There is a tendency for many, if not most, readers of Scripture to read the Bible without asking questions about or paying attention to the issue of its cultural background. The tendency is to read the Bible superficially, and totally disregard and ignore the issues of the context from which it emerges. Many readers treat the Bible as if it were written in Heaven and thrown down to Earth. They also treat it as if it were written in a cultural vacuum. The attitude tends to be "Since this is the Word of God," we can bypass all this 'razzle dazzle,' and just continue to read. We don't need to know about culture. We just need to know what God said. The Bible says so, end of story." I often time quote the Baptist preacher that I heard on the radio some years ago saying "I believe in the Bible from cover to cover, and I even believe the cover." Really? Hmm! Is this the way we do things relative to Scripture?
I humbly and respectfully submit that this is a careless and irresponsible approach to biblical understanding. Because it is careless and irresponsible, it tends to result in distortions, misapplication, and misunderstanding of all types. I also submit that precisely because the Bible is a witness to the Word, we are called to be careful in the way we read and apply it.
One does not need to be a rocket scientist to acknowledge cultural elements in Scripture. Neither does it take a special type of intellect or scholarship for one to know that the Bible, like any other literary document, emerges from a particular cultural context, and that much of what it "says," reflects that cultural context.
There are many people that do everything in their power to avoid dealing with the cultural context of Scripture. There are at least two reasons for that. The first is that they are allergic to rigorous study of any kind. They simply "don't want to do all that work." The second reason is that they fear that a rigorous contextual study of Scripture will result in their assumptions, beliefs, and presuppositions being exposed for their weaknesses and called into question. They "can't have that." It is much easier for them to hold on to their assumptions, and not to have them challenged or questioned. I remember hearing the story about one dear Christian sister who said "If the Bible tells me that Jonah swallowed the fish, I believe it." Well, bless her heart! That is a perfect example of people who are sincere, but as our evangelical sisters and brothers would say "sincerely wrong." There are many readers of Scripture who are well-intended and well-meaning, but unfortunately, travel down the wrong path.
The bulk of the Bible emerges from an agricultural context. In this context, human relations were not what they are now. For example in that context, the woman was considered the property of the man. In that cultural context, marriages were arranged. Dare we propose that we should retain those cultural paradigms simply because "the Bible says so?"
The challenge for us is to discern and explore how a book that emerges from a particular cultural environment speaks to those of us who are living in a technological society. I am not proposing or even remotely implying that "God changes," or that "the Word of God changes," but rather, that the way Scripture spoke to the people of the time when it was first written, is not necessarily the way it speaks to us today.
I invite you, the reader, to join with us in exploring the relevancy of understanding the Bible in our modern cultural context. Please feel free to comment on these issues.
In the Name of the Creator, and of the Liberator, and of the Sustainer. Amen.
Dr. Juan A. Ayala-Carmona
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