biblical culture shock

If you read the Bible with any amount of frequency, I’m sure you’ve experienced this. You have come across a passage and asked, “Why did they do that?” or “What does that mean?”. Biblical culture shock happens when we read something in the Scriptures that has specific meaning to the culture in which it was written. For us today, reading about customs and practices that were common in biblical times can be shockingly confusing. Unless we try to understand those cultures, we will fail to understand the situation and misinterpret the meaning of the passage.

For example, it is confusing for us why food sacrificed to idols is a big deal in 1 Corinthians 8, unless we understand how young converts were saved from pagan religions where the food was offered to idols and then that meat could be purchased at a local market.

Or we would have a hard time understanding the significance of being thrown out of the synagogue in John 12:42, unless we understood the controlling centrality of the synagogue on Jewish life.

Biblical culture shock should happen all the time and should humble us into learning the ways of the new culture. If you have not been hit by the strangeness of the biblical culture, then you need to plug your brain in before your reading your Bible and then realize that you are in unfamiliar territory and ask God’s Spirit to help you navigate through it.