Reading the Bible

One of my goals is to read what the Bible says and try to figure out what it means. While this sounds almost simplistic and obvious, in fact, a good bit of the time, I find it difficult. There are a couple of obvious reasons. The biggest one is it is written in a foreign language (Greek) in a foreign culture (Ancient Near East) in a foreign time (two thousand years ago). This does NOT make it inaccessible. (That is silly. It implies that people then are totally different from us.) However, it also does not mean that anyone can just read the Bible and "get" the plain meaning of Scripture. I know, the same Holy Spirit which inspired the writer also inspires the reader, but I also know that the vast differences of opinion about what a text says leads me to think that the Holy Spirit is inspiring, but not in a foolproof way.

It is helpful to read the Bible in the original language because one picks up on things which are not obvious in the English. For example, on Sunday we read about Salome and John the Baptist. Salome, the daughter of Herodias, as you recall, danced, delighted Herod (her uncle/step father) and demanded the head of John the Baptist on a platter.

Many of us know who Salome is, though we do not know that her name never appears in a Gospel. How then do we know it? The Jewish historian, Josephus, is our source. He writes around the same time as the Gospels and he gives us her name and a snippet of biography concerning her. Interestingly, Josephus does not mention the dancing episode, saying instead that Herod had John the Baptist executed because the popular preacher was a threat. So here we see that the Biblical text, sufficient for salvation, can also be helpfully supplemented by an outside source. In fact, at one time an educated Christian was expected to have read and studied Josephus' histories of the Jews.

A point I found interesting was the term used to describe Salome. The noun corasion is a diminutive of the Greek word for girl. So it appears to mean young girl. The KJV translates it as damsel. We are familiar with damsels because they were often in distress in our childhood reading. What exactly is a damsel? It is a young woman, but more focused, it is derived from the Latin (domincella) of a woman of nobility. When one looks up the Greek word (Blue Letter Bible is a great website for such study) one sees that Mark only uses it one other time. In fact, the previous usage is very close to the text we are considering today, just 14 verses. Is that an intentional connection to this story? (Both are about a little girl and death) There the word refers to a dead child whom Jesus raises. We are told that the little girl (corasion) is twelve years old. Does this mean Salome was around 12 as well? Here is where culture kicks in. If Salome was 12, our assumption is she would look like most middle schoolers today. With the earlier onset of puberty, it is not unthinkable that she would look like a young woman. However, in ancient Israel would this have been the case? We know that one hundred fifty years ago a young woman enterrred puberty much later. Some as late as 16-18. Nutrition appears to have a function. As the daughter of royalty one assumes she had access to plenty of calories, but is it the case that her diet would be sufficient to jump start puberty? Also, studies find that various chemicals in our environment (including hair care products!) may have added to the earlier rate of physcial maturation. It seems probable that Salome, at 12, was still a little girl, undeveloped and not yet developing. As such, the horror of the story is even worse. She may not have been the seductress of our movies, but rather a mere child. That changes my emotional reaction to the story.

In the footnote of the NIV it says "Heerod would have been greatly embarassed in front of his guests if he had denied her request." While this is true, it is only part of the story and does not make clear the culture. Herod lived in a shame culture. We do not. While embarassment can drive us to all manner of behaviors, we still do not understand the depth of what a shame culture is. We have read stories about Middle Easterners killing a daughter who secretly dated a boy. We are repulsed by such an act. We do not understand it, cannot understand it. When we hear it was done because the girl brought shame on the family, we are befuddled. It is because we do not think in that way. Shame and honor were drivers in Jesus day, just as they are in shame cultures in our own time. They saw the world through that prism. Can we ever understand it? Perhaps not, but to read the Bible without keeping it in mind is to miss out on a key element of the culture. It deepens our understanding. They operate (nad this includes Jesus) with a different set of values. The things we treasure (like independence and mobility) were not the goals of people then and there. [This is why democracy does not just happen around the world.]

Can you and I read the story and understand it? Yes, but always through the distorted lense of our personal agenda and our psycho-socio-economic situation. It is why we read in union with the whole church. It is why "what do you think?" is not the only question. We must also ask what does the church think, with an array of voices from across the globe and across time providing the answers. We can read about John, Herod and Salome. We can understand power, abuse and sin. But we must always be humble and very careful that we recognize there is more to the story than what we get.