Faux pas

Some of my Russian friends recently brought up the topic of reading your Bible in public transportation. Apparently, in Orthodox culture, it is frowned upon.

Various arguments:
-you are doing your spiritual works “before men” (as the Pharisees)
-you are not giving proper respect to the Word of God, by opening it in such a place
-you have clearly not set aside a separate time for reading and meditating on the Word, since you are reading in while in transit

I was a little surprised by the discussion, but I realized that Americans are very casual in general about such things. I never think twice about where I place my Bible, how I write in it, when/where I read it, etc. Obviously I think about what works the best for me, but it is rare that I consider how it looks to others or to someone from another culture. I was chastised once by a Russian friend for putting my Bible in the bag with my change of shoes on the home way from church. Oops! more/-

It’s possible that Russian Orthodoxy is closer to the Jewish culture in this regard. But in American Protestant churches, ritual purity is rarely observed.

I was riding in the metro recently and the man opposite me opened a book and was reading intently. As far as I could tell, it was a Muslim calendar or book of prayer. “That’s it,” I thought. “If the Muslims can do it, so can we.” And I decided that I was going to read my Bible after all. Why shouldn’t I use the time to receive a little edification?

Today I was reading 1 Timothy 4 and came across the following (verse 13): “Give attention to public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and reading.” AHA. I opened up my Russian Bible to the parallel verse, and found…it says only “reading.” According to Bauer’s Greek-English Lexicon, “Anagnosis” does in fact mean public reading-but in the synagogue.

I am not sure what I learned from this little exploration, but at least I dusted off my Greek NT. :)