Traveling to the third world made me a better Bible interpreter.
We sat in plastic chairs around a circle. It was July so the temperature in northern India was sweltering. We decided that it might be a little cooler to have our Bible study under a large tree to take advantage of the shade and the breeze as the power was out in the village, so the fans weren’t working anyway. I looked around at the dozen or so faces who had come for the evening Bible study. All had finished their work for the day and were hungry to get back into studying the Bible. I had been doing an evening Bible study with the same group of people in the village for about a month and God met us all each day.
On this particular day we turned to Luke chapter 10 and started reading the story of the Good Samaritan. We talked about the response from the priest, the Levite, and the Samaritan. As we talked about the story, I could see many of them shifting in their seats when they read how Jesus extolled the behavior of the Samaritan who took care of the beaten naked man on the side of the road.
“Here’s the thing” they said in response to the story, “if you were to do this in India, in this village, and the man had died then the family of the man would come after you. They could say your actions had actually caused his death and now you are responsible. Surely something should be done for the man, but we ourselves are poor people with our own families, what should we do?”
“What should we do?” I remember thinking in that moment that I had never considered some of the potential repercussions for someone acting like the good Samaritan. As a Westerner, I had considered the Samaritan’s lost cost and time. The Samaritan put the man on his own animal and paid for his medical treatment, but I hadn’t considered that he might have jeopardized his own safety. In the States we even have laws named after the Samaritan which protect people who offer aid to those in emergency situations, but these laws weren’t applicable in this village in India.
I have encountered many responses like this from people in the developing world. People who respond to situations and stories in the Bible in ways that, at first, seem very foreign to me. But which response is really foreign when we consider the life situation of the biblical audience? Are the responses from the villagers in India or my response as a white male from the US more foreign to how Jesus’ audience would have responded? It wasn’t until I started to travel to places which are more similar to the biblical audience that I started asking better questions when I read the Bible.
Really, part of being a better Bible interpreter is knowing what questions to ask. Everyone is looking for answers when they read the Bible but maybe they are asking the wrong questions and don’t even know it. It wasn’t until I started traveling to the developing world that I formed better questions as a Bible interpreter. When I read the Bible, I carry in my heart my friends from that Bible study in India who studied under a large tree to escape the heat. I ask how they would see the text and what questions they might have. That process expanded my understanding of God’s Word, my heart for the nations, and my love for God who wants to make himself known in every corner of the earth.
Jeffrey Sherrod (second from left), The Institute’s Academic Dean, carries out regular mission work in India with Global Outreach Developments, International.
