Multiple Biblical Perspectives

Reading Carolyn Custis James' Lost Women of the Bible:

• When healing a deaf man, Jesus used a simple form of sign language--the movement of his hands, facial expressiosn, a touch, or a sigh--to communicate what he was doign. That experience made me wonder what a young American soldier stationed in Iraq saw in the Psalms as he read prayers David wrote when he was on the battlefront. Conversations with people from Third World countries, whose cultures have more in common with the ancient world of the Bible, can open up the Scriptures in breathtaking ways to those of us with a Western point of view. Does the Bible read differently to a deaf person, a soldier, an African, a woman? Are there aspects of the Bible each observes because of their unique perspective that others miss? My father, a seasoned expositor of the Word and a major influence on my work, commented on a study I had done on a woman of the Bible by saying, "You see things I don't see." As we collaborate in our attempts to understand the Scripture, more of the fullness of God's Word comes out. This healthy and long-overdue interaction between men and women in the study of God's Word exposes the fact that even in well-worn passages of the Bible there is more to learn.