Scriptural Thoughts & Understandings
for Nerds Like Me
IDK How Long of a Series, lol
Eastern vs Western
Everyone now days is seemingly aware that every culture has their own view of things. Whether you are from Britain, Nigeria, Japan, or Brazil, things will be thought of, viewed, and approached differently. The trouble is, as a Christian, how does that affect our reading and understanding of scripture? Does it? If it does, how can I learn it? How can I read, understand, and implement the scriptures if I don’t understand those differences?
Once I understood that potential blind spots, I searched for answers. For years I prayed for someone to explain it to me. Someone with a deep understanding of the scriptures, the cultures behind them, and the current American cultural mindset.
And then one day a woman at the church I was attending told me about a podcast; BEMA Discipleship. It was started by a Christian American man who has Jewish roots, and studies the works of men like Ray Vander Laan, Rabbi David Foreman, and other Hebrew scholars and writers. I started listening at the very first episode. From that first episode, I was hooked!
The host, Marty Solomon, and co-host, Brent Billings, explained a concept that I would love to share here. It helped me break free from a few fears, as well as gave me a new appreciation for the way God works.
To explain, here is a word picture.
Imagine a house with a window on a corner. As you look through the window, you can see a couch with a coffee table in front of it, a picture on the wall behind the couch, a love seat sitting to the right of the love seat, and you can see a glimpse of the kitchen to the left of the couch.
That image gives a good idea of how that house’s living room looks. You can see how the house’ occupants would enjoy sitting on the couch and love seat and talking, relaxing, even enjoying the view out the window.
Now, step around the corner of the house and see that there is yet another window.
The view through this second window is also into the living room. But through this window you can see back of the love seat and you can see a decorative table behind it. You can see the kitchen beyond the living room. You can see a bookshelf to the left of the love seat, before the first window, and a trash can to the right of the refrigerator.
Question for you.
Did the room change when you viewed it through the second window? No, of course it didn’t. Your understanding and insight grew in depth, giving you more overall understanding, making the whole come more to life.
The same is true for the eastern vs western understandings of scripture. The western understanding is not bad overall, but it is missing, in my opinion, some major pieces to understanding the many layers there are in scripture. And, understanding the cultural mindsets, history, and social layers can bring the scriptures to life in a brilliant way.
One of my goals is to share the things I have learned with those who are interested, so.. this is part one of a series of only God knows how many parts, lol
Part 2
Hello :)
So. The last time I wrote on this board I was discussing the concept of cultural thinking and it’s impact on scriptural understanding. This time I will be talking about something that might be seemingly random; but it is connected, I promise, lol.
Translations.
Yeah.. not that thrilling of a concept for a lot of people. But, hear me out. It is essential to understanding some key pieces of this overall topic, and some really incredible gold within the text.
How many of you have ever had someone ask you for the definition of a word, only to realize that the definition is actually multiple layered, with a rich history and contextual elements that someone outside of a certain situation or background simply would not understand the depth of? But you still had to find a way to define it?
As a mom, this has happened more times than I can count.
How do you define “how”, “hold your horses”, “transistor”, “vinyls”.. “dirt poor”?
How can you explain “Piss Poor”.. the way that a family could be so poor, that they couldn’t afford flooring. That that family would live with cold, wet, bugs, muddy blankets, and most likely well worn to threadbare clothing, not enough food, potentially no shoes, hats, or gloves. How there would be a lot of work, and not enough pay with little to no hope for the future, so poor that they would sell the family’s urine to the tanners for enough coin for bread?
But do it without a paragraph.
Define that term and the mental images, the agony, groaning, anxiety, and worry without using more than one word or two…
Now. Here’s the reality of translating. It is rarely a one-to-one definition. Even the word father, or sky could have different levels of meaning in another language and culture. So when you start adding in societal understandings, historical contexts, and modern slang… it can be a nightmare to try and translate.
I don’t know how many of you have ever watched Star Trek Next Generation, but there is an episode that really emphasizes what I am talking about here. And, if I may, I would highly suggest you take the time to watch it. Darmok.
The episode starts with an attempt at meeting a new species to begin trade and non-violence treaties. Unfortunately, no one has been able to understand what new species have been saying. As Captain Picard begins to try and open talks with the captain of the other ship, you can see the disappointment, frustration, and desperate plea in the words and actions of the new captain while he attempts to bridge the communication gap. In a desperate bid for communication the captain of the other ship seems to order his crew to follow a plan that they do not like. He seems to confirm that it is the plan,like it or not, and the other crew concedes. Once they agree, the captain of the new alien species, and Captain Picard, are both beamed to the surface of the planet below.
I don’t want to spoil the show, so I will simply say that by the end, Captain Picard has a conversation with the members of the crew on the alien ship and they leave in peace. Did you catch that?
After putting in the work, learning how they think, what was behind their words, and their names, Captain Picard had a conversation with the aliens.
Unfortunately, I believe, most American english speakers have found themselves at a disadvantage. We no longer study languages to the same depth that other cultures do around the world. And that, combined with how we have majority english tv shows, youtube channels, instagram accounts, books, magazines, music, etc, etc.. we, on the whole, have lost touch with how to communicate outside ofour little niches. Which has many serious negative impacts on our lives.
One of those negative impacts is the way that we read scripture.
We seem to have forgotten how to read and contextualize, not only the type of literature, the audience, the environmental and perspective clues, but we have seemingly forgotten about the language, cultural, societal, and mindset translations that have to take place.
Now, hear me out, I am not saying everything we believe about scripture is wrong, but I am saying that we are missing out on a huge amount of treasure within the text bc we are not willing to let our minds be shaped and changed by being curious, humbling ourselves, and learning something foreign.
Throughout this series, I am going to attempt to start to show the changes in perspective and cultural background that I have come across, as best as I can. And then I would like to show some of the gold that I have been gifted from within the scriptures. I hope you’ll join me.
