The Holy Bible was written by the Holy Spirit via the hands of ancient Middle-Eastern men. The accounts and events that are recorded in the holy book are thru the eyes and life experiences of each of those writers. The laws, traditions, manners, and customs of the time where each writer lived had a very great and significant impact upon the images and message that each writer intended to communicate, convey, and express in their writings. These recorded persons, events, and matters were profoundly impacted by the culture, laws, manners, and customs of the people being written about and the men God used to record them. Therefore, putting these matters into proper context is the first priority of any Bible teacher.
Each biblical writer assumed that all future readers of their words would understand their writings through the same cultural lens that they experienced them. Thus they would record each event and the person spoken about per their particular cultural standpoint.
However, Christianity is currently preached and taught primarily from a Western perspective. Western men and women do not understand or practice the same laws, manners, or exercise the same customs as those practiced by any of the Middle-Eastern persons that the Lord used to record his word. Most of today's Christians have little knowledge of these cultural differences. Therefore, the persons and events recorded in our Holy Bible are frequently misunderstood and misrepresented.
Please allow me to use an example to make my point. The famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci named The Lord's Supper is one of the world's most famous and recognized paintings. The Lord's Supper is depicted by da Vinci as thirteen men (the Lord Jesus and his twelve disciples) around a long table. I believe that a copy of this painting probably hangs in more homes than any other picture ever painted. However, a Bible School student that has taken Biblical Manners and Customs will tell you that these people during this time and in that culture always took their meals while sitting on cushions, pallets, or mats upon the floor. The participants to the meals would gather in a circle so as to be able to face each other. The bread, meat, and other food items would be placed in the middle of those dining so that all could reach into the bowls and dip their bread or sop out of the bowls. Leonardo da Vinci was not aware of the difference in dining customs. Therefore, it is very understandable why he portrayed the event of the Lord taking that meal while sitting at a table. That was the way that his culture took its meals. However, da Vinci was still wrong and did not correctly represent or depict what the event actually looked like. Does this make him bad or evil? No, of course not! But he misrepresented the event and how the meal was actually observed by the Savior
