Context, Context, Context!

Good morning scholars!

Last week was the hard lesson. Learning about translations, text, languages, etc. can be boring at best sometimes.

Today we want to move from learning about the different ancient text to the text itself and the importance of context.

I heard someone say once a text without a context is pretext for a prooftext.

Anyone can quote a Bible verse, out of context, and make a case for a particular view or doctrine. This is known as “proof texting”.

I remember growing up hearing preachers over and over talk about the context of Bible verses and not pulling them out — Really develop this

Really one of the best things we can do as Biblical scholars is to put a text or passage of the Bible into its context and seek to understand it.

There are some Christians and non-Christians alike who will pull a scripture out of its context to have it say what they want.

In studying the Bible we need to consider the historical and literary context of a passage.

Are you ready for the message God has for us today?

Cool let’s dig in!

The Historical Context

This is one place where knowing the rough date of the book in which the passage is found is helpful.

It helps establish what is going on historically so we can understand what the author might be dealing with in his writing.

Ezekiel for example is writing from a camp where exiles from Judah where held during the Babylonian empire — Develop

Whereas Daniel writes in the same time but from the Palace of King Nebuchadnezzer of Babylon.

Hence the reason for difference in what God reveals to them to share with their particular audience — Ezekiel the exiles, Daniel the rulers

In the New Testament the Prison Epistles. The letters of Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon were written by the Apostle Paul from prison and deal with some of the most liberating concepts imaginable.

Historical Context can be established by using a study Bible, a bible dictionary or an introduction of a commentary.

The Literary Context

The literary context is considering the verses and chapters around a passage, The book the passage is in, and the whole of the Bible.

I would recommend you develop the habit of reading the entire book and ignore the chapter breaks and verse numbers.

In 1445, Mordecai Nathan, a Jew, divided the Hebrew Old Testament into chapters. He and a later scholar by the name of Athias are credited with the further breakdown of the Old Testament into verses. In 1551, the New Testament was similarly subdivided into verses.

Sometimes I think these guys were in a carriage and hit too many bumps!

It’s important to remember that these books and letters in the Bible did not have those divisions. Those were put for easier memorization.

In as close to one sitting as possible, this gives the literary context of the passage.

In your study here are some things to note:

What do you notice about who it is written to?

What appears to be the author’s attitudes?

Is there anything specific that you noticed?

What appears to be the natural divisions of the book?

These help to keep our thoughts with in the context of the book itself, and makes it harder to pull a passage out because we are seeing everything around it!

What happens?

When we keep a passage in these contexts:

The exegesis or interpretation is self contained, we do not need to go outside the text to understand the point.

The interpretation fits within the context of the whole book. That is it makes sense with everything around it.

Our struggle so often with passages we forget it was not written to us.

What I mean is for example 1 Corinthians was written to the Church at Corinth.

We know in this example there is a larger context because we learn that 1 Corinthians is actually the second letter to Paul wrote to that church.

I am not saying it does not apply to us, but that it was not written to us.

In our example we do not have their shared context of conversation. We have only part of it.

Another question we need to ask is, “What can be said for certain about a passage and what is merely possible?”

Even though we may not know all the details, often the point of a passage is still within our grasp!

I want you to also know this we are not the only ones who often struggle with passages.

Scholars, Commentators, Pastors, and Seminary Professors do not always have all the answers and some times they don’t agree with each other.

In study of the Bible there are no conclusions only understandings.

It is ok to say I don’t know!

I will say what I know for certain the context is always the best option for understanding a passage of the Bible.

The Jeremiah 29:11 Example!

What we learn as we study the Bible is that its texts are written in response to events happening in their world at that time.

Either in the life of the author or in the lives of the people to which he writes.

It becomes important then to know the author and the intended audience.

Let me use an example that will help show how in Bible study knowing historical and literary context brings understanding.

Jeremiah 29:11 NASB 2020

11 For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for prosperity and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

The question to ask, Why would Jeremiah write this?

The audience is the kingdom of Judah, the two remaining southern tribes of the once great nation of Israel.

Now just the small kingdom of Judah.

They were about to be hauled off into exile by the Babylonians.

They were going to lose their lands, watch Jerusalem and the temple be destroyed.

Now this would be bad enough for anyone, but there is more!

The creator God had made a covenant with them and where is He as their world is destroyed?

Were His purposes for Israel over? Has the plan of redemption come to naught?

Has God abandoned them?

We might see these questions as absurd, yet they were the questions they had.

Our hindsight sometimes can be a hinderance!

What we see from a historical perspective of the past is their current reality!

It was that context that Jeremiah gave these words of solace.

Judah was the direct audience of this promise, not us.

Jeremiah 29:10 NASB 2020

10 “For this is what the Lord says: ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place.

You see the context of verse 11 is a promise that captivity will be over in 70 years. They will return.

The problem with the covenant will be God establishing a new covenant

Jeremiah 31:31–34 NASB 2020

31 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. 33 “For this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord: “I will put My law within them and write it on their heart; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 They will not teach again, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their wrongdoing, and their sin I will no longer remember.”

You see the promise is not to an individual but to the people of Judah.

God’s solace to them is a covenantal promise to the collective people of God across generations.

It is a promise that God’s purposes with His people is not over , his plans have not failed, and He has not been bested by another god.

Jeremiah 29:11 cannot be applied to individuals who can fill words like “plan, prosperity, and hope” with personalized wishes.

The application of the verse lies in the larger vision of God’s purposes through the ages, firmly grounded in detailed covenantal promises to the collective community of God.

Understanding something of the historical lay of the land in which an author or audience lived helps readers like us appreciate a textes as well as the reason for particular details a text speaks to.

Conclusion

Here is the best way to approach a study of the context

The literary context itself will start to answer some of the historical questions.

A study Bible can be very useful for general inquries.

Technical works like backgrounds, introductions, and commentaries can answer questions about specific details.

Dictionaries and encyclopedias help with big picture questions that explore the larger historical and cultural issues of the author’s and their intended audience.

Primary sources — writings by authors who lived before and during the days of the Bible’s compositions can also be helpful.

So when you study a passage I hope this rings in your ears like it does mine context, context, context!

Let’s pray!