December 31, 1997
Contacts: Jean Kempe-Ware, Director of Public Relations, Lewis & Clark College (503) 768-7963, [email protected]
Richard Rohrbaugh, Professor of Religious Studies, Lewis & Clark College (503) 768-7486, [email protected]
New book views New Testament in context of culture
PORTLAND, Ore.--"The Social Sciences and New Testament Interpretation," a new book published by Hendrickson Publishers and edited by Richard Rohrbaugh, professor of religious studies at Lewis & Clark College, sheds new light on the New Testament and is the latest contribution to the anthropological study of early Christianity.
For the past decade, Rohrbaugh and about 40 other Biblical scholars throughout the world have been studying the New Testament from the perspective of the time in which it was written. They call themselves the Context Group.
"Because we inevitably read this Mediterranean document through lenses shaped by our own culture, the potential for misunderstanding is both enormous and pervasive," Rohrbaugh writes.
The essays, including one by Rohrbaugh, address topics such as honor and shame, kinship, the evil eye, the dynamics of a pre-industrial city and the workings of an ancient economy.
For example, Rohrbaugh says Westerners often misconstrue what Jesus meant when he said, "I am the good shepherd." In Jesus' day, shepherds were looked down on as contemptible outcasts with no roots.
"Why would Jesus use an oxymoron like that?" Rohrbaugh asks. "Probably to identify with the outcasts. Nobody picks that up when they read that passage today."
Rohrbaugh said he hopes that his anthropological study of the Bible may help heighten Westerners' awareness of the ancient Mediterranean culture in the Bible.
"We've lost much of the rich Mediterranean heritage in our interpretations of the Bible," Rohrbaugh says. "We've lost some of the spice and vigor and blood and guts and tears."
"Although it is impossible to know fully how ancient people lived their daily lives, these essays come as close to realizing that goal as we moderns are likely to get," said William R. Herzog II of Colgate-Rochester Divinity School.
Rohrbaugh, a Lake Oswego resident, received a doctorate in theology degree from San Francisco Theological Seminary, a master's of divinity degree from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Sterling College.
He served as the pastor of St. Mark Presbyterian Church in Portland from 1968 to 1977. He was the pastor of Tri-City Presbyterian Church in Myrtle Creek, Ore., from 1961 to 1968.
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