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Logos Ministries Incorporated
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FASHIONED BY CULTURE INTRODUCTION Culture is baffling to some of the best of scholars. It is the material out of which every conversation is spoken; the instrument through which we express our deepest thoughts and feelings to one another; the measuring-stick by which we evaluate every action of our lives. Culture is the mold in which our ideas take shape. This is one of the major concerns of those who write translations of the Greek and Hebrew Scriptures into the native language of another land. We understand that those who translated the New Testament into one of the Eskimo languages could not deal with the picture of hell as a place of burning. They had to turn it around before it had meaning for these people of the frozen north. Every group of people has their own cultural understandings. It is difficult to explain the 10 commandments in some cultures. How does one explain, “Thou shalt not steal” when their culture taught them it is acceptable to steal, but not to get caught? How does one explain, “Thou shalt not bear false witness” when the culture is literally built upon the acceptability of dishonesty. The part one must avoid is getting caught. We are thoroughly convinced that the Scriptures are “inspired” as II Timothy 3:16 so carefully indicates. We are equally convinced that we need to carefully examine what it means to be “inspired.” In most discussions, “inspired” is taken to refer to the choice of specific words as “God breathed messages from God.” We would not dispute that for a moment. We would like to suggest that when God breathed His word into human experience, it involved more than specific choices of words. God made use of the individual personality and disposition of each author. Can you imagine Paul writing the beautiful psalms like those David sang and prayed? Can you imagine fiery Peter writing with the delicate sophistication that makes Luke’s writings the most beautiful Greek in the entire New Testament. I don’t think so! Included in this beautiful “inspiration,” is the divine choice of language. Imagine trying to express the glowing beauty of Isaiah chapter six in the scientifically precise words of the Greek language. On the other hand, can you imagine trying to express the intricate precision of the New Testament theological statements in the most beautiful, but imprecise manner of the Hebrew language? Hebrew, like Spanish and Latin, is beautiful and graphic, but not that precise. Greek, like German, is more a precise, scientific language and expresses our finest details of doctrine with great precision. We also would suggest that God used the intricacies of culture to convey an understanding of His nature and will to people in a form they can readily understand. Jesus used dozens of cultural references to share His message with people of His own culture. In order for us to fully understand His message as His hearers understood it, we must permeate that culture to discover what they really understood. The Greek and Hebrew meaning of a word will not always open these thoughts to our deeper understanding. We have to be able to hear what they heard and see what they saw. That is the underlying principle being scrutinized in this volume. By seeking to understand, at greater depth, the cultural references Jesus used we hope to be able to shed light on some of the actions and teachings which at present are not as clear to us as they were to the people on the scene. Cultural understanding will not solve all the problems we have concerning the meaning of some Scriptural passages. It will enable us to come much closer to what people of His culture understood when He taught. This is the second volume in this series. Like volume one, “Did You Know This?!”, this volume looks carefully at passages that contain rich elements of the Hebrew culture. These would be very obvious to the Jewish people who listened to Jesus, but because they are not a part of our culture, they can easily be overlooked. It is to this that we have focused our attention in these volumes. |
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