Understanding Historical-Cultural Contexts

Introduction to the Hebrew Bible has provided me with a critical analysis of the Hebrew Bible and introduced a wide variety of interpretive strategies, including African American, anthropological, feminist, historical-critical, Jewish, and literary perspectives. These approaches were presented by our author’s, L. Juliana M. Claassens, Peter Enns, Walter Brueggemann, and John L. Collins. Each author provides a unique interpretation to help us comprehend how the text is an expression of one’s interpretive understanding. Having said that, the biggest influence has been how I will seek to present Old Testament scriptures more effectively while remembering the context and the audience in which I am presenting. For example, I believe the greatest lessons that I have been reminded of are, the Old Testaments Scriptures from my childhood, which have become a big part of my relationship with God and are based on a childlike faith, which must now grow in the richness of the different interpretations, it is this message that I can apply to life.

I consider myself high Context Culture because I’m responsible and responsibility is at the top of High Context Culture. People in high Context cultures sand close to each other and share the same space, which applies to me. I rely on support and it might be hard to get support outside of my group. Some times it might take a long time to happen but once a relationship reaches the bonding stage it will often stay that way. When I meet someone for the first time I immediately ask him or her about their age and status as my first impression.

But the Bible delves so much deeper than that. The Bible is in itself, a translation of history and humankind, showing how people, as individuals or groups, have either been blessed or disciplined by God for their demeanor towards Him and His holy laws. It is this unique account of the moral and spiritual factors behind the historical narrative, that continues to make the Bible so relevant to modern day society today. God’s word reveals the will of God in each of our lives through showing His divine nature as depicted in hundreds of real-life illustrations throughout the Bible.

To have a productive and constructive understanding of God it is a requirement for the reader to pay attention to context or risk missing the fundamental messages from God. To read as a contextualist one must process understanding of the scripture by consistently asking questions about context. To be a Fundamentalist is to not consider context and either believe a word for word literal account of the stories regardless of scientific evidence or to look and scientific evidence and regard the stories as untrue or implausible, completely missing the meanings carried within those stories. The important difference to determining meaning can be found in a reader who considers context in order to find these

Other than considering the matter of genres, the differences of culture and language should also be part of the element we should think of when we discover the truth of the Bible. Different cultures will cause different understanding of the Bible. Placher uses the example of Thucydides that “keeping as closely as possible to the general sense of the words that were actually used” was “called for by each situation (Placher 12).” in this example, situation can be realized as someone’s own view imposed to the text, according to the culture or experience he goes through. Placher argues that if a biblical author writes in a attitude of culture which is different from the readers’ attitude, then he or she writes as the products of such a culture. Like what the author says, “to treat them as having an attitude to history different from what they do is not to interpret them with maximum accuracy, but to get them wrong (Placher 16). ” Moreover, the confusion of reading the Bible, which is originated in a culture different from ours, happens when there are different social conditions that give different meanings. The author gives an example of the slavery in ancient Israel and the slavery in the American South. He says that the slaves in ancient Israel are supposed to be free at the end of seven days, and their identity of slave is not based on race. However, the slavery in American, on the contrary, differs from the one in the Bible. In addition, the author talks about homosexuality. He claims that in ancient Israel, two men cannot love each other, for that is an abomination, and they will be condemned. However, in modern society, even if people do not follow the Bible, that is they love each other, they seldom be condemned. In brief, the author claims that understanding the genres, recognizing the attitudes toward the reporting of historical details, and considering the social context in

My cultural background is English, I am an atheist I don’t believe in much but I do strongly believe that people should be treated equality. I am a very open minded person when it comes to diversity and others beliefs. I have never experienced my views impacting others negatively I have always educated myself on other beliefs so I don’t offend them but if my views did impact others

Religion plays a critical role in the lives of many people across the world. Some of the responsibilities of following a religion include understanding its history and knowing the stories that have been passed down from generation to generation. However, it isn’t always clear about how historically accurate some of these stories are. While some of the accounts may in fact be true, it is possible that some of the people and stories found in the bible were written as a symbol, with the intention that the morals of the stories would be understood.

