Dr. Nicholas Reid explores why studying the ancient Near East is valuable for biblical interpretation. Understanding Scripture’s historical and social context helps us read it more faithfully. With access to thousands of ancient texts, we can deepen our knowledge of the Bible and sharpen our discernment.
The following is a transcript of the video above.
Why should I study the Ancient Near East?
I’m frequently asked, “Why would you study the languages and cultures of the ancient Near East and seminary?” I specialize in Assyriology, which is the focus of the study of the languages and cultures surrounding the Old Testament. And a lot of people will ask, why on earth would you ever do that? And even students will sometimes wonder, why should I take that class as an elective? There are a variety of reasons why and a number of ways we can answer that question. I think first of all. We should study the languages and cultures of the ancient Near East because we can. We have this information; it’s available to us, and we have the opportunity and the time to spend a little bit of time learning about the world in which the Bible was written. Another reason we can do this is because it’s very, very interesting. It’s very, very interesting material. We have hundreds of thousands of texts from the ancient Near East because they were typically written on clay tablets. Or on stone, but mainly on a clay tablet. It’s a very durable material. So when it laid in the sand for a while, or even when people burned cities, the records were often preserved. And so we have hundreds of thousands of texts available. These texts are everything from administrative documents that deal with how many sheep there are, but there are personal letters and divination texts. There are religious texts, prayers, incantations. And so it’s exciting. It’s available to us.
The Bible was written in that social and historical context that’s different from our own. And so sometimes by understanding the context in which these texts were written we can enlighten or inform interpretation of the Bible and understand the Bible in certain sections a little bit better.But, I think one of the more important things to understand about why we should study the languages and cultures of the ancient Near East is that the Bible was not written in a vacuum. The Bible was written in a social and historical context that’s different from our own. And so sometimes, by understanding the context in which these texts were written, we can enlighten or inform the interpretation of the Bible and understand the Bible in certain sections a little bit better. It’s actually interesting that prior to the decipherment of cuneiform, we had very few Semitic languages to compare to Hebrew. So when we came across a word in Hebrew, and it’s not only used once or twice, and we didn’t really know what it meant, we had very little information to build upon. So we had Arabic, we had Aramaic. But after deciphering cuneiform, we had an explosion of lexical information. Sometimes, this has been really informative in how we understand, interpret and translate biblical text. But the final reason why I think it’s important to get a handle on some of these matters is because sometimes the ancient or Eastern evidence is distracting rather than helpful. And if someone doesn’t have some exposure, some level of exposure and some tools to make a discerning judgment about whether or not an interpretation or a connection is helpful or not, it’s something that one cannot just get from a Google search or reading a book. We have tons of information available today. Via the internet or Google, but how do you discern which information is good? And it’s only through studying with people who are able to work with the material that one can learn to make informed decisions about a certain connection relating to the Bible and how it informs or doesn’t inform biblical interpretation
