Principle 15
HERMENEUTICS
PRINCIPLE 15
Distinguish Between the Cultural and the Cross-Cultural
This principle logically follows Principle 14, our previous principle. Once we’ve determined the teaching intent of the author, a section of Scripture falls into one of these two categories:
Cultural - written only for people in Bible times.
Cross-cultural - written for all readers in any timeframe, including modern-day believers.
When determining the category into which a section of Scripture falls, keep the following rule of thumb in mind:
If the teaching is evaluated or explained in the passage itself (or elsewhere in Scripture), then the cultural / cross-cultural question should be relatively easy to determine. If the teaching is not explained, then we should assume that the teaching is cross-cultural and applies to believers in any present-day culture.
Let’s look at some examples.
John 13:14
“And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet.”
This section of John 13 is clearly a teaching passage, and the Lord’s teaching intent is obvious: we ought to wash one anothers’ feet. Now we ask, is this teaching cultural or cross-cultural? Is foot-washing a practice that believers should follow today? Should we literally scrub one another’s feet? Or was this teaching only for believers in the 1st century?
Let’s begin with our rule of thumb: is the teaching in this section of Scripture explained here? Yes, the Lord explained what He was doing right in this passage.
Now let’s contemplate other Scriptures and hermeneutical principles that involve foot washing. Back in Principle 9, we discussed the Lord using foot-washing in a figurative way to picture the continual cleansing from sin in a believer’s life. And in 1 Timothy 5:10 we read of widows who washed the saints’ feet as a picture of service.
So the practice of literally washing feet seems to be limited to the culture of that day. However, from these two passages, we can logically draw the cross-cultural principle of humbly serving one another. By helping, encouraging, and sharing the Word of God with them, we can “wash the feet” of other believers.
Genesis 35:2-4 and 1 Timothy 2:9-10
“So Jacob told everyone in his household, “Get rid of all your pagan idols, purify yourselves, and put on clean clothing. We are now going to Bethel, where I will build an altar to the God who answered my prayers when I was in distress. He has been with me wherever I have gone. So they gave Jacob all their pagan idols and earrings, and he buried them under the great tree near Shechem.” (Genesis 35:2-4)
“And I want women to be modest in their appearance. They should wear decent and appropriate clothing and not draw attention to themselves by the way they fix their hair or by wearing gold or pearls or expensive clothes. For women who claim to be devoted to God should make themselves attractive by the good things they do.” (1 Timothy 2:9-10)
What’s the difference between these two passages regarding jewelry? Remember our last principle: Determine the Teaching Intention of the Author. Genesis 35 is a biblical narrative. It’s an account of the revival of Jacob’s household when he came back to Bethel. In those days, earrings were linked with pagan religions. Since this is not the case today, we don’t take this passage as a command that Christians should not wear earrings or jewelry.
First Timothy 2, on the other hand, is not a narrative. It is clearly a teaching passage. Was Paul’s teaching here cultural, only for that day, or is it transcultural, and therefore applies to us today as well? Remember our rule of thumb: is this teaching evaluated or explained in Scripture? In 1 Timothy 2:9-10, the teaching is evaluated right in the passage and indicates that Paul was instructing Christian women not to draw attention to themselves with expensive clothing and jewelry or elaborate hairstyles.
The cross-cultural teaching is that women should dress modestly and should be characterized by good works, not by fancy clothing and costly jewelry. We find the same teaching in 1 Peter 3:3-4. This is what the Bible teaches, and it applies today in the same way it did when it was written.
1 Timothy 2:12
“I do not let women teach men or have authority over them. Let them listen quietly.”
Is the teaching in 1 Timothy 2:12 cultural, and applies only to women in Ephesus in the 1st century? Or is it cross-cultural and applicable to Christian women today? We see that this verse is evaluated right in the passage, and a transcultural argument is used. The next verses show that Paul’s argument for this teaching comes from the Garden of Eden, before culture even began. The use of a cross-cultural argument indicates that this teaching applies today: women should not take the role of authoritative teacher in church, or exercise spiritual authority over men.
Notice, however, what this passage is not teaching. It is not teaching that that women don’t have the gift of teaching, or that women shouldn’t teach at all, or that they’re more naive than men. The passage is teaching is that women should not occupy the official roles of preacher or spiritual leader in the church - then and today.