Class #1

        UNDERSTANDING THE BIBLE
    THROUGH UNDERSTANDING THE
   CUSTOMS AND CULTURE OF BIBLE
                            TIMES

                       INTRODUCTION

                             By Don Larose
                             Copyright 2011
                                                                         All Rights Reserved

                                    Class No. 1

          When I come to the Bible I have several rules for understanding what I am reading. First, I believe that the Bible must be taken literally for what it says, unless the passage itself indicates it is to be taken figuratively. That is, the passage indicates it is a story used to illustrate a spiritual point (a parable) or such terms as "like" or "as" are used to illustrate unexplainable concepts. Example: In Matthew 28, after Jesus had risen from the grave, Matthew reports that "Mary Magadelene and the other Mary came to look at the grave" (Matthew 28:1 NASV). In trying to describe the indescribable angel they saw at the tomb, Matthew writes, "...his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow" (verse 3 NASV). The words "like" and "as" indicate that "lightning" and "white as snow" were the best that human language could conjure up to describe a creature that was outside of human comprehension.

          Second, I believe each passage of Scripture must be understood in context, not only with its surrounding verses, but by the entire body of Scripture both Old and New Testaments. Someone has said that the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed; the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed. The Old Testament is the foundation for everything in the New Testament. In the Gospels alone, there are over three hundred quotes from the Old Testament. Jesus taught from the Old Testament.

          Third, I believe we need to try, as much as is possible, to understand the Bible, as the people to whom it was written understood it - in their culture and customs.

          When I was a teenager I went to an Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship Missionary Conference at Winona Lake, Indiana. One of the speakers was an eloquent man, a Dr. Pike. He spent a great deal of time talking about culture as being one of the most difficult things for missionaries to learn, even more difficult than the language. He told the story of a young missionary family who was forced to leave a village in disgrace because they had spoken to their dog. In that culture, that was considered to be incest.

          As one who has traveled to several parts of the world, and studied the subject of Middle East Culture, it is difficult to understand that many of the world's peoples do not think as we do in the west. Not only do they not think the same; they do not even follow the same avenues of logic that we do.

          Let me give you an example. In the Middle East over the past sixty-some years, we have seen great turmoil. I don't like to use the word "Palestinian" because up until the late 1960's the Israelis were called Palestinians (a derogatory name), and the Arabs wanted nothing to do with it. But what a change a propoganda campaign can do! It created an entirely new ethnic group which had never before existed. Never-the-less, I will use that title because it describes something which goes all the way back to Old Testament times. If a Palestinian (or group of Palestinians) kills one or more Israelies, then the Israelies must retaliate. It is a cultural matter which goes back to before the time of Abraham, where the next of kin to the murdered person was responsible to kill a member of the killer's family. Failure to do so would be considered immoral. God decreed that there should be Cities of Refuge in Israel so a person who had killed another by accident could stay there and be out of the each of his persuer.
Our government could not understand why Israel had to respond to attacks from the other side. We tried to get them not to retaliate. But to a middle easterner that would have been immoral.

          Let's look at another example: the parable Jesus told about the Prodigal Son, found in Luke 15. There are two sons and a father. The younger son decides he doesn't want to be under the father's thumb any longer. He demands his inheritance, and takes off to find his fortune; to sew his wild oats, we might call it. Wait a minute! The father is not dead! How does he get his inheritance?

          Religious conservative Jews, even today, still follow a practice of regularly saving for each male child. They say Moses required it. That's one of the reasons there are so many college graduates and businessmen among Jewish families. When they graduate from high school, they have their college education already paid. If they decide to go into business, they go in virtually debt free. This prodigal takes the wealth that was supposed to be used to set him up in business and begin his home and family, and squanders it.

          Interestingly enough, even if the father had died, this son would never have received half the proceeds from the sale of the family farm. Jesus pointed out specifically that this was the younger son. When the father died, under the Middle East system, the farm would have gone to the older son and the younger son would have had to obey him. That surely would not go over in our Western Society today.

          Eventually, broken and broke, the younger son returns home. He begs his father to take him in as a hired servant. But the father restores him to his full position as son. He throws a big banquet for his wayward son. During the banquet, the older son comes in. And when he finds that a celebration is going on for his younger brother, he throws a "hissy-fit." Did you ever wonder why? Maybe you wondered where the older brother was when the younger returned. Well, if you understood the culture, you would realize that the older brother had to fill in for the younger brother while he was gone. The youngest son had to work as a shepherd to the family flock. It's still that way today in the rural areas. So instead of his position as the older brother, he had to go out and do what his younger brother should have been doing. He was bitter.

