Hermeneutics and Community

We've just started a small group with a focus on Bible study. I must admit I've found the project of privately studying Scripture a challenging task recently. I don't know if it has to do with spiritual inadequacy on my part or if I'm sensing that studying God's Word on my own accord and not in the context of/with community is not the ideal. Therefore, I'm excited about the prospect of reading, hearing, and studying communally.

We are going to begin by studying my favorite Scriptural letter, Philippians, and I am set to lead the discussion/study. I've been reading a commentary on Philippians that has raised some issues I've been pondering and for which I don't have a definitive response. The primary issue concerns the media through which we encounter Scripture (i.e., written/read vs. oral/heard).

Now if we want to place ourselves (or at least try to do so) in the shoes (or sandals, I should say) of a first century audience, then we might be lucky to have one copy of the letter in the midst of the community and therefore the media would be decided...oral so that emphasis is on the spoken/heard Word. Paul, therefore, would have written his letter (esp. one designed for a specific audience) with the knowledge that it would be "read aloud" in a worship gathering.

The truth is that we are not in said shoes and it is extremely difficult (at least in a culture of readily accesible translations, much less copies, of the Scripture) to experience the letter as the first century audience would have. And this is only one difficulty to overcome in the hermeneutical task.

So does our easy access to many copies of Scripture impede our ability to hear it rightly or does it free us to interact with Scripture in more/better ways than the original audience could? What other ways (other than hearing aloud) can we adapt our approach so that we can more appropriately experience God's Word?

Regardless of how we answer these questions, we have unlimited resources within our reach, and it is easy to be tempted to privatize our study of Scripture. We must, therefore, guard against this by humbly placing ourselves and our "interpretations" in submission and view of the community (local, denominational, universal, historical) in which we find ourselves.