Interpretation of the Bible matters!

How we read the Bible. (Reflection)

The missionary brought this bible to our lands, our forefathers together with missionaries translated it for the sake of generations to come. The Bible to us is a sacred book, we used it in our churches during Sunday worshiping, family morning and evening devotions and community’s bible studies. It was not just a book to us; it was and is the book of life for me personally.  Growing up, we were taught that whenever we have doubts, feeling down or lost, the bible will always provide a light during our darkest  times. However, our knowledge of the bible is limited, we often depend on our ministers to interpret the text for us, and I personally think that this is when the problem comes in. We understood the text from the Minister’s lens, without trying and interpreting it from our own lenses. This Minister’s version of the text limits our understanding of the text and therefore make judgement from it.

First and foremost, the texts in the bible were not written from Samoa’s context however, we can always appreciate the narrative, interpret it with reference to our context, acknowledge its similarities and differences, used it to teach us a lesson and then leave the narrative open for other people to interpret it from their own context.

Secondly, we do not limit our understanding of the texts because of someone else’s interpretation of the text. From my context, we understood that there are no sexual, love or romantic texts in the bible, again this is because we are limiting our knowledge towards some texts in the bible because of one person’s idea of reading it, it is either they (Ministers) do not want to talk about it or completely ignore it because they do want to be judged. 

These ideas lead us to make judgements on Christian teachings hence why we blame the missionaries and critique their work, for all that has been happening in our own contexts. Nonetheless, it was never about the missionaries and their teachings, it is our own understanding and interpretation of the bible that we are suffering now. Our church is interpreting these narratives for us but never gave the opportunity to read the narrative from another perspective. Example : we always believe in giving to the church wholeheartedly because we believe that our contributions will serve a greater purpose for those who needs it however, giving nowadays is becoming a competition and if you do not give enough, the people will judge you and your family. Again, this is not mentioned in the Bible but the interpretation of some narratives of giving in the Bible was wrongly interpreted by them. Consequently, the people give more than what they afford, owe debts because of this reading of the texts, we are trying to satisfy their own version of the bible when this is not actually what the bible is discussing.

In conclusion, the problem is not the Bible nor the missionaries, our people (Samoans) read the texts from their understanding, deliver it during Sundays and make people believe that this is the right way to read and interpret the Bible.

 

Note : I am happy to have gained this knowledge and without a doubt I will bring it with me to share with my youth group, enabling them to understand the narratives from different lenses and not from the church alone.