1	Cultural Exegesis Results of Socio-Scientific Studies in the service of interpretation
2	1. World View Questions How does the world view of the biblical text differ from the modern western world view with its scientific understanding of reality? What are the sources of matter and energy, how is cause and effect understood? What is the understanding of spirits and spiritual realities as causal agents?
3	1. World View Questions Our scientific and mechanistic culture views the world in terms of matter and energy, cause and effect. The biblical world viewed reality in terms of spirits or spiritual powers as agents of causality.
4	Genesis 1:6-7 ⁶And God said, “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” ⁷So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. How would you draw the world envisioned in these verses?
5	1 Thessalonians 4:17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever. Where is the air? What view of reality is at work in this text?
6	2. Value and Meaning Questions How is value and meaning established in the biblical world compared to our world? How do power and money influence meaning and status in the biblical text? What is the role of status, honor and shame in the actions or words of the text? What are the purity and order concerns of the biblical text?
7	2. Value and Meaning Questions We tend to create value and thus meaning from power. The biblical world tended to confer meaning on the basis of status. Honor and shame played a major role in establishing and controlling status. Purity, order, and appropriateness were more highly valued in the biblical world than they are today.
8	Relational Bases for Meaning If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: ⁵circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; ⁶as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
9	3. Sociological and Psychological Questions Does the text approach people primarily as members of the group or as individuals? How does the sense of corporate reality shape the text compared to our individual perceptions of reality? How does the text view the individual as a psychosomatic unity rather than a collection of parts?
10	3. Sociological and Psychological Questions Psychologically, a person was a psycho-somatic unity. Sociologically, the group was the unit of social reality rather than the individual.
11	Identity Derived from Relationship Place - Simon of Cyrene (Mark 15:21); Paul of Tarsus (Acts 22:3) Nation - Naaman the Syrian (Luke 4:27); The woman of Samaria (John 4:9) Clan - Mary from the house of David (Luke 1:27); Paul from the tribe of Benjamin (Phil. 3:5) Family - Simon, son of Jonah (Matt 16:17)
12	Group/Individual Boundary is More Fluid Achan - Joshua 7:16-25 - Punishment of Achan’s family Says the Lord. Yet I have loved Jacob ³but I have hated Esau - Malachi 1:2-3 Behold my servant - Isaiah 42:1ff Adam and Christ - Romans 5:12-21 The Church as the body of Christ
13	The Individual as a Psychosomatic Unity Rom. 12:1 - I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. Deut. 6:5 - You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.
14	4. Political Questions What were the political assumptions evident in the text? What was the “ideal” political situation envisioned in the text? In what ways does the distance between the “ideal” and the “realities” of politics influence the text?
15	4. Political Questions How does the difference in political realities affect the meaning of a text? Romans 13; 1 Peter 2 - on being subject to those in authority 2 Samuel 12 - Nathan the court prophet
16	5. Economic Questions What economic conditions and structures were assumed by the text? What “ideal” economic order was envisioned by the text? How is the text responding to the distance between the “ideal” and the “real” economic circumstances of the audience?
17	5. Economic Questions How did the economy cause biblical people to think differently than us? Examples: Our daily bread - role of bread in the diet Barter system vs. Money system Housing arrangements - Palestine/Greco-Roman Borrowing of money and debt
18	6. Educational Questions What literacy and writing skills should be presumed? What knowledge of Scripture would have been available in the community that produced the text? What other literary, historical, and scientific knowledge was available to the community that produced the text?
19	7. Religious Questions What understanding of God and gods is at work in the text? Is the text’s view of God at variance with the community(-ies) to whom it is aimed? What formative devotional/spiritual activities would be part of the audience’s life?
20	7. Religious Questions What was the religious culture that the biblical author and audience either accepted or struggled against? Examples: OT – Polytheism, Baalism NT - Mixture of political and religious allegiances
21	God as Victorious Warrior 1 Samuel 4-6 Habakkuk 3:3-15 The Babylonian Captivity
22	1 Corinthians 8:5-6 Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as in fact there are many gods and many lords— ⁶yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
23	8. Customs of Life Questions What are the customs surrounding marriage, births, and death that were operative in the culture revealed in the text? What expectations of marriage and family life prevailed in the historical context of the text? What patterns of work and leisure influenced the text?
24	Marriage Customs Matthew 1:18b-19 - When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss (divorce) her quietly.
25	Marriage Customs - Ruth 4:9-10 Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, “Today you are witnesses that I have acquired from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and Mahlon. ¹⁰I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, the wife of Mahlon, to be my wife, to maintain the dead man’s name on his inheritance, in order that the name of the dead may not be cut off from his kindred and from the gate of his native place; today you are witnesses.”
26	Burial Customs Luke 9:59 -60 - To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” ⁶⁰But Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” The man’s father is not dead yet.
27	Attention! Not all these questions will elicit useful answers from every text. A text may well need information in two or three of the main areas of cultural exegesis. Few will exceed that many; some may be less. Many new resources are becoming available that provide insight into sociological, cultural, and related areas.