How culture conditions our view of Scripture

While Westerners tend to ask historical questions of Scripture, the Hmong people want to know of its power, and the Chinese of its pragmatism.

Jon L. Dybdahl, Ph.D., is the president of Walla Walla College, College Place, Washington.

The Bible students I have had have demonstrated to me that a person's religious and cultural conditioning affects the way he or she relates to Scripture. What they have taught me has broadened my approach to the Scriptures.

Case studies from a trio of religious cultures form the outline of this study. How each culture relates to the Old Testament story of Joseph is the subject of discussion.

Case 1—Western Students

First and most obvious are my Walla Walla College students, most coming from a conservative Christian back ground. I find my students are primarily concerned about the history of Joseph. What they want to hear are historical facts about Joseph's life. What were customs like then? Who was the Pharaoh when Joseph went down into Egypt? Who were the Midianites, and where did they come from? When did all this take place? Braver ones may ask, "Did this story really happen? Was Joseph a real person?"

For them the knowledge of this history performs two major functions. It explains the story by fleshing out details and giving background, and it helps demonstrate (or not demonstrate) the factuality of the story. This factuality forms a basis for their belief in the Bible as sacred text.

My students are conservative Bible believers, but they are not alone in asking historical questions. AH types of Christians and non-Christians in North America ask the same kind of questions. Some Americans do not accept any of the Bible as historical and deny it as sacred text, and some accept it all in minute detail as historical. And there are all kinds of shades and variations be tween these two extremes. But all ask the same type of question—the historical one.

Even academically trained Western Bible scholars ponder the same question. They differ only in asking it in more depth and with greater persistence. They not only query about the story itself but go on to investigate the history of the text that tells the story. And they ask about the factors giving rise to both text and story.

My Western students seek to apply the story in terms of personal ethics. Mention Joseph, and the first thing they think of is his encounter with Potiphar's wife. To them, the Joseph story teaches chastity and other moral principles.

As a college Bible teacher, then, they expect me to move, in a certain, almost prescribed way, beyond the simple tale they have heard many times since child hood. They expect me to give new and more extensive facts regarding the historical background and to show ways to apply the story to personal morality.

Case 2—The Hmong

Originating in China, the Hmong are for the most part illiterate, animistic, spirit worshipers. Their homeland stretches across mountainous areas in southern China and into northern Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. They have a love-hate relationship with the spirits whom they serve. These spirits, bringers of both good and evil, must be dealt with carefully. In the story of the Bible they immediately recognize a conflict be tween the old and the new the one great God of the Bible versus the many spirits.

They cannot read or do library research or truth evaluation on the basis of history. The conflict between the spirit way and the Bible way must be resolved by other means. The most common method is a power encounter between the two. Can the God of the Bible really interpret dreams when spirit doctors can't? Can God heal when spirit doctors prove unable, and protect from spirit hexes and curses ? If the answer is yes, the Bible claims are true, and Joseph's story becomes authoritative. For these people, stories such as Joseph's interpretation of Pharaoh's dream are very meaningful.

Scripture, however, is heard, not read. How do you grow in understanding if you can't read books about what you are interested in? First, by listening carefully. These illiterates have phenomenal memories. (Never confuse illiteracy with low intelligence.) They memorize, re peat, and cherish Scripture.

They also very rapidly turn Scripture into song and drama. One understands it and learns new meanings as he or she sings and acts it out. I can still recall those Friday night Bible dramas. They didn't come out of the MV Kit. The muggy air, hordes of bugs, and hard benches were all forgotten as actors were caught up in the story. They were Joseph. Like him they were a despised minority in their land. They had suffered and been abused, but they now served the same God as Joseph. God had shown His reality in a power encounter, and thus Joseph's emancipation and final triumph were theirs. They were acting it out just now. It was real. The light on their faces showed it. In the encounter with the gods and powers of Egypt, Joseph's God won. So would they.

The Joseph story could, of course, be applied in an ethical sense as well. Personal ethics, however, were not their primary concern. They viewed the Joseph story as a saga of family ethics. Joseph was a man loyal to family and clan in spite of how they mistreated him. The Hmongs saw even the story of Potiphar's wife in that light. Family consultation on choice of mate and loyalty to household were undoubtedly in Joseph's mind. God blesses those who are loyal to family!

