Today in my Sunday school class we discussed the difficulties historians have if they try to fit together the information from Matthew and Luke about the birth and infancy of Jesus. The dates, place of origin and geographical movements seem difficult if not impossible to reconcile. In the process, we talked about our cultural assumptions about “history” and how these differ from ancient authors in general and historians in particular. We also discussed other issues of cultural background, such as reliance on hospitality when travelling and where one assumes a manger is to be found.
But the best illustration of how we read, hear and understand the Bible through our cultural lenses comes from my wife’s class, for children in grades 1-2. She told them today the story of Mary pouring expensive perfume on Jesus, as her “gift” to him. When, towards the end of the class, she asked them what “gift” Mary had given to Jesus, one of the children answered “A bottle of cologne”.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In