The Value of Context

Take a look at this passage.  It is Luke 16:20-21, listed in four different versions.  The last one is from Short Stories by Jesus (Amy-Jill Levine)

And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores,  who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. (New Revised Standard Version)

“There once was a rich man, expensively dressed in the latest fashions, wasting his days in conspicuous consumption. A poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, had been dumped on his doorstep. All he lived for was to get a meal from scraps off the rich man’s table. His best friends were the dogs who came and licked his sores.  (The Message, 19-21)

At his gate lay a certain poor man named Lazarus who was covered with sores.  Lazarus longed to eat the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. Instead, dogs would come and lick his sores. (Common English Bible)

And some poor person, named Lazarus, was lying by his gates, being (covered with) sores.  And he was wishing to be fed from the things falling from the table of the wealthy, but rather the dogs, coming, were licking his sores. (Amy-Jill Levine)

What is your first reaction when you read these passages?  Mine is "Yuk" - dogs licking his sores.  Poor man - he can't even get something to eat, and now he is subjected to dogs licking his sores.  Does it feel the same to you as one of those commercial fund-raisers for charities that feed people in famine-suffering countries, where the child is covered with flies, too weak from hunger and illness to even swat them away?

Levine paints a different picture, and I thought it was a good illustration of the necessity of understanding who Jesus was speaking to in order to truly "get" the scripture.  There is historical evidence that the people in antiquity saw that saliva had healing properties.  One might think that Lazarus is unclean (with Leprosy) because of the sores, but we don't have evidence to support that.  Also, there is some evidence that some Jews at the time kept dogs as pets - they were not considered unclean. 

Dogs are not sources of uncleanness- that is not the image Jesus's audience would take from the description of Lazarus.  Rather, they would realize that the dogs provided him with his only comfort.  The dogs realized what the rich man did not - that people in pain need help.   

We need to remember when we read scripture that it is not our reactions to what is written that is important in interpretation - we need to do some work to understand the reactions of the people who were listening at the time. This will tell us more about what was originally meant.