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E. Randolph Richards, Brandon J. O'BrienInterVarsity Press / 2012 / Trade PaperbackOur Price$15.993.6 out of 5 stars for Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible. View reviews of this product. 8 Reviews
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juflmoAge: 55-65Gender: male5 Stars Out Of 5Misreading Scripture, hits the markNovember 9, 2013juflmoAge: 55-65Gender: maleQuality: 5Value: 5Am pleased that evangelical scholars are taking a serious look at the context of our readings, within historical/cultural definitions. The Lord Jesus provided a similar kind of redirect to the people of His day by looking past the pharisaic customs, designed to aid in spiritual compliance, and pointed them to the principals which they'd represented. This book is neither exhaustive, nor complete, but it provides a template, with good questions for the reader as he or she continues his/her reading of scripture. This a good place to start. I have this in a digital version also, and would love to see it completed text by text with historical and cultural background notes for the complete Bible, and linked to electronic Bible resources, so that they match/synchronize as we read. Yes, this is a beautiful beginning. It's time we Christians get off our pious laurels, and dig deeper for the principals behind this beautiful (and divinely inspired) historical collection of books, letters, and predictive revelations that we call the Bible. Careful reading does NOT undermine the authority of scripture. On the contrary, it validates it.
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TamaraUSAge: 45-54Gender: female5 Stars Out Of 5Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the BibleOctober 3, 2015TamaraUSAge: 45-54Gender: femaleQuality: 5Value: 5Meets Expectations: 5Excellent read! I did not agree with the authors 100% of the time. Sometimes I perceived their analysis to have gone too far and sometimes not far enough in identifying our cultural 21st century western biases. However, whether I agreed or disagreed, the book was thought provoking and well worth the time I spent reading it. My first introduction to how much our Western modern culture impacts the lens through which we read an ancient Middle Eastern text was over 20 years ago in the book "Light Through an Eastern Window" by K. C. Pillai. (Also a recommended read) This book inspired me to take a fresh look at my own cultural biases and how they impact my Bible interpretations.
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SunnieDazie5 Stars Out Of 5misreading scripture with western eyesMay 27, 2018SunnieDazieQuality: 0Value: 0Meets Expectations: 0valuable perspectives for improving understanding of context, vital to appreciation and appropriate application of life leasons taught in Scripture...throughly enjoyed it!
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mfmb5 Stars Out Of 5Interesting conceptsAugust 19, 2015mfmbQuality: 5Value: 4Meets Expectations: 5This book was recommended by a university professor and I found it to be insightful and thought provoking.
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Debbie from ChristFocusHarrison, ARAge: 35-44Gender: female4 Stars Out Of 5Made some good pointsNovember 29, 2012Debbie from ChristFocusHarrison, ARAge: 35-44Gender: femaleQuality: 4Value: 4Meets Expectations: 4"Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes" is a book about some cultural differences between the "East" and "West" and how this might help us to better understand the true social dynamics going on in the Bible.
They covered topics such as "bad" words, sexual taboos, how money is viewed, what things are eaten as food, ones view of people from different parts of the world or with different skin color, how Hebrew and Greek don't always easily translate into English, the use of idioms, a focus on efficiency versus focus on the human element, the individual making decisions based first on his own desires versus based on the advice of the extended family or village, honor and shame compared to right versus wrong, views of time, that rules should always apply versus rules are good guidelines but have exceptions, patron and client relationships, what a culture values as a virtue or calls a vice, and applying "Bible promises" outside of the original context.
The authors avoided going through the Bible to identify all the major instances of the idea they were talking about. Instead, they hoped the reader would understand the concept and be able to recognize and apply it as they found it in their Bible reading. I've heard many of these concepts in other books, but none of those books went very in-depth.
In this book, the authors did an awesome job of clarifying some concepts that I'd read about before. For example, they did a great job explaining the patron-client relationship. Occasionally, though, I wasn't sure that the authors' take on a verse was correct, but I also wasn't always sure that I fully understood the idea they were trying to apply. Or I could see how it applied in the examples that they gave, but I didn't feel like I could accurately identify or apply the concept while reading other passages in the Bible. I plan to re-read the book and see if that helps solidify some of these ideas.
Overall, I'm glad I read this book. It did bring out some good points about cultural blind spots. But I think I'd only recommend it to people who are fairly familiar with the whole Bible and have already done some study of the Bible-times cultures. The authors tended to refer to Bible events--from both Old and New Testaments--as if the reader was fully familiar with the story as told in the Bible, and it was also easier to understand the point the authors were making if you could think of some other examples that their point might apply to in the Bible.
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