Book Critique: Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes
Aaron T. Hamer
NBST610: Hermeneutics
September 2023
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Introduction
“Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes" by E. Randolph Richards and Brandon J.
O'Brien provokes readers to self-reflect and seek their own cultural biases when interpreting
Scripture. The thesis of this book review is that it is a thought-provoking text, although there are
gaps and unsupported statements and should be mandated in all courses that not only touch
biblical interpretation, but intercultural studies as well. Much of Scripture interpretation is
affected by an individual’s intercultural (or lack thereof) experiences and understanding. “The
things that go without being said are the most important part of culture.”1 This statement by the
authors is one of their strongest arguments in the book. Generalized unsupported statements that
Westerners no longer had use for God as the explanation for all things because of scientific
discoveries during The Enlightenment negate some of their argument.2
Summary
The point of this work is to get the reader to understand that there are cultural disparities
regarding the understanding and practicality of Biblical scripture in daily life. The theme of
“mores” is resident throughout the chapters. They underline the importance of Christians not
only knowing the Bible better but living more faithful Christian lives. The fact that our mores
can contradict our Christian values is a center point of the book’s theme.3 It is evident today that
God has taken a back seat in the lives of so many. The blindness of today’s Westerners
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1 E. Randolph Richards and Brandon J. O’Brien. Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes.
(Downers Grove, IL, InterVarsity Press, 2012,) 160.
2 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 170.
3 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 49.
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unmistaken sinfulness of these acts is demonstrated through the tyranny of cultural and time
distances.
Our cultural mores must “hold up to the penetrating light of Scripture.”4 The population
failing in this regard is arguably more than just the accused people in the book’s title, but that
will be addressed later. It is agreeable that we have enough of a difficult time detecting personal
ethnic stereotypes but detecting them in the Bible is even more problematic.5 Overall, people in
today’s modern society have little patience and a want it now attitude. This causes them to
“microwave verses” of the Bible.6 They want to quickly get to the finish. It is recognized in the
text that people try to make good things out of bad things. They may or may not consciously be
sinning when they assume that God is their “personal clean-up crew.”7
Without having read the conclusion before making this determination, it was obvious that
the authors took time to storyboard the book. There was a conscious effort to divide the book
into digestible parts for the reader. This was a good decision for several reasons as it allows for
compartmentalization of personal emotions at any point while reading.
Analysis
The authors wrote this book to challenge the audience to look through different lenses at
Scripture. The best description of their approach to this subject is that they execute through an
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4 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 50.
5 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 64.
6 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 201.
7 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 203.
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assumptions and cultural biases ingrained in Western culture that may inhibit the ability of
people to truly understand biblical writings.
Modern worldviews are examined in ways that highlight inaccurate misinterpretations of
said text. Approaching Scripture with cultural awareness is encouraged. Their own cultural
naivety is admitted in some of their tales, and they draw upon these to demonstrate how their
errors, as examples, can be avoided when they encounter cultural blind spots in their Bible
experiences. They want the reader to take time to journey through Scripture. Solid advice is that
is shared is to have an atlas with your Bible as this may help better conceptualize the laydown of
ancient regions.8 This prompts the reader to then secure an in-depth understanding of the
ideological perspective of the people in those ancient regions.
Richards and O’Brien take the reader on a journey through regional aspects, and it sets
the tone of the book. Examples such as the division of the Jewish people are key as Westerners
in modern times do not understand that dynamic. The threat to the early church because of the
division of the Hebrew people (even by something as simple as the rationing of food) is
exemplified as the apostles saw a danger in this that is difficult to translate in the modern era.9
They argue that Westerners have a concocted opinion of the importance that a city or region
played in ancient times and thereby emphasize things that could be minimalized. Christians tend
to be oblivious that Jesus was a Judean, and that Jerusalem was important in
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8 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 67.
9 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 62.
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Jesus’ time when in fact it was not.10
The writers superbly connect the distance of language as something that affects an
accurate understanding of Scripture (conjunctions, prepositions, grammar, and syntax), but
ironically the most important aspects of distance is not the words.11 Languages do not have words
for culturally inconsequential things. This makes sense, but the authors do not point to a
reference nor provide a footnote on this.12 However, Westerners do focus on words. “Theme
Verses” are found everywhere and on anything (mugs, shirts, décor).13 Vehicles become
“Bumper Bibles.” This is much the same for “Social Media Ministers.” Westerners doing so
have a distorted understanding of the true meaning. Disparity in translation can mean the
difference of a comforting passage to one culture and a terrifying one to another. Not only
because of the translation itself, but the context as well. For example, Christians understand that
we will die and leave here for Heaven (or Hell). Other cultures find that bizarre, even dreadful.14
An example supporting the case is that Westerners do not understand the difference between
honor/shame and right/wrong. Concepts like this are very difficult to put into words.15
Without the words (which Americans make up words for everything), it makes it very
difficult to draw a correlation from something in the Bible to something in their life today.
