Context Matters – Hebrews 11:29-12:2

What this episode covers

It’s easy to misinterpret the scriptures, and even our so-called traditions and traditional ways of doing things can hinder proper understanding of the text. This episode highlights the importance of knowing historical and political context in order to truly understand the Bible. Download the transcript (PDF) Episode Transcript Brian: Welcome to the Queer Theology podcast! Fr. Shay: Where each episode, we take a queer look at the week’s lectionary readings. We’re the co-founders of QueerTheology.com and the hosts for this podcast. I’m Father Shay Kearns B: And I’m Brian G. Murphy. B: Hello, hello, hello. Today is Sunday, August 18th we are going to take a look at Hebrews 11:29-12:2 I will read it to you now. By faith they crossed the Red Sea as if they were on dry land, but when the Egyptians tried it, they were drowned. By faith Jericho’s walls fell after the people marched around them for seven days. By faith Rahab the prostitute wasn’t killed with the disobedient because she welcomed the spies in peace. What more can I say? I would run out of time if I told you about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets. Through faith they conquered kingdoms, brought about justice, realized promises, shut the mouths of lions, put out raging fires, escaped from the edge of the sword, found strength in weakness, were mighty in war, and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured and refused to be released so they could gain a better resurrection. But others experienced public shame by being taunted and whipped; they were even put in chains and in prison. They were stoned to death, they were cut in two, and they died by being murdered with swords. They went around wearing the skins of sheep and goats, needy, oppressed, and mistreated. The world didn’t deserve them. They wandered around in deserts, mountains, caves, and holes in the ground. All these people didn’t receive what was promised, though they were given approval for their faith. God provided something better for us so they wouldn’t be made perfect without us. So then, with endurance, let’s also run the race that is laid out in front of us, since we have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us. Let’s throw off any extra baggage, get rid of the sin that trips us up, and fix our eyes on Jesus, faith’s pioneer and perfecter. He endured the cross, ignoring the shame, for the sake of the joy that was laid out in front of him, and sat down at the right side of God’s throne. B: Shay, there’s a lot of stuff in here. Where do we begin to make sense of this passage? FS: I mean one of the things that sticks out to me first off is this way that the author of this passage is reinterpreting their own texts and stories for a new context and a new community. By telling all of these older stories, the author is saying, “Look! This is our tradition, this is what we are part of, this is what we are doing, and this is how we can change it and understand it now and continue at forward.” This idea that scripture tells only one story is really false. In here, we have this narrative of how these things get repackaged and reframed and retaught. I think that that’s what we’re still doing today, and it’s really important that we use this as an instructive way of how to read scripture, through scripture. That’s the first thing that sticks out to me, what about you? B: What I notice in this passage is that, some churches that I’ve been to, the idea that you needed Jesus and the Christian writings in order to really understand the Hebrew bible. That almost the New Testament is like this secret key that unlocks the hidden meaning of the Hebrew scriptures. Even like Jonah and the whale being about Jesus and all of this stuff. But what I’m realizing is that this passage makes clear is that actually you need the Hebrew scriptures in order to understand the Christian ones. You need to understand the captivity of the Hebrew people, and th