          Where was David when Samuel went to the House of Jesse to anoint a new king? All of his brothers were there. Samuel stood before each, and God said, "This is not the one." Finally he asked Jesse if he didn't have any more sons. "Yes," Jesse replied, "David, the youngest, is out in the fields watching the flocks."

          I've heard many messages on the Prodigal Son over the years. Some have been humerous because they were based on a Western cultural application to a Middle Eastern story. That's not to say that the speaker was not making some valid points. However, those points could not be made from this particular parable as Jesus told it, and His listeners understood it.

          During this study we will look at numbers of your favorite Bible stories and incidents, as well as some more obscure passages of Scripture. You will see many of them really come to life, as you understand them in the light of the culture in which they were spoken or happened. Little things that you never saw before will suddenly have a whole new light shed on their meaning.

          Have you ever heard Jesus' Parable of the Lost Coin? It is found just before the Parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15. I have heard many wonderful messages on this parable. But most of them were based on a Western understanding rather than a Middle Eastern understanding. Remember, when Jesus told this parable, He was speaking to people with a Middle Eastern culture and a Middle Eastern mindset. So we need to understand it in those terms.

          The woman had ten coins and lost one. I have heard some preachers spend a great deal of time making a point as to how poor this woman must have been to spend so much time and so much effort to find this one lost coin. They did not understand that this coin had nothing to do with her family's wealth. In addition, if she were so poor, how could she afford such an extravagant celebration?

          This coin was a part of the wealth given to the woman by her parents when she was married to her husband. It was woven into her headdress. Divorces were easy. If a man became disenchanted with his wife, he simply had to do look at her and repeat the word, "divorce," three times, and she was out on the street. She had no rights. She could take nothing with her. All she would have would be the clothes on her back. Into her headdress was woven her personal wealth consisting of coins, gems and other items of value given to her by her family when she left home. In the event she was divorced, she would have something of value to get along on - to tide her over. This coin not only had material value; it had great sentimental value. As a matter of fact, it had much more sentimental value to a Middle Eastern woman than you and I, with our Western philosophy, can even begin to imagine. This is why she calls in her friends and has a big celebration when she finds the lost coin.

          What is the point of this story? "Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth" (Luke 15:10). Jesus said the joy of finding that lost coin was like the joy in Heaven when a sinner repents. How would the joy over finding an ordinary lost coin be like the joy in Heaven when a sinner repents? Do you see the difference when the coin is of great material and sentimental value - a virtual heirloom? Understanding the culture, the customs and the thinking patterns makes all the difference in understanding the Bible.

THE STORYLINE OF THE BIBLE

          We don't often think of it, but God had many more followers than ever appear in the pages of the Bible. The Bible is merely the tracing of God's program for the ages. God starts with Adam and follows the line through Noah. Then, from among those in the world He singles out Abraham, makes a nation of him, and brings the Messiah into the world. The remaining prophecies in the Bible have to do with the end times. But there were many, many more people in the world at any given point who followed and worshiped the True and Living God than just those that fall within the storyline of the Bible.

         Let's look at some examples in the New Testament. After Jesus went back to Heaven and the Holy Spirit fell on the believers, the storyline of the Bible follows the life of the missionary Paul. The Apostle Thomas went to India with the Gospel. Churches he founded were discovered when British missionaries first went to India in the 1700's. John became the pastor at Ephesus in Asia Minor.

          Do you remember Barnabas? Barnabas was the one Paul took as his associate on the first missionary journey. He also took a young man by the name of John Mark. John Mark couldn't take it, and turned back. When it was time to leave on the second missionary trip, Barnabas wanted to take John Mark along again. But Paul said, "No!" So they split up. Paul took Silas with him. Barnabas took John Mark with him on a missionary trip in another direction. We don't know anything about either one from that point on except that Paul refers to Barnabas in I Corinthians as one who is faithfully ministering. Late in life he requests John Mark come to help him in his ministry. John Mark, we believe from secular church history, traveled with Peter, and may have written Peter's account of the life of the Lord Jesus (acting as Peter's scribe). We call it "The Gospel of Mark."