Understanding the what the bible is trying to convey to us is important. The reason why we should study and understand the Old Testament is because it is very influential in the formation of many nation, cultures, and civilizations along with helping to find how we can implement the teachings of social justice within our

In the present day and all throughout time there have been many questions concerning man’s origin, identity, meaning, morality, and destiny; the makeup of one’s worldview. While many theories have been suggested many never are able to clearly answer all, if any, of these concerns. However, there is a book with flawless, strong, relevant and important applicable truth to our everyday life; the Bible. While the Bible is very sizeable and seemingly hard to read the book of Romans answers these inquiries in a simple and understandable manner. Romans 1-8 specifically tells us about the natural world, human identity, human relationships, and culture. Truly changing anyone’s worldview.

When you read the Bible there are a lot of concepts to keep in mind to fully understand the message a certain passage is saying. Fully understanding and interpreting the true meaning is the most crucial aspect, and Duvall & Hays says that context determines meaning. Ignoring or not fully understanding the context will most likely lead to misinterpretation of a passage; this also relates to the historical-cultural context as well, because without these elements you could make a passage mean what you want it to. In doing so, could result in an improper meaning of a passage, and you may apply your interpretation in a situation that it’s not intended for.

To begin with, it would be beneficial to establish that the viewpoint I am undertaking is one in agreement with the author, David Lose. Frequently, I have pondered the accuracy of not just Biblical texts but also historical accounts on all levels. Can one be assured what they are told is truthful to the fullest extent, enough so to wholeheartedly belief the concept? The answer is no. Nonetheless, if one is not to take this information as the truth then what will they hold to such tremendous standards? Therefore, one can conclude that it is necessary to allocate for the truth to be built and understood by personal interpretation of the world through another’s perspective. Hence, as a whole we can piece together an image and recantation that

In this chapter the Bible is put to the test. The argument that the Bible is not historical is a matter of important and further discussion. The fact is, that the Bible, like it or not was written by more than 40 authors from different historical background, different period of time, different cultures, different social classes, and different economic strata in a span of 1,500 years, but yet the all tell the same historical story. In view of accuracy, the Bible meets all the standards without any reasonable doubt. The entire Bible from Genesis to Revelations has the same theme. In addition, the poetic books and the Prophets are more of a reflection of God relationship with humanity, who has reveals other aspects of life and reality.

For instance, the Achaeans start losing the war and know they need Achilles to win. Agamemnon realizes his mistake in angering Achilles and consents that “‘I would extend to him if he will end his anger. Let him submit to me!’” (Homer 256). This is a very common way of thinking for a new Christian. They need God to do something for them before they are willing to follow him. A deeper, more mature christian will be able to filter through some of this stuff and not have it question their faith. Also, when the Achaeans are trying to convince Achilles to fight for them, he complains “‘One and the same lot for the man who hangs back and the man who battles hard. The same honor waits for the coward and the brave. They both go down to Death, the fighter who shirks, the one who works to exhaustion’” (Homer 262). This is dangerous for christians to read and think about. This could easily persuade christians not to go out and spread the word. In Romans, Paul explains that just because we are forgiven doesn’t mean we should sin as much as we want. Similarly, just because we are already saved doesn’t give us the excuse not to go out and spread the word. Moreover, even though there is quite a bit of negative and harmful elements of this book, that doesn’t mean there is only negative and harmful aspects in it. Educated Christians must be able to sift out the bad stuff in this book and be able to find the

This artifact addresses standard nine because, it focuses on a professional development meeting I attended to learn more about how social, cultural, and historical factors influence my students, their families, and myself. This artifact helped me better understand who I am as an educator and what factors made me into the person I am today, such as my family. By participating in an activity where I was able to hear what factors influenced others I was able to better understand their world views and open my mind to other possible ways of thinking and learning. This is something that I will put into practice with my students because, to learn from others, of multiple identities, you need to truly know them. This professional development taught

Through colloquialisms, interpretations are often lost. Another anomaly is that words change definition over time, and depending on the culture, the same words may have a completely different meaning. For instance, prior to 1950, the word gay simply meant happy. Today, it refers to homosexuality. Sometimes words can even have different meaning among subcultures of the same society. In the American Caucasian culture, the word “punk” generally refers to someone who likes rock music and may have a colorful Mohawk. In African American culture, the word punk has shifted over time to mean a feminine male. Understanding the culture of the original authors of the Bible will give believers a deeper understanding of the Word.