Notes and quotes
We can easily forget that Scripture is a foreign land and that reading the Bible is a crosscultural experience. location 74
(Randy) remember grading my first multiple-choice exam in Indonesia. I was surprised by how many students left answers unmarked. So I asked the first student when handing back exams, "Why didn't you select an answer on question number three?" The student looked up and said, "I didn't know the answer." "You should have at least guessed," I replied. He looked at me, appalled. "What if I accidentally guessed the correct answer? I would be implying that I knew the answer when I didn't. That would be lying!" location 179
My American pragmatism had been winning out over my Christian standard of honesty. What was worse was that I hadn't even noticed until a non-Western person pointed it out. What I have found equally interesting is that my Christian students in the United States today don't enjoy this story-because they still want to guess answers. location 182
Likely, however, Paul was admonishing the hostess of a house church to wear her marriage veil ("cover her head") because "church" was a public event and because respectable Roman women covered their heads in public.' These Corinthian women were treating church like their private dinner parties. location 401
The birth of Jesus was no solitary event, witnessed only by the doting parents in the quiet of a cattle fold. It was likely a noisy, bustling event attended by grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Our individualist location 1063
Paul regularly worked with coauthors and secretaries, if they actively contributed content and turns of phrase, then this might explain why Paul's letters have variations in style. They bear the marks of his partners. location 1084
in antiquity. Rome frowned upon claiming family ties without cause. Being family gave you obligations. Jesus and Paul's language about church as family was radical talk and not merely cultural convention. location 1123
If a person from a shame culture commits a "sin," he will not likely feel guilty about it if no one else knows, for it is the community (not the individual) that determines whether one has lost face. location 1245
In a shame culture, it is not the guilty conscience but the community that punishes the offender by shaming him. location 1248
Note: so what of pope francis reiterating the catholic teaching on consvience as salvific? Is conscience a western construct entirely? Or is it simply that it is something present in all people (except perhaps psychopaths?) but bolstered in cultures like the western cultures of the last couple of hundred years or so?
Today, we often skip over Paul's statement that his life was blameless according to the law before he met Christ (Phil 3:4-6). Paul shows no sign of a troubled conscience before or after his conversion. Yet we don't know how to have a conversion without inner guilt. location 1283
the Spirit uses both inner conviction (a sense of guilt) and external conviction (a sense of shame). While the ancient world and most of the non-Western world contain honor/shame cultures and the West is made up of innocence/guilt cultures, God can work effectively in both. location 1286
This sort of response is customary in an honor/ shame culture. The servant responded with a question because it would shame the king for a servant to know something that the king doesn't know. So he informs the king by posing a question, giving David the opportunity to answer, "That's correct." Everyone saves face. location 1309
Note: I am intrigued to nofe that I often think like this and tend to feel guilt as a kind of internalising of the judgenent of others real or imagined. Suffice to say, that from personal experience, I am chary of drawing to hard-and-fast a distinction between guilt and shame at the level of personal experience. I'm also interested to note that those of us who have been reaised with an acute awareness of politeness and deference tend to behave quite a lot in the ways that shame cultures are shown to do here.
