OT Not Written To Us

The Old Testament does communicate to us and it was written for us and for all people. But it was not written to us. It was written to Israel and through Israel to everyone else. Since it was written to Israel it is in a language that most of us do not understand, and therefore requires translation.  But the language is not the only aspect that needs to be translated. Language assumes a culture, operates in a culture, serves a culture, and is designed to communicate into the framework of a culture. Consequently, when we read a text written in another language and addressed to another culture we must translate the culture as well as the language if we hope to understand the text fully. 8