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April 21 - May 11, 2020
Th...
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you answer these questions can help you uncover what mores yo...
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Thinking critically about why you assume what you assume can make you sensitive, over time, to the cultural mores you bring to the biblical text.
Sometimes the biblical writers help us identify the mores at issue.
On other occasions, the biblical writers don’t help us as much, as in 1 Corinthians 15:29, in which Paul makes a passing reference to the practice of baptism for the dead.
the best way to become sensitive to our own presuppositions about cultural mores—what goes without being said for us—is to read the writing of Christians from different cultures and ages.
The point of collision is a priceless opportunity for learning.
Not, of course, that there is any magic about the past. People were no cleverer then than they are now; they made as many mistakes as we. But not the same mistakes.”
The “mistakes” of readers from other times and places can illumine our mistakes.
Our ultimate goal should be to live the Christian life more faithfully.
We need to be aware of our mores because they can contradict Christian values.
When we fail to hold our mores up to the penetrating light of Scripture, we can become lax and complacent in our discipleship.
If we call some sins cultural, are we at risk of postmodern relativism?
sin exists in every culture and everyone sins; but what those sinful behaviors are can vary.
What are the requirements of Christian hospitality in your culture?
How might being our brother’s or sister’s keeper play out differently in various cultures or subcultures that you know?
Do some of your church members, like the Corinthian women, treat your church like a social club? This sin showed up in Corinthian culture as unveiled heads. How does it show up in your culture?
conspicuous”
Visible
Because our son, James, is African American, we are prepared to be on the receiving end of racial prejudice for the first time in our lives.
in many places in the country, adopting a Caucasian child can cost almost twice as much as adopting a nonwhite or biracial child.
It is the unfair privilege of majority peoples to not worry about the difference ethnicity makes; it is not an important part of our everyday lives.
race is largely an invention of the Enlightenment, intended to categorize the natural world into groups according to type.
We reject this belief and the related implications—that some “races” are morally and intellectually superior to others, for example.
We believe there is only one race, the human race, made in the image of God.
speaking in terms of ethnicity is a more precise way to account for the differenc...
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it goes without being said for many that to be truly equal, everyone must be the same.
This is what we mean by being colorblind: the belief that ethnic differences don’t matter.
what is commonly meant is that everyone should be treated as if they were the same—and by same, what is frequently meant is majority culture.
As Christians, we are firm in our convictions that all ethnicities are equal in value: “There is no difference between Jew and Gentile” (Rom 3:22).
We also believe that to understand a culture, you must be aware of ethnicity and especially the prejudices that may exist within a particular culture.
To ignore them is naïve and can result in serious ...
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Just as ignorance about ethnicities can lead to misunderstanding in our daily lives, so too it can lead to misunderstanding of the Bible.
being oblivious to ethnicities can cause us to miss things in the Bible. The biblical writers and their audiences were more than happy to make such generalizations. “He does such-and-such because he’s a Jew” was a perfectly legitimate argument for first-century Romans.
Consequently, we may read the Bible ignorant of ethnic differences in the text that would have been obvious to the first audience. Or we may naïvely believe that those differences don’t matter anyway because first-century Rome must have been post-racial, like we supposedly are. Other times our deeply ingrained racial prejudices influence our interpretation so that we assume the ancients held the same stereotypes we hold.
From time immemorial, humans have held prejudices against others based on their ethnicity, the color of their skin or factors such as where they’re from and how they speak.
There was something about Hittites that sent her up the wall. Most of us don’t know what; it went without being said. And, as we’ve said before, we are prone to fill in such gaps with our own prejudices.
This gives us lots of opportunity for misunderstanding.
Acts tells us that on his second sortie into the region, Paul attempted to go into the northern area: “When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia,
but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to” (Acts 16:7). This northern region was known by the Romans as Galatia, a mispronunciation of the word Celts, the name of the people group that had settled in the region generations earlier. They were considered barbarians,
While the entire region was technically Galatia by Roman designation, the inhabitants of the southern region preferred their provincial names, a practice Luke knew:
(Acts 2:9-10).
Our assumptions about ethnicity and race relations make impossible the prospect that Paul might have used ethnically charged language to make an important point about Christian faith and conduct.
Jews and Egyptians looked nothing alike. But at the time, Paul was taking part in a purification rite and had a shaved head, as was common in Egypt (Acts 21:24). And to a Roman—well, you know, all “those people” look alike.
It should be clear from these examples that our ignorance about the ethnic stereotypes in biblical
times can cause us to miss undercurrents in the biblical text.
we often find it difficult to detect the ethnic dimensions of a situation in the Bible, even when the author is trying to make it plain.
irk
Irritar, molestar
A peek at an atlas or the notes in your study Bible may tell you that Cush was in the southern Nile River valley.[3] That means the Cushites were dark-skinned Africans.
In his commentary on the books of Samuel, nineteenth-century scholar H. P. Smith writes, “Joab then calls a Negro (naturally, a slave) and commands him . . .”
(2 Sam 18:21)
