What Do We Bring to the Text?

What Do We Bring to the Text?

For the next few lessons we will be discussing the importance of context to biblical interpretation. One context that is often overlooked is the context of the reader—the world from which the reader approaches the text. We as readers of the Bible are not by nature neutral and objective. We bring a lot of preconceived notions and influences with us to the text when we read. Thus we need to discuss and evaluate these “pre-text” influences, lest they mislead us in our search for the meaning of the text.

Preunderstanding

One major influence that can skew our interpretive process and lead us away from the real meaning in the text is what we call preunderstanding. Preunderstanding refers to all of our preconceived notions and understandings that we bring to the text, which have been formulated, both consciously and subconsciously, before we actually study the text in detail.

Preunderstanding is formed by both good and bad influences, some accurate and some inaccurate. It includes all that you have heard in Sunday school, at church, in bible studies, and in your private reading of the Bible. However, preunderstandings of biblical texts are also formed by hymns and other Christian music, pop songs, jokes, art, and nonbiblical literature, both Christian and secular. Likewise, culture constantly creeps in.

Note that your preunderstanding of any given passage may indeed be correct. The problem, however, is that often it is not, and until you study the text seriously, you simply do not know whether it is accurate.

Another dangerous aspect of preunderstanding surfaces when we come to the text with a theological agenda already formulated. That is, we start into a text with a specific slant we are looking for, and we use the text merely to search for details that fit with our agenda.

A related danger is that of familiarity. If we are thoroughly familiar with a passage we tend to think we know all there is to know about it and are prone to skip over it without studying it carefully. Familiarity with a passage creates preunderstanding. As we revisit these familiar texts, we must resist the temptation of letting our familiarity dictate our conclusions before we even get started studying a text.

One of the most powerful, yet subtle, aspects of preunderstanding is that of culture. Our theology tells us to ask, What would Jesus do? Our culture, however, may subconsciously be telling us to ask, What would Stallone do? Undoubtedly, our culture has a tremendous influence on how we read and interpret the Bible. For example, even though we believe that Jesus is our Lord and Savior, when he tells us to turn the other cheek, a voice in the back of our head objects. After all, turning the other cheek is not really the American way. Thus, when we read of such a command from Jesus, we immediately try to interpret it in such a way that it does not conflict with cultural norms, especially those set by culture’s heroes, be they Sylvester Stallone or Mel Gibson. This culture driven predisposition we call cultural baggage. What exactly is meant by culture? Culture is a combination of family and national heritage.

Your family background is also a central element in your cultural world. You have inherited many, many values, ideas, and images (for good and for bad) from your family. Your family also provides you with your strongest frame of reference regarding relationships.

This lesson has merely delineated the problems we as readers bring to the text—the cultural baggage and preunderstandings that we must deal with as pre-text issues. The solution to the problem lies within the Interpretive Journey.