What Others Can Teach Us
Taking the time to read the bible is the first step toward understanding it better. Still there’s only so much we can glean from reading the bible on our own. Each of us comes from a unique background with a unique perspective, which means we’re good at picking up some things and not others. Thus we must rely on the viewpoints of others to fill in these gaps and help us see what we might be missing. This collection of sacred texts we cherish is truly a vast treasure with an abundance of meaning, and we can best explore these riches when we read Scripture together as a community rather than by ourselves.
This holistic approach to interpretation means we must value those things that make us different and use those differences to our advantage. To some people this might sound like the truth of the bible is now relative and just depends on who’s reading it, rendering all interpretations equally valid. Far from it! All we’re trying to do is read the text through someone else’s eyes, coming to appreciate what they see and how they understand God’s revelation. When we combine our unique insights and talents in this way, we discover the beautiful truth that God is trying to reveal to all of us as a community rather than to one person alone. Now obviously we can’t talk to every person on this planet or even every person in one city, but we can speak broadly about groups of people with demographic characteristics different from our own and who thus have much to teach us. As we look at the human race and consider which characteristics tend to affect people the most in terms of their life experience and unique background, two qualities seem to be most influential: gender and socio-economic class.
“Male and Female He created them…” (Gen 1:27). Millions of men and women read the bible every day, and it’s not uncommon to find a bible study group or college-level course with both genders represented equally. Unfortunately that hasn’t always been the case. For centuries, biblical interpretation was an exclusively male enterprise. Priests, popes, bishops, theologians, professors – all of these groups were predominantly male, and their interpretations became normative in the church. Of course being male and having a male perspective is a wonderful thing; the problem is when we exclude other perspectives, even if unintentionally. Women have valuable insights too, and sometimes their experience of womanhood helps men see things in a new light and uncovers things they’ve missed by reading merely through male eyes.
For example, everyone knows the famous story of Adam and Eve in Genesis 2-3, but few have appreciated just how complex Eve’s character is. For many centuries she has been blamed for the Fall of Man and criticized for bringing sin and death the world. (One early theologian labeled her “the devil’s gateway,” and several male theologians claimed all subsequent women bore her guilt.) She definitely sins, but is she really that bad? A closer reading suggests she’s a more dynamic and more positive character than her husband. Adam doesn’t hesitate to eat the fruit when offered it, nor does he say much else in the story other than to blame Eve for what went wrong. Eve, however, first rejects the serpent’s temptation by repeating the Lord’s command not to eat from the tree of knowledge, and even after the serpent tempts her again, she at least examines the fruit to see that it looks good to eat and is useful for attaining knowledge. She does not break the commandment immediately but shows some thought and reflection.
More importantly, look what happens a few verses later in Genesis 4:1. After giving birth to Cain, Eve recognizes her procreative ability in producing a man, and she credits God with enabling her to do so. She is also the first to call upon the Lord by His holy name (“Yahweh,” often translated into English as Lord), and she also gives her newborn son a name rather than having the father name the child. In a patriarchal society, Eve is surprisingly proactive, and despite her earlier sin, she shows virtue and great strength of character in her later actions. Her name “Eve” is thus appropriate; she is the mother of all the living (Genesis 3:20), associated not with death but with life. Readers of either gender are able to see these things, but female readers are more likely to view Eve positively and can help their male counterparts appreciate the richness of her character.
“Blessed are the poor…” (Luke 6:20). Socio-economic class is another major factor affecting our worldview, especially when we struggle to put food on the table. When people have enough money to support themselves and their family, they have time to devote to other pursuits: politics, arts and entertainment, sports, leisure, and so forth. But when you’re on a limited income, you don’t have those kinds of luxuries, and certain things take top priority for you, like utility bills, housing, medical care, or finding employment. This affects how you live your life and how you view your world. Consider the different perspectives people might have on a college education depending on their socio-economic class. A middle-class or upper-class family might assume that most or all their children will pursue a college education. Their children probably feel similarly, viewing college as something of a rite of passage that everyone goes through before getting a job or going on for more schooling. A lower-class family would not make the same assumption, and poorer families tend to view college in one of two ways. Either it’s a golden opportunity for one of their children and thus becomes a source of great pride when the first person in their family earns a college degree, or it’s so expensive and difficult to attain that it’s off limits, reserved for only wealthy people. For the latter group, college has a negative connotation, constituting a barrier that separates the rich from the poor and keeps the lower-class from moving upward in society.
Our socio-economic class is such an influential factor in forming our worldview that we often don’t even notice it, yet understanding that influence is critical when reading the bible. God’s main audience in the Old Testament are the Israelites, who were relatively poor and less developed than neighboring civilizations such as the Egyptians or Mesopotamians. The same thing occurs in the New Testament, where Jesus’ primary audience is the poor and outcast. That’s not to say that God doesn’t care about the wealthy or powerful; God speaks to them as well, for everyone matters in God’s eyes. But the Word of God is most commonly and most directly shared with the poor and downtrodden, and people who are more well off financially have much to learn from those who are not.
Consider the Beatitudes. Many of us today read them like imperatives. “Blessed are the meek” is another way of saying, “Be meek.” “Blessed are the peacemakers” is basically saying, “Be peacemakers.” This is not a bad way to approach the Beatitudes, but it’s not the only way. When we live a more comfortable lifestyle, we hear words like “meek,” “mourn,” “poor in spirit” and feel guilty for the comfort we enjoy, recognizing we should live more simply and share what we have with those less fortunate. But for those who don’t have these comforts, the beatitudes become something else. The poor and working-class are already meek, mourning, etc., and so Jesus is addressing them in their current situation. He’s not telling them to become these things. Rather, he’s telling them that their current suffering will be transformed into endless joy. The beatitudes are therefore words of encouragement to those whose lives are difficult here on earth. Although they experience hardship now, the kingdom of heaven awaits them. In fact, this is how Jesus’ original audience would have heard these beatitudes since many of them were poor and working class people from the Galilean countryside.
Now try out this method on the story of the Prodigal Son.