When she sends word that she is pregnant, it is public news. Everyone knows. Everyone will also know that David sent for Uriah: location 1320
we may not know why he sent for Uriah, but everyone else would have. David is asking Uriah to let him off the hook. location 1322
He tells Uriah to go home and he sends Uriah payment ("a gift") to let David off the hook. We don't know the reason-perhaps Uriah loved his wife or perhaps the gift was too small-but Uriah won't play ball: location 1333
(or other mercenaries) died as a result of David's decision: "some of the men in David's army fell" location 1351
Only Uriah suffered, and David likely considered it Uriah's fault. Uriah had failed to play along. He had shamed David and David retaliated. Probably in David's mind, he had made Uriah a fair offer. location 1353
Westerners might assume that God's Spirit would eventually convict David's inner heart, like Poe's tell-tale heart. That's because Westerners are introspective. We respond to internal pressure. But David doesn't appear to be experiencing any inner pressure. location 1361
David says he sinned only against God. Well, it seems to us David sinned against Bathsheba, Uriah, Joab and certainly the Israelite soldiers who were killed just because they were nearby. location 1367
David confesses his sin as "from birth." We were thinking more like one moonlit night on a palace stroll. location 1369
David had transgressed God's laws, not his country's. Thus, when he says, "against you, you only, have I sinned," David is admitting that he is accountable not only to the expectations for a king but that he is also accountable to God. location 1371
Jesus' opponents understood this well. Public questions were never for information. If one wanted information, you asked privately, as we often see Jesus' disciples do location 1402
Nicodemus came at night because he didn't want his question misunderstood. He was looking for answers from Jesus, not honor. location 1404
public questions were contests. The winner was determined by the audience, who represented the community. If you silenced your opponent, you gained honor and they lost some. location 1404
Jesus' conflict with the Jewish leadership begins in the previous chapter: "Jesus entered the temple courts, and, while he was teaching, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him" (Mt 21:23). The questions are posed in the most important public place in all of Israel. There couldn't be any higher stakes in the honor game. location 1409
Our individualism feeds the false sense that sin is merely an inner wrong-the private business between me and God, to be worked out on judgment day. Paul thought otherwise. He considered sin yeast that influenced the whole batch of dough (1 Cor 5:6). location 1441
If an event or conversation is taking place publicly, there's a good chance that honor/shame is at stake, location 1472
in Indonesia church begins when people get there. I always thought, Wow, some people get here early and some late. They didn't think that way. Arriving just took time. location 1532
why the nativity story spans so much time. When Joseph went to Bethlehem to register, Mary gave birth to Jesus. They needed to wait a few weeks for Mary to recuperate before they traveled back, but it appears Joseph and Mary may have remained in Bethlehem for nearly two years. When the wise men arrived, they went to a house where the toddler Jesus and his parents were living (Mt 2:11). What had Mary and Joseph been doing all this time? Not vacationing. Joseph was probably following work opportunities. He intended to return to Nazareth but was staying while there was work to be found. This was the time (kairos) for work. He would leave when the time was passed. location 1578
the non-Western world, stories often circulate around the event until it coalesces; therefore, orderliness (but not the chronological sequence) is important. location 1619
We seem to assume that because the biblical stories are not in chronological order, they are in the wrong order. location 1625
the Gospel writers often composed their stories more like Indonesian storytellers than like Western historians. The chronological sequence is often unimportant. location 1630
the biblical authors were intentional about the sequence in which they presented events, even if they weren't preoccupied with historical, chronological order. location 1636
Mark tells the story of Jesus clearing the temple (Mk 11:15-19).8 He sandwiches it in the middle of the story of Jesus cursing the fig tree (Mk 11:12-14 and Mk 11:20-25). Mark's arrangement of the stories indicates that the fig tree story is to tell us how to understand Jesus' actions in the temple. Like the fig tree, the temple was full of activity but was bearing no fruit. location 1638
we may not be sure what to do with Paul having Timothy circumcised when he had just told others not to do it, location 1692
Westerners have a tendency to view all relationships in terms of rules or laws. The way we relate to the cosmos, to each other and to God is determined in large part by reference to natural and even spiritual "laws." location 1744
in the first-century world that Paul and Jesus inhabited, relationships were the underwater part. Rules were the part above the waterline. Rules didn't (and, in many places, still don't) describe the bulk of the matter; they merely described the visible outworking of an underlying relationship, which was the truly defining element. location 1753
