We have often discussed this during our weekly Bible study sessions - if we take the Scripture out of context we can mold it into what we want it to mean instead of what the Lord meant. If we believe the Bible is God's inspired word, written by inspired persons, we ought to have the courtesy of reading their work in the ways they intended for it to be read; and this requires that we have knowledge of the contexts out of which and into which these documents were written.
All of the ancient cultures of the biblical world were oral cultures. The oral world was primary, and documents were secondary. Jesus said to his disciples, "let those with two good ears hear". Most eyes could not read, therefore the oral nature of the culture shaped the way people wrote and read documents - they were oral documents - meant to be read out loud.
There was a whole class of people who did most of the writing - scribes. Scribes were used because 1) the materials were expensive, 2) there was little room for error (no "white out" in those days) and 3) only 10 - 20% of the ancient world could read or write, and actually those were two different skills. More people could read than could write.
Reading was for the rich who could afford an education AND afford to purchase manuscripts. Whereas, writing was a specialized skill obtained by training and education - a minority of the elite and wealthy. A copier of a document was not merely literate, but skilled. If you look at an ancient manuscript you will see a continuous flow of letters (the less papyrus used the cheaper the document was to produce). It would be difficult to read the document unless you 1) already knew the content and/or 2) you read it out loud to figure out where the divisions between words, sentences and paragraphs were meant to go. I never thought I'd say it but . . . I am thankful for punctuation!!!!
Fact: The Bible was not divided into chapters and verses until an archbishop, Stephen Langton (1150-1228) provided us with our modern form of the Bible.
So . . . what we begin to understand here is that ancient documents were not normally produced for the general public - because they could not afford to buy them nor could they read them (they had enough trouble reading a short inscription or a tombstone). Unlike today, there was no concept of the general public's "right to know" or to be educated.
Early Christianity was an evangelistic religion - therefore the documents they produced were used for persuasion of nonbelievers. The OT documents were "insider literature" meant to be read out loud, but not for the purpose of promoting their religion to the world. Esther and Daniel, are examples of two documents having Jews in high places in pagan courts in order to protect the lives of fellow Jews, not to convert pagans.
While both the OT and the NT are forms of "preaching to the choir" (addressing those who were already part of the religion), the NT also has an eye on evangelizing the whole world. The NT uses the form of persuasion (Greco-Roman rhetoric) familiar to Gentiles all over the Roman Empire. You will not find Greco-Roman rhetoric in the OT - although you will certainly find some Jewish means of persuasion.
Since Christians believed it was their job to share the good news of Jesus Christ with all, many of their documents were written to whole groups of people from the elites down to the slaves and children. These were ethnic and gender-inclusive documents, not written just for literate males. So . . . how were these made available to the widest possible audience including the illiterate? They were read by literate readers (lectors) trained to read with appropriate feeling, pauses and insights.
Revelation of John of Patmos in Revelation 1:3 reads: "Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it." While John is the author of the document - he is exiled on the island of Patmos (off the west coast of modern Turkey). He knows that he will not be the person to read these words out loud to the churches and elsewhere. That will be the job of the "lector" who would already have read the document, know how to pause while reading the continuous flow of letters and even explain some things along the way. The hearers are clearly distinguished from the reader - note that the reader is singular "the one who reads".
Another example is found in the Gospel of Mark 13:14 where he is discussing the defiling of the Temple in Jerusalem, the author inserts "let the reader understand". Notice that the word reader is singular. Now that we understand this better we realize that while Mark's audience is a group of people, they are merely the hearers of this document. The lector is sent with the job of reading it out loud.
I don't know about you - but this has shed an entirely new light on my understanding of how the Word was written for and disseminated to the masses of ancient times. Clearly, the world of the Bible was a world of oral cultures; and where text existed, they were mainly "oral texts", most of them intended to be read out loud - even if written to only one or a few people. This also clears up a lot in my mind. We've had many discussions on "why wasn't this or that included?" or "why wasn't this or that woman / child mentioned?" As I now understand it, what was included was what was important - details provided were details needed to convey the message of God - understanding how costly it was to produce manuscripts during Biblical times. The audience being "read to" were mostly men - heads of households - who would return to their homes and share with their family. Unlike today where women are treated as equals with the "right to know", women of Biblical times remained at home and received "word" from the male(s) in their lives.
Therefore, instead of trying to force-fit our culture into ancient times, it is to our benefit that we understand their culture.
"The Bible is the greatest of all books; to study it is the noblest of all pursuits; to understand it, the highest of all goals." Charles C. Ryrie