heart, was presented to convey that westerners “know right from wrong objectively, and we typically assume that our wrongdoings will find us out because our consciences won’t let us rest until we confess.”
However, this is itself an extreme over generalization of western thought, and certainly is not a cultural norm in American society. It is specious to claim that this attitude of guilty conscience is ubiquitous across all American culture. America’s most famous criminals: Al “Scarface” Capone, Charles Manson, Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, Ted Bundy, and Oklahoma City Bombing mastermind Timothy McVeigh would all be examples of criminals who appeared undaunted and entirely unrepentant by the crimes they committed. The examples of these famous American criminals quickly undoes the broad generalization of uniform criminal remorse presented by the authors. Another comparison would be to ponder the question, “Did former President Clinton ever express publicly his remorse over his adulterous affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky?” From a public perspective, other than his loss of credibility over this liaison with Miss Lewinsky, former President Clinton did not appear personally remorseful over this incident. The point here is that one cannot make an all-embracing generalization about an entire culture, assuming that everyone’s collective conscience is the same as the guilt-ridden murderer in Edgar Allen Poe’s fictional tale or former President Clinton’s liaison.
The authors made an extended argument that in non-western cultures, an individual does not feel shame if the misdeed remains publicly unexposed. The authors then make a long discourse about King David’s adulterous act with Bathsheba; but their entire discussion comes undone when King David admits in Psalm 51 that he did, in fact, have a guilty conscience all along. “For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done evil in Your sight.” (Psalm 51:3-4 NIV)
In another example, the authors make this statement, “While every generation likes to critique the previous one, it seems to us that Americans are becoming more self-centered.” Again, this is an extremely broad characterization of westerners, at a time when many other countries recognize the incredibly generous and selfless nature of westerners, often putting themselves in harms’ way to give and to serve. This poor characterization of America is indeed offensive.
Recently many of my civilian Christian medical colleagues were voluntarily serving at an emergency field hospital (EFH), twelve miles from the battlefront in Mosul, Iraq. When injured Sunni and Shiite Muslims would wake up in the recovery room following emergency trauma surgery, nearly without exception these patients were bewildered to find western Christian doctors and nurses caring for them and loving them. These injured soldiers and civilians verbally inquired as to why these western Christians would put themselves in harms’ way to come and to care for them and bandage their wounds. There exists a plethora of examples in every society of selfishness and selflessness; but broad generalizations are inappropriate characterizations of cultures.
After closing the back cover of the book, there was a disturbing sense that this was not a book about cross-cultural biblical interpretation, but rather an overly critical viewpoint of westerners, and implication that western interpretation of scripture is somehow inferior to a non-western interpretation. Whose lenses provide the best optics through which to view and interpret Scripture? The lenses through which one contemporary culture views Scripture are unlikely to confer any significant advantage compared to the lenses through which western culture views and interprets Scripture.
Classical biblical hermeneutics has to do with the understanding of the original authors’ intended meaning and how the original first century audience would have comprehended that message. Biblical hermeneutics is not about a contemporary cross-cultural understanding of biblical texts. This book is more a book of how other cultures may interpret, or misinterpret, Scripture, based on their own cultural values and biases. But it would be specious to claim that interpreting Scripture through non-western eyes is superior to interpreting Scripture through western-eyes.
Perhaps an alternative title would have been more appropriate for this book. Cross-Cultural Awareness for Christian Missionaries: Removing Cultural Blinders would seem far more appropriate; however, this suggested alternative is not nearly as eye-catching as Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes with several of the letters turned intentionally backward.
Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes is an introductory book on cross-cultural awareness. The authors are correct in reminding the reader, “we need to remember that all people everywhere have their own cultural blinders.” This book nicely illustrates many of these cultural differences, but at the cost of over-simplification and indiscriminate generalizations, some of which are offensive to western readers. Although the stories told illustrate their points nicely, their arguments are rather shallow. There is no need to debase western culture in order to make the points that the authors intended.
This book might be well suited for a young missionary who is about to embark on an international mission trip where they will be exposed to their inaugural cross-cultural experience; especially if this is going to involve sharing their faith and discussing Scripture in another country. A young missionary on their maiden voyage overseas, who is interested in cultural sensitivity, would likely benefit from reading this book, as it would aid their effectiveness in cross-cultural communication of the Gospel and cross-cultural Scriptural understanding.
The authors, both well-credentialed evangelistic theologians, have each spent significant time in various locales ranging from Arkansas (Brandon) to Indonesia (Randy) and use their experiences in far-flung stations to make good points about how an expression in one place is interpreted quite differently in others. “The most powerful cultural values are those that go without being said” (12). Unfortunately, most of the cross-cultural examples come from 21st century Indonesia (Randy), not 1st century Palestine. Arguably, the collectivist, family-oriented Indonesia of 2002 is a good place to make a case for not assuming that all people understand things the same way, but gives little insight into what may have been going on in Nazareth 2,000 years ago. Although there are hundreds of scriptural references, from Genesis to Revelations, very few of them actually provide any insight into how we moderns are supposedly misreading scripture based on our 21st century mores. And many of the putative insights are little more than minute, nitpicky differentiations, as in the discussion of 1st C “modesty” where they make a big deal out of the difference between “sexual modesty” and “public modesty” in the matter of women covering their heads (43). Another notable example is the discussion of what it means to be “first” (relating to Paul’s letter about Adam being born first and thus having authority over women in teaching). The authors claim that it’s our modern understanding of ‘first’ as meaning “better” which leads us astray, since in biblical times the rules of primogeniture simply meant the firstborn received the greater inheritance, the family title, assumed responsibility etc.….the authors say (13). But if that doesn’t somehow mean “better” or “preferred” it’s hard to know what would. In fact, its seems to the modern reader to be a rather dodgy apologetic for giving women 2nd-hand status.