Everyone knew what the proper behavior was. A good patron solved the problems of his or her clients: assisting with trade guilds, business disputes, refinancing loans and easing tensions with city elders. Ordinary folks like Marcus had neither the clout nor the social graces to negotiate such endeavors. The patron did "favors" for his clients who then fell under his circle of influence and protection. In return, the client was expected to be loyal (faithful) location 1784
the patron-client relationship may have been a major challenge for Paul. How could Paul accept gifts, for example, without becoming someone's client? location 1788
because of the massive influence a patron could exert. So he earned his own living instead location 1789
The Philippians would have expected Paul to mention their grace-gift (charis) in his letter. And he does. But he reinterprets the gift as an offering to God, not to himself location 1799
The undeserved gifts of assistance the patron offered were commonly called charis ("grace" and "gift").' The loyalty the client offered the patron in response was called pistis ("faith" and "faithfulness"). location 1809
When Paul sought to explain the Christian's new relationship with God, then, one of the ways he did so was in terms of the ancient system of patronage-something everyone understood. location 1811
Paul states, "I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet" (1 Tim 2:12). "But what about Priscilla and Junia?" we might ask Paul. "They taught in church. You said women must keep silent." Perhaps Paul would answer, "Yes. And most of them do." location 1859
Even after two thousand years, we are still uncomfortable with Paul's law-free gospel. location 1904
Some sins will certainly get a pastor fired, and others will certainly not. When was the last time a pastor was fired for gluttony? location 2000
Westerners don't like to talk about virtue as habit. That makes virtue seem contrived or inauthentic. We only value virtue when it is spontaneous. This prejudice makes it harder for us to notice language in the Bible about developing virtue.' location 2007
self-sufficiency, likely a vice by biblical standards, is considered a virtue in the West. location 2014
we add procrastination and plagiarism to our list of vices, even though there is nothing explicit about either of these in the Bible. location 2014
vice that, for Jesus and his audience, went without being said: the man didn't share. "I have no place to store my crops," he had said. Sure he did. People around him were hungry; he could have given the excess to his neighbors. Jesus wasn't complaining that the man had full barns. He was complaining that the man had more than he needed and was still unwilling to share. location 2076
moralistic therapeutic deism. One aspect of moralistic therapeutic deism is the assumption that the purpose of religious faith is "providing therapeutic benefits to its adherents." location 2160
The shift to individual, reader-centered interpretation was natural, post-Gutenberg. But we must never lose sight of the implications of that shift. location 2181
Unlike everyone else, they were set apart for a special word and a special task from the Lord. But in the way we read it, Jeremiah is "special," just like everyone else. location 2188
Jeremiah 29 runs something like this: even though Israel is in the condition of exile, God will prosper them by prospering those who enslave them (Jer 29:7). Someday he will deliver them from exile, but that will happen well in the future. Until then, Israel is to rest assured that God is at work for their deliverance, even when he does not appear to be. location 2233
We often hear, "Everything that happens is the will of God!" We respond, "Do you always do the will of God?" "No," someone will grudgingly admit. Correct. location 2255
every Christian martyr has believed Romans 8:28 to be true. And, in worldly terms, things did not work out well for them. location 2262
is a promise that through the inevitable harm and heartache that come with being human, God can train us up in godliness. location 2267
These apocalyptic texts would be irrelevant-would have no meaning for me-if the events they describe were not planned to occur in my lifetime. Perhaps the sensibility runs even deeper. Do we think, Of course, I would be on stage when the world ends. How could God do such a dramatic event without me? We don't say it so bluntly, but the subconscious reasoning often runs this way: location 2294
in Western theology all spiritual beings (outside of God) are reduced to one kind: angels. Thus demons, evil spirits, unclean spirits, cherubs and seraphs are all commonly presumed to be angels, just good or bad (fallen) ones. Very efficient! We ignore the fact that the Bible describes them quite differently: cherubs are ridden (Ps 18:10), seraphs have wings (Is 6:2), fallen angels are locked away (2 Pet 2:4) while evil spirits wander about (Lk 11:24). Instead, we interpret the terms evil spirits, demons and unclean spirits as mere synonyms, although we don't think a case can be made for this from Scripture. We suggest our Western value of efficiency-not exegesis-leads us to assume that seraphs are angels (and, thus, that angels have wings). location 2393
we need to commit ourselves to reading together. The worldwide church needs to learn to study Scripture together as a global community. location 2404
All of us read some parts faithfully and misread other parts. Because of our different worldviews, we often misread different parts. Amazon.co.uk: Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible
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