What barriers might be hindering more quality participation from Jewish members?

Question

While this site is, in principle, solidly non-partisan in its religious affiliations, over time with a larger base of participation things have clearly gotten skewed a bit to the Christian side of things. Before any concrete actions can be taken to rectify this, I think it would be useful to actually identify what some of the barriers are.

Whether real (e.g. a conflict of faith convictions) or perceived (e.g. general impressions or hearsay online) or experiential (e.g. some current or past experience with this or another venue), I'd like to hear what sort of issues are or might be keeping folks with Jewish hermeneutics background from investing their time and expertise into this site.

Answer 1

I can't speak for others and why they may not participate in the site, but will give my own personal perspective for what it's worth. Although a Jew (with some education in Tanach) and a regular contributor over at Mi Yodeya (the Stack Exchange site about Judaism), I nonetheless do not contribute much on Biblical Hermeneutics. Here are my reasons, as well as I can pin them down (and not necessarily in order of significance):

1. I do not ask questions here because, whenever (to date) I've sought biblical interpretation (or translation or the like), I was seeking Jewish-perspective interpretation. I can get that on Mi Yodeya or here, but will also get other perspectives' interpretation here (and few answerers will offer the Jewish perspective here), so I ask on Mi Yodeya. That the two sites' scopes overlap doesn't help either site.
2. I do not answer questions here (except one to test the waters) because:
   1. I suspect most askers are seeking a Christian perspective. I know the site is, de jure, pan-denominational. De facto, though, most of the answers and questions are Christian in tone or about Christian scriptures. If someone wants a Jewish perspective, he can always ask on Mi Yodeya, and some good questions there have come from regulars of this site. I don't see the point in writing an answer the asker isn't seeking.
   2. Questions here have a low signal-to-noise ratio if one's signal is Tanach. Looking through the front page is a lost cause; instead, one would need to use tags. Sifting through tens of individual books' tags is of course not feasible. The tanakh tag exists, but has only twenty open questions, out of 1103 open questions total, or 1.8%. (Most Tanach questions are tagged only with individual books' tags; and many of those are also about the New Testament.) In short, it's hard to find a question to answer.
   3. Even once one finds a Tanach question, it sometimes appeals more to Christians, e.g. by quoting a Christian translation. Not that that makes it hard to answer, but it's a slight turn-off.
   4. I would need to include a good deal of explanation and context in any answer to make sure it's not misinterpreted. This is because most of the site's users have a Christian perspective and will likely read my answer from that perspective. (I am concerned about this because I have seen many occasions on which Christians have read Tanach from a Christian perspective, thereby misinterpreting it. Or what I would consider misinterpreting it, anyway. :-)) This is effort I don't necessarily wish to expend; and not doing it right can mean my words are misunderstood (which is unpleasant in any event) — and understood as supporting Christian doctrine (which is distasteful to me for religious reasons).
   5. I don't have a clear understanding of the meaning of the term "biblical hermeneutics" or the scope of this site. This has two results. First, I don't know whether an answer I offer will be on-topic. Second, note that according to an answer linked to from the Help Center, questions here "call[] for experts in [hermeneutics] to employ their knowledge and apply it to specific in-field problems". Because I'm not clear on what "biblical hermeneutics" or the site's scope is, I don't know that I fit the criterion of "expert" in it.

Answer 2

When Biblical Hermeneutics first went into beta, I popped in to take a look at what the buzz was about. While the Christian overtones are slightly off putting, it's not the reason I didn't join. As a Mi Yodeya user, this is why I have never participated.:

• There is no question I could ask here, that I could not ask on Mi Yodeya, my main site. There is no answer here that would interest me, that I could not get on Mi Yodeya.
• I don't really understand why this site exists. It seems to me, from my brief looks around, that 90+% of the questions here would be valid on Christianity or Mi Yodeya. Indeed, question #1 here on meta asks what this site adds that Christianity.SE does not. And the truth is, that none of the answers there seem to hit the mark very well. It seems to me, an outsider, that the only things that BH covers that the religion sites don't, are answers from a secular, linguistic, perspective. I'm not looking for those; why would I come here?

The distinctness of this site from the religion sites is non-obvious, so essentially, it boils down to this:
I don't understand what this site offers that would interest me.

^{(I'm not saying there isn't anything, but if there is, it's not readily apparent.)}

Answer 3

I've never participated because I've never felt I should. This site is not "solidly non-partisan in its religious affiliation." It is an overtly Christian site, and no minor Jewish participation is going to change that.

Answer 4

Hermeneutics questions are being asked and answered in Mi Yodeya

Many hermeneutics questions are being asked and answered in Mi Yodeya.

These ones seem like questions that could have been asked just as well in this site as in the other. I'm not saying that's a problem, just noting how it is. Considering that these questions are sometimes discouraged in the Christianity site, that might explain why Jewish members don't feel the need to come here compare to Christian members.

Why does Joshua's command to appoint representatives in the Jordan Crossing seem out of sequence?

How did names of foreign gods find their way into the Torah and Hebrew language?

What were Naomi's sins?

And maybe even this one: Yakkov living in Egypt 17 years - connection to 210 years of servitude (Numerology systems are certainly a way some people interpret the scriptures)