          Philip was conducting very successful evangelistic services in Samaria. God sent him down into the desert where he met the Ethopian treasurer. He led this inquier to the Lord, baptized him, and went his way. We never hear any more about the Ethiopian. But today there is a Christian Church known as the Coptic Church, which traces its beginnings back to that man. The former emperor of Ethiopia, Haili Salassi, before he was assassinated by the Communists, was the head of the Coptic Church, and referred to himself as "the Lion of Judah."

          While the storyline of the New Testament follows the life and journeys of the Apostle Paul, there were many others of God's people out there who we never here of, or only hear of in passing as they affect the storyline of the Bible.

          The same is true of the Old Testament. For instance, the Bible refers to a priest and king of Salem named Melchizedek. We only read about him as he happens to glance into and out of the life of Abraham. In Genesis 14 he is called "the priest of the Most High God." He is referred to again in the Psalms and in the New Testament, but we know nothing of his life other than the few verses in Genesis where he had contact with Abraham. By the way, Melchizedek was not his name. It was a kingly title. Jewish tradition says he was the grandson of Noah through his son Shem, the only one of Noah's children to follow the Lord.

         Then there is Jethro, the Priest of Midian. He touches the life of Moses and the Children of Israel. He became Moses' father-in-law. But when Israel left Egypt, God used Jethro to instruct Moses on how to set up the judicial system in Israel.

          Just before Israel went into the Promised Land we run into a prophet named Balaam. Many people believe he was a false prophet. But if you read the story of Balaam in Numbers 22, you will see that he speaks to God and God speaks to him; and God tells him what to say. Balaam was not always wanting to do what God wanted him to do, especially when they started flashing all of that wealth before him. But he did have a relationship with the True God; and knew the True God.

          God sent the Prophet Jonah to Nineveh, a major capitol in an adjoining country. Jonah hated the Ninevites and wanted nothing to do with preaching to them. He ran away from God's call and we all know the story of "Jonah and the Whale." Of course, the Bible doesn't call it a "whale." It is called a "big fish." God's message is "repent or be destroyed." Excavations at the site of ancient Nineveh have indicated that the city was perhaps a much as 50% homosexual, and racked by other types of sexual sins as well. Archeologists have learned that the people there were living lavishly, and had lost all concept of morality. But when Jonah preached, the city repented. These were people not from Israel, but from an adjoining cuntry. They were people who turned to, trusted and worshiped the God of Israel, but were never a part of the storyline of the Bible. A hundred years later, they had lapsed into sin once again, and God sent the Prophet Nahum to call them to repentance. This time they did not repent and God destroyed the city. It appears that fire and brimsone rained down on the city. However, there is no evidence of a volcano anywhere within 500 miles of the city.

          The storyline of the Bible starts with Adam and Eve. Even though the earth was full of sin, there were still a few who followed the Lord. Enoch lived during the time of Noah. He was a righteous man. God told Noah to build a boat. Enoch walked with God, and "God took him" before the flood came. God started over, but two of Noah's three sons wandered from the Lord. So He took one man and said I will work through you; and promised to make Abraham a great nation. Through that nation came the Promised Messiah.

          One of the things this course will deal with is the "land." God promised Abraham a land. The promise of a land came as a part of the covenant that God made with Abraham, to be passed down through his son Isaac and his son Jacob. The Abrahamic Covenant was unconditional. That is, regardless of what Abraham and his descendants did, God's promise could never be revoked. It was a unilateral covenant.  God made other promises to Israel regarding their habitation in the land, which were conditional. That is, you serve and obey Me and I will bless you in the land. You forsake Me, and I will forsake you, and you will be defeated and even removed from the land temporarily. But the covenant God made with Abraham was a "forever" covenant, without any conditions. How big was that land? "So that day Jehovah made a covenant with Abram: 'I have given this land to your descendants from the Wadi-el-Arish (the Great River of Egypt), to the Euphrates River'" (Genesis 15:18). Think of that! That is a lot of territory! Incidentally, Israel has never, in all of its history, occupied all of that area. Can God lie? Of course not! What, then, does that mean? It means that there is a time coming when God will fulfill His promise and Israel will occupy all of that land.

          There is a theological school of thought prevalent today called "Pretorism." Basically it teaches that when the Jews rejected their Messiah, God rejected Israel; and all of the promises that had been made to Israel have now been passed on to the Church. That school of thought is extremely difficult to sustain from Scripture as we read it in our Western type of thinking. I think you will discover that it is impossible to sustain that system of theology as you discover how the people to whom the Bible was written understood what God was saying.

