In my previous post on Culture and the Bible, I brought up the story of Mary and Martha. A few people brought up that I was misappropriating the text, reading meaning into it (which is the very thing I am saying not to do). And I want to use that as a launching point to take this another level deeper.
This is important because getting the ears to hear these things takes time and patience. So I don’t mind the push back…I would have pushed back too! And that is, hopefully, an opportunity to learn more.
So here we go (this is going to take a moment so please take several minutes to digest this…I believe it will be worth it).
The story was from Luke 10 – Mary and Martha and how Mary is at the feet of Jesus with the men and Martha is busy preparing the meal and wants Jesus to tell Mary to come help her. Seems straight forward.
My main point in the previous post was that when you get to know more about their cultural norms, Mary had crossed a line that would bring shame and her and her family and Martha is trying to address it. In that day a woman wouldn’t be sitting with the men like that. A single woman couldn’t go out in public alone without a chaperone. A single woman wouldn’t be talking with me, much less not be back with Martha…and crossing these lines brought SHAME. And SHAME could be just about worse than death. It was an honor/shame culture (study up on that if you haven’t – will help you read the Bible better).
Ironically, I am hearing that I am reading our culture and culture wars back into the text. Maybe back in the recesses of my mind that has taken place but I don’t think so and here is why. It was my own Western American culture that had me hearing Martha wrong because I was unaware of these dynamics. Understanding their culture and how these events would be perceived and PUNISHED makes you hear it differently…more in tune with what is actually going on. Martha is actually trying to rescue Mary, alleviate the shame that she was doing the unimaginable and save face.
What is going on is subtle, because Martha also doesn’t want to shame Mary so she makes her request in a round about way.
Here is a parallel example,
Let’s say we’re in 1959 and a Black family is walking down the street. One of their young sons begins to drink out of the “White” water fountain.
The mother says to her son, “James, why are you not over here walking with me? I have something over here that you really need to be doing.”
The mother is being subtle to not shame the son, being sensitive that he really had done nothing wrong in her eyes…but that the norms were being violated and that could bring very real trouble and shame.
If you were an alien that landed here from Mars, and you heard that story, you would think that the problem was that the child and maybe children in general are supposed to be walking with their mothers. You wouldn’t have any idea of what’s going on culturally and the potential consequences of the actions.
I believe that is similar to what is happening in the story. We Americans are dropping in as if we’re from Mars. But if you know that culture then you would be in tune with the nuances of what is going on and you would see Martha is not being direct because she probably doesn’t want to shame Mary, but also wants to get Mary back in line with cultural expectations so that Mary also would not be shamed by what she’s doing. So Martha is being indirect about it and then we miss a big part of what’s going on in the story because we are simply believing what Martha is complaining about on face value.
It’s not like I had on my mind one day, let me go around the Bible and figure out how to accommodate everything to our current cultural norms.
In fact, it’s just the opposite. It is trying to understand the Bible through its own cultural norms.
So when you go back and read the story with that actual cultural data in mind, it reads a lot different.
I hope that helps you as you read the Bible.
One last post on Bible reading and culture coming up that I think will put a nice bow on it – Part 3: “That’s Just Cultural!”