In short, for the Hmong, Scripture is tested by its power in life now. If true, it can be applied to present life experience and it can be proclaimed in word, song, and drama. The teacher is primarily a person of power. He knows the story and can read and tell it. He is also able to do battle with the demons and show Christ's victory.

Case 3—The Chinese

The Chinese of Singapore exist in two worlds at the same time a highly competitive modern society in which business and technology are the main fields of endeavor, and a traditional society in which Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian ideals and practices govern life. While the first society claims most of their time and effort, a majority still venerate their ancestors, make occasional temple visits, and are proud of their "Chineseness."

The majority of the students in the Bible classes I taught at Southeast Asia Union College were non-Christian or re cent converts. When I began teaching there, my objective was to show them the inspiration of the Bible. I talked about history, geography, and archeology things many North American Christians traditionally use to show the truth of Scripture.

These efforts proved fruitless. Stu dents were bored in a polite sort of way. I asked one of them the reason. He told me that the Chinese consider valuable any religious book revered as sacred for long ages. They accept the Analects of Confucianism, the Tao Te Ching of Taoism, and various Buddhist writings as sacred. They were happy to revere the Bible along with the others. They didn't see the value or relevance of what I was teaching in class. They didn't care about "proving" any scripture by history. What they needed to know about the Bible was why it was valuable, applicable, and authoritative.

Further dialogue revealed three major ways they tested the Bible. The first was system coherence. To take one doctrine or idea and prove it didn't convince them. They wanted to see whether the Bible made sense as a system of truth.

The second test concerned the Bible's pragmatism. They wanted to know whether what it taught benefited every day life. Traditionally, Chinese religions, and especially the Confucian tradition, have been concerned with this world. They have not dealt primarily with esoteric and dogmatic concerns, but with ethics, government, society, and family. The Bible message must relate to these latter issues, or it remains a respected but dead book.

In relating to the Joseph story, the Chinese student would be impressed with Joseph as a man who was successful in all areas of life. He rose to a high post in government, was rich, had successful relationships with both his own people and the Egyptians, and succeeded as a family man. He was a worthy ideal. They would ask, Does responding to the God of the Bible mean that similar things can happen in the lives of people today? If following the Bible does in fact produce people like Joseph, it has merit.

The third test is the teacher's life. Like the Indian faiths, Chinese religions have a long tradition of the guru. The one who tells the story cannot be separated from the message, so the Chinese scrutinize the teacher, as well as his message. If the teacher does not model the message, they reject both.

I can remember in particular a young Singaporean who visited often in our home. He was quiet, and the first few times he came, I struggled valiantly to keep conversation going in good Western tradition. There were often long silences. Sometimes frustration grew in me to the point that I wanted to jump up and scream. I eventually learned that he didn't expect me to talk all the time. He didn't even need me to sit down with him. I could go about my work and just let him be there.

One day I got up the nerve to inquire, in as gentle and subtle a way as possible, the purpose of his visits. Smiling, he said, "We Chinese do not accept people easily. We must see what they are truly like first. The only way I can do that is to come to your house and sit and observe for long periods of time."

I never had the courage to ask whether his research was just for his own benefit or whether he represented a group of people!

For the Chinese, then, the Bible is authoritative if it is a coherent system, if it is applicable to everyday life in many areas, and if the teacher embodies the message. The teacher is primarily a model—personifying the message in a practical way in life.

These case studies demonstrate the way people's religious and cultural conditioning affects how they perceive and approach Scripture. Our differing situations affect us in such basic ways that we often fail to realize our bent—or to deal with it in our approach to others.

North Americans in particular should examine other views with humility. We tend to see our way of coming to Scripture, and in particular our historical questions, as a superior approach. I question whether our approach has given us a better understanding of the Bible as scripture than have those of the Hmong and Chinese.

The simple fact that to us the Bible is basically a read document blinds us in many ways. We are victims of what Hans-Ruedi Weber calls the "Gutenberg captivity" of the Bible.1 And our analytical, left-brain approach to Scripture can lead us to other pitfalls.2

In short, my encounter with other religions has taught me to doubt the breadth and comprehensiveness of the methodology that both my culture and graduate education have steeped me in. These doubts are the midwife facilitating the birth of new ways to present the Eternal Word.

1. See his book Experiments With Bible Study (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1982), pp. 2-42.

2. See Walter Wink, Transforming Bible Study (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1980).


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Jon L. Dybdahl, Ph.D., is the president of Walla Walla College, College Place, Washington.

January 1988

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