INTRODUCTION TO THE LAND

          It is time to become acquainted with the land from which most of the material in the Bible comes. Let's take an overview of the Bible lands.

          If you have Bible maps in your Bible, you might want to locate the Land of Edom to the southeast of the Dead Sea. You will remember that when the Children of Israel headed toward the Promised Land after 40 years in the wilderness, they asked permission to cross Edom. They were denied. Many of the people wanted to fight. But God would not allow it because the Edomites were cousins of the Israelites. The Israelites descended from Jacob. The Edomites descended from Jacob's twin brother Esau. The city hewn out of rocks (Petra) is in Edom. Many believe that this city will become a refuge for Jews in the Tribulation period (the Time of Jacob's Trouble) just before the return of Messiah. The area today is a part of the country of Jordan.

          Moving up the west side of the Dead Sea, we have three areas to look at that are very close together. First is Masada. It is located on the shores of the Dead Sea about midway between the north and south points of the Sea. The Masada does not play a direct role in the Scriptures, but it is closely related. Its almost perpendicular cliffs reach up 1,300 feet above the desert floor below, with over 100 acres on the top, then down more than 900 feet on the backside. During the time of Jesus, Herod had built a winter palace on top of the Masada, and stored three years worth of supplies there. While Jerusalem gets cold, and it even snows occasionally in the winter, Masada has a tropical climate. When Jerusalem fell to the Romans in 70 AD and was destroyed, some 300 Jews fled to the Masada and survived on the top for some years. It took the Romans three years; using Jewish slaves they had captured, to build a ramp up the back to get to the top. When they did, those on top all committed suicide.

          A few miles farther north is En-Gedi, the place David hid in the caves while fleeing from King Saul. There is a monstrous spring that flows an unbelievable amount of good fresh water even today in an extremely dry, desert area.

          Just a short distance farther north is Qumran (some signs in Israel spell it with a "K"), near the northern end of the Dead Sea. This is the place the Dead Sea Scrolls have been found. A group of religious people known as the Ascenes inhabited a small community here. They were Jews who were fed up with the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and Sadusees in Jerusalem. They hid away in a monastic type community, where their main objective was to copy and preserve the Scriptures. It is apparent that John the Baptist visited this community on a number of occasions, and that his beliefs and those of the Ascenes were likely pretty much the same. There is some evidence, although not in the Scriptures, that Jesus may also have visited this community on at least one occasion.

          All three of these locations are close together on the west side of the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is the lowest spot on earth. It is 1,300 feet below sea level. It has no outlet, so the water that comes in evaporates, leaving behind the mineral deposits it brought in. The water in the Dead Sea is 31% solid, eight times more dense than the water in the oceans. You cannot sink in it!

          Now, let's move west into the Hills of Judea, sometimes called the Wilderness of Judea. This area stretches from Bethlehem south to Beersheba. After the Children of Israel were delivered from Egypt and had crossed the Red Sea, they sent spies into the land to look it over. The story is found in Numbers where we read, "So they went up and explored the land... They went up though the Negev and came to Hebron... When they reached the Valley of Eshcol, they cut off a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between them, along with some pomegranates and figs... They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. They gave Moses this account: 'We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey!'" (Numbers 13:21-27). They refused to go into the land, however, because the spies also reported that there were giants in the land and that they could not take them. For their unbelief, God let them wander in the wilderness 40 years, until a new generation came along that was willing to believe God. Even today in the market place at Beersheba, you would not believe the beautiful and huge produce that is offered for sale.

          Next, we move north to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is holy to three major religions: the Jews, Christians and Moslems. In the 1990's the city celebrated 3,000 years since David changed its name to Jerusalem, the oldest still inhabited city in the world (although Damascus, Syria also claims that title). Before being renamed, it was called Salem. Abraham met a priest of God there named Melchizedek, and gave him his tithe - his 10%, which belonged to the Lord. It was also on the top of the mountain at Salem that Abraham took Isaac, his "son of promise," to offer him as a sacrifice to the Lord. At this same spot, Jacob saw the ladder ascending into Heaven; and it was here where Jesus shed His blood as the final sacrifice to bring salvation to a lost and dying world.

