You Want Context When Studying the Bible

Context Is Mandatory for Interpretation

Have you ever ever mentioned one thing that was taken out of context? In that case, you know the way irritating that may be. Maybe somebody overheard you say one thing a couple of pal, and that somebody caught just one phrase of the dialog—a phrase that made it sound as when you had been saying one thing fairly horrible about your pal. Maybe once you had been confronted about this, you mentioned, “No! You’re taking that phrase utterly out of context. That’s not what I meant in any respect!”

While you mentioned that your phrases had been taken out of context, you meant that though you did converse the precise phrases that had been overheard, you spoke them within the context of a dialog—and if that dialog had been heard in its entirety, it might have been clear that you just didn’t imply these phrases in the way in which the opposite particular person thought you meant them. If that particular person may solely have heard the broader context, he would have understood and interpreted your phrases extra precisely and in truth.

Sadly, after we come to the Bible, all of us too typically do one thing similar to what your pal did together with your phrases: we take verses and passages from Scripture and rip them out of their correct context. Sadly, I consider that individuals have a tendency to do that with the Bible much more than with different books that they learn. Many instances, folks do that with good intentions. They’re in search of to discover a phrase of encouragement for his or her day, an inspiring quote for a pal, or a devotional thought to share with a small group, sports activities workforce, or enterprise gathering. They learn shortly, discover a verse or verses that appear to work, and seize them and go, solely to find later that they wrongly interpreted verses by lacking their broader context. Regardless of their good intentions, such disregard for context can typically outcome within the abuse—and misuse—of the phrase of God.

Discovering the appropriate context of a Bible verse or passage is vitally essential in an effort to make right interpretation and software. While you apply the “context device,” you’ll start to see the way in which that it might guard and defend you in opposition to false interpretations of the Bible and lead you in each decoding and making use of God’s phrase in the way in which that he intends.

Devoted Software

Right here is the precept behind the context device:

In our interpretation and software of any a part of the Bible, we should ensure that we totally consider and comprehend each a part of the context of the passage in order that we will perceive why the passage was written by the creator and the way it was understood by the unique recipients. We’ll then be capable to apply the textual content totally and faithfully to our lives.

To specific this precept in a barely totally different manner, this device reminds us that we should make the journey to the traditional world of the Bible in an effort to see each textual content in its context. Keep in mind, after we examine the Bible, we’re digging into the dwelling and impressed phrase of God, but it surely’s an historic textual content, written to individuals who lived and adopted God 1000’s of years in the past in contexts very totally different than ours. The Bible does have one thing to say to Christians as we speak, after all—however we have to uncover what the textual content meant then earlier than we will rightly discern what it means for us now.

If we’re finding out the e book of 1 Corinthians, for instance, we should make the journey in our Bible examine to the traditional metropolis of first-century Corinth in an effort to see the problems and state of affairs there. If we’re finding out the e book of Genesis, then we have to journey to historic Mesopotamia to see the state of affairs of the early patriarchs of the religion. We should always word the life state of affairs of Paul as he writes his remaining letter to Timothy, and the state of affairs of the persecuted church as Peter and John write their letters. Context issues! We have to take these sorts of journeys in an effort to get the that means of the textual content proper.

Right here’s a key level as we prepare to use this device: God’s phrase can by no means imply one thing that it by no means meant!

It is a great strategy to summarize the context device. We at all times must work laborious to see what God’s phrase meant when it was written. Solely then will we be capable to see what it means for us as God’s folks as we speak.

3 Sorts of Conext

However what sorts of context will we should be prepared to judge as we apply this device? As you’ll see, studying and finding out a biblical textual content in context means contemplating a number of elements.

​​Historic context. For each passage we examine, we want to concentrate on the historic context—each of the biblical creator and of the unique readers of the e book. No biblical creator wrote in a vacuum—all of them lived actual lives in actual locations, and God used their experiences to assist them talk his phrase in the way in which that he meant. To get a really feel for the historic context of a biblical passage, now we have to ask some fundamental questions: When was this e book written? Who was the unique viewers of this textual content? What was the political and cultural state of affairs on the time of the writing? What was totally different for God’s folks then—and what’s nonetheless the identical for us as we speak? It’s not tough to find some fundamental particulars concerning the historic context of passages of Scripture— examine Bible is a good place to begin.

We at all times must work laborious to see what God’s phrase meant when it was written.

Literary context. Each phrase within the Bible is a part of a sentence; each sentence is a part of a wider paragraph or unit; and each paragraph or unit is a part of a complete e book. We should hold this in thoughts as we learn and examine the Bible, interested by how verses and passages match into books. To concentrate to the literary context implies that we don’t learn the Bible like a set of nice quotations, from which we will choose and select random inspirational sayings that imply no matter we would like them to imply. The Bible is a literary work, coming to us in whole books inside distinct literary genres: poetic writings, prophetic phrases, narratives (tales), epistles (letters), apocalyptic literature, and extra. To concentrate to the literary context of each verse and passage in Scripture is to take severely and respectfully the way in which God, in his excellent knowledge, has chosen to disclose his phrase to us.

Canonical context. Together with the verses, passages, and books of the Bible, we should take into consideration the entire canon (all the assortment of books) of Scripture. Each e book of the Bible is a part of the one large story of God’s saving work on the earth, a narrative that’s proven to us by all of Scripture. Devoted biblical students have agreed on a rule of thumb for finding out tough passages: Scripture interprets Scripture. That implies that we at all times learn any given a part of the Bible in mild of the remainder of the Bible. We think about all the scope of Scripture after we examine any particular person textual content—and we will do that as a result of all the Bible has one divine creator. So after we take into consideration the context of a passage within the Bible, we should always ask ourselves, “The place does this passage match within the general arc of the biblical story? The place is it in God’s plan for redemption?” If the Bible really is one nice unified story of his saving work on the earth, these are essential and legit questions for Bible examine.

This text is customized from Understanding God’s Phrase: An Introduction to Deciphering the Bible by Jon Nielson.

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