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10 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 65.
11 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 66.
12 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 119.
13 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 199.
14 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 92.
15 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 113.
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Language mechanics are an intricate challenge to overcome. It is harder when someone
does not understand the mechanics of their native tongue. This shortcoming makes it
cumbersome in understanding “what goes without saying” in any language.16 What is made clear
is that it is startling to Westerners that “language does not always say what is meant” as there are
not always word-for-word exchanges between languages – let alone that some words have
several meanings.17
Their narrative of the individualism of Westerners demonstrates not only the lack of
understanding of collectivism in other cultures, but how that affects viewing biblical societies.
Non-Western cultures value the collective over the individual to include what those communities
carry with them such as family, ancestors, and tribesmen/neighbors as a tight unit.18 Early in the
book, the comparisons of being married or being single and sex or celibacy bring to the forefront
the graphic disparities of what is culturally acceptable in modern society compared to ancient
times. Scripture portrays what is respectful and not in a more cryptic manner that requires study
and research. An example is Biblical edible is a much broader category than culturally edible.19
Where food is something that has little ideological meaning in society, in ancient times it had
deeper meanings in terms of social status, fellowship relationships.20
Being oblivious to ethnicity and culture causes misreading of others as well as the Bible.
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16 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 113.
17 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 76.
18 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 96.
19 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 45.
20 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 47.
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This is often referred to as ignorance, however it cannot be when the person is not aware.
Because of this “ignorance” in the West, there is a tendency to fill gaps with misinterpretations.
The example provided is of Moses’ wife being disliked by his family. It was not because of her
race or skin color. It was because she was a slave, and slaves were a “race” in Moses’ time.21
Without researching, or knowing to research, the cultural background of Mirium, the assumption
could be made that the issue with her was her skin color or where she originated.
The book states that racism is deeply entrenched in the United States, and this is a valid
reason of why Americans shy away from addressing race for any reason. “Americans are not
supposed to make such distinctions” when it comes to race. Why only Americans? Racism is
everywhere and is of all peoples.22 However, Westernized nations do avoid the topic of race.
This then, for example, makes it impossible for them to understand why Paul might have used
racially charged language as an attention gainer in a letter.23 It was not meant as an assault on
someone or in a derogatory manner. It was acceptable to get someone’s attention in that fashion.
The authors continue down this path of an assumed lack of sensitivity by Caucasian
readers and how it affects their ability to understand Scripture. “Minority readers will be
considerably more sensitive to these issues.” 24 It is plaily stated that Caucasian people are not
sensitive to race. This is a racist statement that torpedoes their argument; and the statement is
not ambiguous.
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21 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 59.
22 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 52.
23 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 58.
24 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 53.
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The jump from race to ethnicity is not more palatable for Caucasian readers. Richards
and O’Brien have already made Caucasian people out to be racist and culturally numb. The
“cost of skin color” is why it is more expensive to adopt a Caucasian child in many parts of the
country. The adjective “many” is utilized but does not provide any facts/figures to support this
claim. They speak of being colorblind, yet they call out, without reference, “white Western
males” specifically immediately after they state that labels such as Caucasian, black and Latino
flatten cultural distinctions.25
The identification by the authors of Westerners exhibiting a visionless sense of time is
absolute. The distance of time is one of the most difficult distances to overcome. It is not only
the “time jump” from ancient times to whatever age the reading occurs. Then the misperception
of what year it is when reading Old Testament Scripture as the BC/AD nomenclature did not
exist until after Jesus Christ died.26 It is also the lack of ability to grasp the concept of time that
the prophets (and the Lord) speak of in Scripture.
Biblical writers use metaphors to connect central truths of the Bible.27 The authors exhibit
a subject’s importance and its lack of emphasis in Western culture. Metaphors should be
embraced and understood as bringing together two whole things to see them from a different
perspective.28 Understanding the meaning of modesty in the Bible can be frustrating. Westerners
mistake sexual modesty as being more important than other modesty by projecting our mores
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25 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 55.
