Bible 101- A Different Age

Kezazah!!!!

There was an amazing study done a while back using the "Prodigal Son" story. They had about 10 American citizens read the prodigal son, close their Bible and retell it. None of them remembered the FAMINE that happened while the wayward son was gone from home. Pretty big detail, but nobody retold it or likely really noticed it.

Neither did I.

So they repeated this experiment with 100 Americans, only 6 mentioned the famine. So then they tried this exact same experiment with people from St. Petersburg, a place that went through a famine a few years back. Almost EVERY person mentioned the famine as a significant detail, and were more likely to see the "prodigal" (wasteful) son as a "lost" son instead.

What this tells us is that our perception of scripture heavily relies on the culture around us. We see Jesus' time through our Western eyes, while our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world understand the Word very differently.

Something we have to be careful of is realizing that the culture of Jesus' time was very much different from our own. The Jewish people had ideas, beliefs and lives very different from our own. A nice house wasn't as important, because you wouldn't spend too much time there, and the rooftop was where you might host guests. The Jewish people were divided into all sorts of religious sects in Jesus' time, because in their time in exile (after they lost their nation for the last time), many Jews converted to the paganism of the countries they lived in and many fell for "mystic cults", and everyone was fighting over which books of the Old Testament were and weren't legit. ( I am getting my information from this awesome book called Manners And Customs of the Bible).

If someone was blind their peers might assume that that person or their parents committed a horrible sin to deserve it! After a tragedy they would rip their clothes as a sign! There's all sorts of weird things we don't get because we don't go the extra distance. We would gain so much from the Bible if we learned about the culture behind it, the facts and ideas the ancient Jews and Gentiles took for granted!

If we are to fully understand certain portions of the Bible, we have to learn about the times. Why on earth did the Israelites love this pagan Baal religion that God hated so much?

Well, the Canaan fertility cult (as it was called) promised success, pleasure and an easy way to solve your problems. Have sex with the religious prostitutes, and the gods would have sex and it would rain (don't.. just don't ask). Do this, the gods would rain blessings on you. You don't have to obey the law as a Baal-worshiper. You can live however you want to live as a Baal-worshiper. Compromise some of your values, and you can have all the beautiful women, all the riches and successful harvests (supposedly), all the freedom to do whatever you want.

Turns out there's a good bit of Baal-worship in our own churches. Except nowadays it's called humanism, but it offers the same lies and produces the same effect.

Ouch. That might make a WM someday.

To show you the incredible effect of studying and learning the culture around the Bible, let me tell you the story of the Prodigal son as the original listeners might have really understood.

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So.. the first thing we need to understand is this Jewish tradition called the Kezazah (meaning "The Cutting Off").

So if a Jewish man goes into the land of the Gentiles and screws up everything and embarrasses his family and blows all his inheritance or his family's property, when he tried to go back home oftentimes the Jewish people would stand at the top of the city gates, throw down a clay pot and let it shatter to the ground.

They would mock and jeer the man, telling him that he was broken off from his people, just as the pot they threw was broken. He would be rejected and banished from his people. If this event were to happen, the mother was sometimes seen to appeal to the people for mercy, but the father would never do such a thing. The Jewish culture was based heavily on "honor", and to dishonor one's family and people was asking for serious punishment.