Friend of the show Cynthia Shafer-Elliott joins Mark and Rex to discuss ways in which we misread the Old Testament. The three specifically look at the story of David and Bathsheba.

TRANSCRIPT

0:01

Welcome to Jessup think I'm your host Mark Moore and your co host, Rex Kearney. And today, Rex, we're excited to have again on the show Dr. Cynthia Shaffer-Elliot,

0:09

and she still agrees to come even though she hasn't got her t shirt. Yeah,

0:13

that's true. We're still working on T shirts. We're going to be talking today about how we get the Old Testament wrong. Sometimes some stories we read from the Old Testament, and we're maybe just reading them incorrectly. And so she's gonna shed some light on that, specifically the story of David and Bathsheba. And I'm really interested in what she has to say.

0:40

Well, Cynthia, we are excited to have you back on the show. I mean, official official friend of the show,

0:46

for sure, at this point, how many times you have to be on the show to be an official fries to be official, and you get the T shirt winner, but don't I get a mug or something? Yeah, we're

0:54

working to T shirt. T shirt. I am working on the design, oh, once I get the funding and placement, I can do it. Working on that, but excited to have you on the show because I've kind of thrown an idea out to you have ways that we we read the Old Testament wrong, like ways that when we approach the Old Testament, there seems to be certain passages that just come up again and again. And it's like, I think we might be getting that wrong. And

1:30

wrongs your word. But yeah. I will let the hate mail come to you. Okay.

1:37

Well, and kind of what I mean is, is sometimes you hear certain, it's like, wow, I think we're maybe missing the full story. Right. And, and maybe missing a full, full backstory. And I think one of those stories that actually has even I would say within this last year has has become more prominent. Is that story of David and Bathsheba. Right. And and kind of what is going on. And there's, it's interesting when you look at different sermons online, and and depending on maybe the angle the church is coming from, you have sometimes a very sympathetic, you know, point of view in terms of Bathsheba. then other times, you have a very kind of damning view of Bathsheba that she is. The temperature is right, that she wanted to be seen all of these things. And historically,

2:24

that's the interpretation that you get.

2:27

Yeah. And it's and yeah, no, seems like that. Yeah, even within church fathers and all that. And it was a reference, often not always looked at David as maybe the full culprit in this story. So as as we approached David and Bathsheba and the story, like what are maybe some things we need to know about the story to, to begin to maybe read it more correctly?

2:53

Yeah. If there's a wrong reading the right way? Well, I'm a big supporter of, of context. And that's kind of been a key word you're hearing a lot of people throw out there nowadays, which I'm really happy to hear because I've been beating that drum for a long time, right? And I'm sure people are like, Oh, my gosh, here she goes again. Yeah, but I really do believe that have looking at a contextual approach can really help us have a maybe a bigger view of the text and maybe the different? Maybe, I mean, we can never truly know, I think what original intent, the author's I mean, if we could travel back in time, that would be fantastic. I would be all over that. That would be great. But in our, with the sources and evidence that we have now, you know, as limited as that might be. So and I would always say that it's not just context singular, it's contexts plural, you know, and anyone who does history, or ancient literature or cultural context, knows that it's not just one context that helps open up the story in the context of the reader. All right, exactly. Right. And so for thin