U.S. Theologian: Africans Understand Old Testament Better than Westerners
Christians in Africa understand the Old Testament better than their Western counterparts, said a well-respected evangelical scholar at a recent meeting on theology.
Dr. Philip Jenkins, a distinguished professor of religious studies and history at Pennsylvania State University, told fellow members of the Evangelical Theological Society that the culture of African Christians assists them in understanding stories in the Old Testament, according to the Associated Baptist Press.
Jenkins spoke Thursday at the Evangelical Theological Society's 59th annual meeting in San Diego under the theme "Teaching Them to Obey."
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Africans can understand ideas and concepts difficult for modern Westerners such as animal sacrifice, dietary restriction, polygamy, and sacred rocks, the professor said, according to ABP.
"Teaching people [in the developing world] to obey the Bible if it means the Old Testament is not difficult," Jenkins said. "In fact, for many of the new Christians in the world today the big problem is … telling people that the old law must be made subordinate, must be treated as inferior, to the new law."
However, African and some Asian tribes are also able to easily recognize and understand how the Old Testament religion should be practiced in light of the New Testament. They often understand how to apply the Old Testament in light of the New Testament better than Western Christians, Jenkins contended.
Atonement, for instance, is difficult for Western Christians who have never seen animal sacrifice to understand. But someone who understands sacrificial rituals as "a continuing reality" is better able to grasp the significance of the sacrifice and atonement of Jesus.
Also, Jesus' willingness to eat with low-caste people such as prostitutes and despised people like tax collectors is more striking in African and Asian culture than the West because with whom one eats is a marker of social class in these cultures.
"Look at so many of the passages that we are used to in the West and that we don't even read any more and which are the most explosive," Jenkins said. "Look at the passages which carry the most weight for women's groups reading the Bible in the global South.
"Think of the story of the woman with the issue of blood. Now imagine reading that story in a society that believes blood contamination [and] that believes in blood impurity," Jenkins said.
The religious studies expert concluded that Westerners should not tell growing African and Asian churches how to obey the Bible but teach them to read and "to think and absorb and make relevant" the Scripture for themselves.
"Teaching to obey is virtually impossible," Jenkins said. "Teaching people to obey for themselves is the way to go."
