I have recently been reading the book Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels by Kenneth Bailey. I have found the book to be both interesting and insightful. As a storyteller specializing in the telling of multicultural folktales, when I find a story that I want to tell, I always try to research its country of origin to develop a deeper understanding before sharing it with an audience. If I can actually visit the country, even better!

My research helps me to discover interesting tidbits that may reside below the story’s surface but that are full of cultural significance. As I dig deeper, I often discover that certain themes or topics seem to be of particular interest to certain people groups. The answer to why these themes are so common often lies in the geographical, cultural and religious underpinnings of the people who tell it. Understanding these elements gives new dimension to what looks like a simple story on the surface.

The author of Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes takes this approach in his book. For as deeply as we revere the Bible, how often have we really tried to understand the context in which it was written? The culture that it came out of? The habits and traditions of the everyday people? Not simply of the Jewish people, but of the people inhabiting the Middle East as a whole. If we begin to understand some of these than our understanding of Jesus, his stories and his life will be deepened.

For example, a few years back, I volunteered to help refugees who were being resettled in my community. There was a large group of about twenty men who resettled from Uzbekistan. They had been unfairly labeled enemies of the state by a dictator and had been forced to flee their country on foot, leaving their wives and children behind. After some time in a refugee camp abroad, they were brought to Ohio.

The organization that was assisting them with their resettlement would hold gatherings and picnics to help introduce them to other people in the community and to provide opportunities for recreation. I would help them out occasionally by driving them to the grocery store since they didn’t have transportation, and since they lived close by, I would often pay them a visit in their homes. (They lived in two different houses within walking distance.) As they were learning English, my visits gave them a chance to practice.

Whenever I came by I was treated like a guest of honor. I removed my shoes upon entering and exchanged them for a pair of readily-waiting house slippers. Then I was ushered into their living room where I was served pistachio nuts, tea, cookies, and whatever happened to have been freshly prepared that day, usually a delicious soup. We would sit around chatting for hours, and I always felt bad when I had to leave as it seemed that they greatly enjoyed the visits.

However, I’ll never forget one day many months later as we were all sitting around the kitchen table talking when one of the men who had a very high level of English said, “This could never happen in our country.” This referred to men being in the same room with a female guest. It also referred to our friendship in general.

This man went on to explain that in his country, men gathered with men and women with women. There was never any mixing. If he had guests over, they would be in one room of the house and his wife in another, and vice versa. He also said, that if he were to see a woman he knew in town, even one who was a relative, he could not wave or say hello. He couldn’t even look at her. To do so would be improper.

I was astonished. I remember feeling sad, thinking, “If I would have met these fine people in other circumstances, I never could have become friends with them.” And to think that all my innocent visits made in Christian love could have been construed as improprietous!

Eventually, many years later, their wives and children were able to come to the United States. While I had moved out of that particular community by then and no longer had occasion to visit, I heard that they quickly returned to their roots, discarding some of their acquired American ways. In fact, a friend of mine, an older woman who had assisted them a great deal, described being invited to a party they were hosting in celebration of the opening of a new business. Upon arriving at the party, she was quickly separated from her husband and ushered to a room full of women, the wives, none of whom she knew. She felt very uncomfortable but had no way of communicating with her husband that she was ready to leave.

While I understand the reasoning behind this concept of the separation of men and women (as a means to preserve purity), it was, and still is, completely foreign to me. There’s nothing I enjoy more than getting together with another couple simply to share a meal or play some board games. And yet, if these traditions are still being heeded in many parts of the world in the year 2013, imagine how much more strongly they must have been heeded during the time of Jesus.

When you understand that this type of separation of men and women was common during Jesus’ ministry, it makes Jesus’ attitudes toward and encounters with women that much more revolutionary. It also sheds new light and invites new questions about some familiar Bible stories.

The cultural context of a story is important. To try to read the Bible without trying to understand its cultural context to me is like trying to make chocolate chip cookies with the chocolate chips. There are so many nuggets of truth that we may be missing. These little tidbits not only give flavor to the words but highlight points of deep significance. I for one do not want to miss out on all the great insights available if I’m willing to dig a bit deeper.