26 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 113.
27 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 87.
28 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 86.
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onto biblical culture; and therefore, not applying biblical lessons appropriately. We assert status
in our dress even in church. Church can become Christian country club.30 The examples given of
“Sunday Best” and arriving at church in costly cars may be humbling to readers.31 These have
become ways to cleverly bypass the days of old, when the more well off bought pews, but are
indeed still sinful. Paul’s metaphor addressing women’s attire (head covering to be specific) is
about overall modesty without sexual undertones.32
Familial distance is gleaned from the text. It is gelled with concepts of individualism and
collectivism that are often pushed aside. Jesus emphasized family and the church in his
teachings because the young of a church learn to operate as a family.33 The authors state, “It is
difficult to present values of a collectivist culture in a positive light to Westerners.”34 Not only is
the Modern Western culture notorious for its “all about me” attitude across the spectrum of
taking selfies (even in places that are sacrosanct) to relationships with Jesus as being “Me and
Jesus” to a lack of understanding that there is a loss of our individualism when we become
Christians.35 This issue of self-centeredness and narcissism is on display. Their examples of
“you” from Scripture and what it means vs. what people today take it as is on target. We believe
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30 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 43.
31 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 44.
32 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 45.
33 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 106.
34 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 99.
35 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 107.
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that “we” means “me” in text directed at “you” in the Bible.36
The distance of time and the discussion of Westerners’ view of end times was a sensible
decision in closing out the smooth flow of the book. The authors’ discussion of how people view
the end of times is enlightening. I do know a lot of people (and I include me in that statement)
that believe that they are living in the end times. And, apparently, this has gone on for hundreds
of years. The reference to the Essenes of the Dead Sea was enlightening.37 Some use Scripture as
“proof” of what they are seeing.38 “Of course the world couldn’t end before I got here…” Great
way of displaying what people consciously think, but do not say. Or they subconsciously think it
because of their vanity.39
The examples from Randy that he experienced in Indonesia are helpful to the discussion.
The problem with the authors’ angle on the topic is that some if it supported only by hearsay and
Randy’s experiences in small villages in one nation. The book’s title should be changed as the
comparison seems to be between ancient times written about in Scripture versus assumptions
about white Westerners (men in particular) versus Randy’s experience in Indonesia.
The text states that books on Jesus often focus on His life events rather than His
parables.40 They authors state it is because Westerners do not want extraneous information loaded
on top of facts. On the contrary, it is laziness of the reader and the lack of
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36 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 192.
37 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 206.
38 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 204.
39 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 207.
40 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 84.
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deeper thinking.
The Catholic Church is not mentioned in the piece of baptism shifting from occurring as
an infant to occurring as an adult.41 They say that baptism as a child is wrong and that at it is
forced. They negate what millions of Christians believe is right.
They state, “Scripture is clear that when we become Christians, we become –
permanently and spiritually – a part of the church.42 We become part of God’s family – but
which church? Individuals pick their churches based on many different reasons. And they leave
them for many of the same reasons that other people join them. The authors make it out that this
is incorrect to the point and condemn them as non-Christians. This is clear in their example of
Anne Rice.
The statement, “We do not know how to have a conversion without inner guilt.” is false.
The authors do not make a distinction between converting to Christianity from another religion
and converting between sects in Christianity. Could be my ignorance, but when my parents took
the family and left the Roman Catholic church, we were told that we were “converting” and
becoming Methodist.
Conclusion
This is a good work with respectable intentions. Both authors utilize personal anecdotes
and other experiences in their attempt to highlight the difficulties of Western cultures
approaching their understanding of the Bible. However, they use targeted generalized statements
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41 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 106.
42 Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture, 106.
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in regards to Caucasians – not Western Caucasians. The authors contradict themselves
throughout the text stating that people should not be characterized ethnicity by color, but they do
with “white” people – particularly men. A book with similar statements about black or brown
males would be detested and the author would be “cancelled” (using today’s jargon). In closing,
the book is strong in its accessibility in that there are complex ideas that are presented by
integrating the authors’ personal experiences, detailed illustrations, and reader-friendly practical
examples. They have provided a solid valuable resource for people that seek a deeper
understanding of the Bible, biblical scholars, and theologians.
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Bibliography
Richards, E. Randolph and O’Brien, Brandon J. Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes.
Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2012.