          Moving still farther north, you will notice the cities of Megiddo, Jezreel and Shunem. Stretching from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River across this portion of Israel is the great Valley of Megiddo and the Jezreel Valley. It is the breadbasket of Israel today. As many as three crops per year can be harvested. This is also sometimes called the Valley of Armageddon. You will recall that term from the Book of the Revelation. Migiddo was a northern fortress rebuilt by King Solomon to shore up his northern defenses.

          Going still farther north we come to Galilee. In the time of Jesus, Galilee was referred to in three parts. There was Lower Galilee. That would be the area around Nazareth and Cana of Galilee. Still farther north was Galilee of the Nations. It was called that because there was a very mixed population in that area, both Jews and Gentiles. It had always been that way. Isaiah referred to it in that manner way back in the Old Testament. Even today, Jews and Arabs live together in this area. Another name given this area was Upper Galilee. It stretched north into what today is southern Lebanon and Syria. In the north of this area is Mount Hermon. Today Israel, Lebanon and Syria come together on this mountain, which is snow covered much of the year. Israel has built a ski resort on the side of this mountain.

          The third area is the Sea of Galilee (known today as Lake Tiberius). In Jesus' day there were abut 200 small fishing villages around this lake. Many of them are mentioned in the Bible, because Jesus spent a good deal of His ministry around the Sea of Galilee teaching the people. Only on a few occasions did He venture southward to Jerusalem. Today much produce is grown in the Jordan valley and to the north of the Sea of Galilee. The lake is 300 feet below sea level, giving the area a Florida-like weather pattern. The soil is very rich, and some vegetable farmers brag about raising as many as five crops per year of certain items. The city of Tiberius, about 40 thousand population, is the only city on the lake today.

          Coming south along the Jordan River, you will see co-op farms, individual farms, banana plantations and more. By the time you reach Jericho, you are 800 feet below sea level. In the Old Testament Jericho is called "the City of Palms." It is still so today.

          The entire country covers an area only about the size of the state of New Jersey in the United States. The distance between Jericho and Jerusalem is only about 13 miles. There are numerous references in the New Testament to travel on the Roman Road that went from Jericho to Jerusalem. It was a steep, rugged climb, through some of the most forbidding country in the world. Jericho is 800 feet below sea level. Jerusalem is 2300 feet above sea level - a 3100 foot climb in 13 miles. It was along this road that Jesus' listeners would have pictured His story of "The Good Samaritan" taking place. No matter from which direction travelers were coming, they must go "up" to get to Jerusalem. Hence the term which appears frequently in both Old and New Testaments: "Up to Jerusalem."

          Jumping back to Jericho, and looking to the east, across the Jordan River, you will notice the territory of the Amonites; one of Israel's bitterest Old Testament enemies. Many of the names from the Bible still exist today. Ammon is the name of the capitol city of Jordan.

          One other note: If you look on the southwestern portion of your Bible map, along the Mediterranean Sea, you will notice the territory of Philistia. This area is prominent in the story of Samson in the Book of Judges. The Philistines were originally traders from the Greek Islands who settled along the coast. They were fierce fighters and caused the Israelites much grief during the time of the Judges through the time of David and Solomon. They are never heard of again in any writings, historical or Biblical, after the Babyloian Captivity.

          There are some, today, who try to tell us that the Philistines of the Old Testament are today's Palestinians. Not so! The name "Palestine" was not even invented in Bible times. The name was given to the area centuries after the time of Christ by a ruler who used the term as a slur against the Jews. It was the Jews who were called "Palestinians"; a name hated by the Arabs. But in the late 1960's and early '70's, a public relations campaign against Israel began to switch the name. It was an effort to show the legitimacy and claim to the land of the people we now know as Palestinians.

          Some few of the people we call "Palestinians" today are the descendants of the Samaritans of Jesus day (their capitol city is Samaria, inside the modern State of Israel, and they are citizens of Israel). They were Gentiles resettled in the northern ten tribes area after the northern ten tribes were carried captive to Assyria. They came from all over the then-known world. Most of today's Palestinians are Arabs who were paid to move from many Arab countries into Palestinan Refugee Camps. Even the first head of the Palestinian Authority, Yasir Arafat, was not a Palestinian. He was Egyptian born; trained as an engineer; and moved to the Palestinian refugee camps after Israel's war for independence where he supposedly became a refugee. This not the story you hear from the news media; but it is the truth.

          You may want to keep your Bible maps handy throughout this study as we will refer to them from time to time.
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                                                     By Understanding
                                        THE
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                            OF BIBLE TIMES

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