That said, one excellent insight has to do with the use of the Greek word 'makarios' in the Sermon on the Mount (the Beatitudes), usually translated as “blessed” or “blessing.” But the Greek more properly translates as “a feeling of contentment” or “when one knows one’s place in the world and is satisfied with that place” (75). The English language prefers clear subjects for its verbs, so it goes without saying (for us) that God blesses people. So we interpret the verse at Matt 5:9 as “If you are a peacemaker, then God will bless you.” But what the Jesus figure really meant was: “If you are a peacemaker, then you are in your happy place.” In other words, you will experience the feeling of contentment with your life if you are a peacemaker. This is part of a discussion on the important Whorfian hypothesis (aka Sapir-Whorf) to account for how our language shapes our worldview and in turn filters what we notice and how we interpret reality (71). Unfortunately, having made the point about makarios, the book doesn’t then go ahead and relate this wonderful theme to the actual subject matter of the book. We do however get a delightful example of the many distinctions of the word ‘rice’ in Indonesia compared to Western society (73) — as well as the Indonesian ideas of “privacy” and “quiet time.”
Interestingly, we also learn that the term 'Galatae' (as in the epistle to the Galatians) was used by the Greeks to denote Celtic tribes in the 270s BCE. The "Land of the Celts" is the Latin transliteration of the Greek 'celtica.' However, the authors don’t even get this quite right, calling the Roman term for Galatia a “mispronunciation of the word Celts” (57).
Alas, along the way the authors make what we might politely call “rookie mistakes,” considering that one (Randy) is a Ph.D. and dean of the School of Ministry at Palm Beach Atlantic University and the other (Brandon) is completing his doctorate in theology. For example, they try to introduce a point saying, “assuming the first gospel was written by the disciple Matthew” (79) — yet most biblical scholars acknowledge, and have for decades, that Mark was the first gospel composed (despite the conventional order presented in the N.T.) . Furthermore, Matt is usually dated toward the last quarter of the 1st C, attributed to a Greek-speaking anonymous Jew in Syria, not an Aramaic-speaking contemporary of Jesus. This is first-year theology school stuff.
Another oddity has to do with the question of whether there were female apostles in the early church. The authors bring up Junia and co-laborer (or husband?) Andronicus, whom the authors say are “both called apostles” in Rom 16:7. The effort to show how our modern culture clings to “rules” rather than “relationships” is laudable but once again their scholarship is lacking. They do acknowledge that scholars hotly debate about Junia/Junias, but then make the wild claim that “scholarship has now shown conclusively that Junia is a feminine name” (172). But that’s either a red herring or simple lack of awareness of the debate since the question has never been whether ‘Junia’ is feminine, but whether the Greek word Paul uses is <I>᾿Ιουνιᾶν</I> or <i>᾿Ιουνίαν</i> [‘iounia(s)] and is therefore best translated as Junia or Junias. Further, the real debate questions whether Paul was saying “of note among the apostles” to mean “prominent among” or “well known to the apostles.”
This IVP publication is full of gross over-generalizations (“In the West, rules must apply to everyone and they must apply all the time”) (168) and, many people thought the world was going to end in 2000…so we called it Y2K (145); and Westerners think mainly in terms of 'chronos' (like clock time) whereas ancients thought in terms of 'kairos' (seasons, situations) (142). Of course we get an excellent Indonesian example of the difference there (139).
Nevertheless, while the concept of this book is excellent — because the Middle Eastern bible was written in terms of collectivism, honor and shame, and family expectations, we need to be sensitive to the differences in cultural outlooks — there are much better treatments of the theme like Spong’s <i>Biblical Literalism: A Gentile Heresy</i> or his <i>Liberating the Gospels: Reading the Bible with Jewish Eyes.</i> or Scott Korb's <i>Life in Year One</i>. These (and others) address the “misreading” issues in a much more scholarly and on-topic way with fewer diversions into well-meaning but generic Intro to Anthropology discussions.
Finally, a style note. Because there are two authors with different missionary experiences, the authors chose to write incessantly in first person mode with “I (Randy) was often struck that telling stories for Indonesians…” (147) or “My (Brandon’s) acting career…” (100). This was fine for a while but after about a hundred instances, we yearn for a simple 3rd-person style: “Brandon’s acting career…”
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Well written, engaging and thought provoking this is the book that can ignite a real voyage of discovery.
