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Study guide · The Bible & Interpretation

How Did the Black Church Read the Bible Differently?

Reviewed by Jude 3 Project·2 min read

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A standalone study on where you stand when you read the Bible, and why it matters.

The big question

Two people can read the same passage and hear very different things, depending on where they are standing. Dr. Charlie Dates argues that the Black church gave America a distinct way of reading Scripture, from the side of the enslaved and the marginalized rather than the powerful. This study explores that hermeneutic, the conviction that God sides with the oppressed, and how to hold it together with a high view of Scripture.

Key takeaways

  • A hermeneutic is a way of interpreting Scripture. Where you stand shapes what you see.
  • Black believers read the Exodus and saw their own story in Israel’s deliverance.
  • They read from the margins, not from the viewpoint of the empire.
  • Dates credits James Cone as the seminal academic voice while distinguishing the Black church’s high view of Scripture.
  • Black preachers were proclaiming a God of liberation before it had an academic name.

Scripture to sit with

Exodus 3:7-10. I have seen the affliction of my people, and I have come to deliver them. The text the Black church read as its own.

Luke 4:18-19. Jesus announces good news to the poor and freedom for the captives. Liberation is in his own mission statement.

Isaiah 61:1. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to bring good news to the poor. The passage Jesus quotes.

Genesis 1:27. Every person is made in God’s image. The ground for resisting injustice.

Quotes worth discussing

Dates says, “The black church… gave to America a new hermeneutic, a new system of interpretation.”

On where they stood, Dates says, “We did not read the scriptures from the viewpoint of the empire… but we saw ourselves as those on the margin.”

Discussion questions

  • Where do you tend to stand when you read the Bible, with the powerful or the marginalized?
  • Read Exodus 3. What do you hear differently if it is your own story?
  • How do you hold together a God of liberation and a high view of Scripture?
  • Where might your social position be hiding part of the text from you?
  • What would change in your reading this week if you read from the margins?

Go deeper

This study comes from the Jude 3 Project’s Contributions of the Black Church course with Dr. Charlie Dates. For a related conversation, see the Jude 3 work on how African Americans read the Bible.

A closing reflection

Take one passage you know well this week and read it again, slowly, from the side of the person with the least power in the story. Ask what God is doing for them. You may find the Bible reads you as much as you read it.

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