Quote:
Originally Posted by Terry
"Covering Noah" is applied as a Biblical phrase for "saving face".
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As long as a Bible phrase or section could be found, cultural influence could be hidden. But other Bible phrases could be found to support other values, and actions, like "shout it from the rooftops".
And I'd like to expand that further. Just as Americans didn't understand Chinese cultural values which Lee brought over, so Nee & Lee in 1930s-40s China didn't understand the Near Eastern cultural values of the first century, which underlay so much of the text, which understandings had vanished with a combination of time and social upheaval. Every church rupture (the Great Schism, the Protestant Reformation) moved the collective discussion further from the original dialogue, and left readers reliant on what was seen there in the bare text.
And, Post-Protestant, we saw what we wanted to see, what our cultural values primed us to see. Nee's "normal church" sprang out from the text like Athena from the forehead of Zeus. And "covering Noah" came along with it. To Nee & Lee, it was normal, proper and good. Like Lee suddenly changing course, that was just being pragmatic. Anything else would be foolish, because it would clash with his value systems.