Context, Context, Context

For the bible to be understood, for it to make sense, you have to understand context. Tonight we are going to focus on context and use a passage from Nehemiah as our sample text.

Let me give an illustration, Cowboys, Broncos, Dolphins, Chargers, those all mean something to us here in United States but may mean nothing to someone somewhere else in some other time. The same holds true with the Bible, we are reading the bible 3500 -2000 years later from another part of the world and trying to understand it.

Every passage has only one meaning, but could have different applications, for the time, culture then and the time and culture now, if there is any application now.

Context matters for if we do not have the right context we cannot come to the right meaning or proper application if any.

Can you think of something that can easily be taken out of context and from doing that get the wrong meaning and wrong application?

Look at Rom10:13 “13 for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.””

OK, flip over to Jn13 with me and let’s look at another passage

Jn13:12-13 “12 So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? 13 “You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am.”

Jn13:14-15 “14 “If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 “For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you.”

What is the meaning of this text?

What is the intent of the writer?

What is the application, then, and now, if any?

Tonight when we consider context there are three things we should keep in mind.

Historical - The setting of the book, the setting of the event in the text we are looking at

Social - The culture portion that is imbedded in the passage, we need to understand the culture to understand the context

Literary - It’s the context surrounding the passage that you are looking at. Without historical, without the social then the literary can take on literal and lead to wrong understanding.

Consider Jn6:53 “53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.”

Was Jesus saying that they were to literally eat and drink his body and blood?

Literary context takes into consideration the writer, the recipients, the purpose (occasion) for the writing.

(Transition) but when you put all three of these together, you have the “trinity” of contexts and that feeds to a good bible study. - we are going to use Neh1:1-4 as our contextual passage tonight.

First may we look historical

Historical

Historical (Adj) of or of concerning history; concerning past events; belonging to the past, not the present.

The Bible is all historical, some literal, some figurative, some symbolic, some prophetic. But it all historical for it was completed in the first century.

Let’s turn to our passage of reference for tonight and look at it historically

Neh1:1-2 “1 The words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah. Now it happened in the month Chislev, in the twentieth year, while I was in Susa the capitol, 2 that Hanani, one of my brothers, and some men from Judah came; and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped and had survived the captivity, and about Jerusalem.”

neh1:3-4 “3 They said to me, “The remnant there in the province who survived the captivity are in great distress and reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned with fire.” 4 When I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.”

Can you tell when this happened (v.1)?

Can you tell where this happened (v.1)?

Can you tell who was involved (vv.2-4)?

So, what we are doing it taking hermeneutics that we discussed a couple of weeks ago and looking historically now at the context of the passage.

What questions arise when you look at this passage?

Where do you think you can look to find out more about the historical context of this passage?

Maybe cross references?

Bible Encyclopedia?

Commentary?

In the historical context you are really looking at two things

The setting, of the book, this is beyond the verse, or the pericope, but the book, you know the bigger picture

The setting of the event, what was going on at the time?

In looking at the historical you may need to

Look at the immediate context (what is the event and the setting right then).

Look at the sectional context (what is the main emphasis of the context)

Look at the book context (what is the main emphasis of the book)

Look at the canonical context (why is this book in the bible)

(Transition) Something to keep in mind, the writers are are writing to people of that time and may not explain everything out for our understanding, but would be understood by the recipients. That is why we must study the historical and the social as well as the cultural.

Social Context

When you think about social context what do you think of? Do you think this matters? Can you draw conclusions or assumptions from social settings? Let’s look and see, together.

Using our passage from Neh1:1-4 still, what is the social context you see in this passage?

Neh1:3-4 “3 They said to me, “The remnant there in the province who survived the captivity are in great distress and reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned with fire.” 4 When I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.”

Now, look to the other side of page, maybe have to turn a page to Neh2:1-3 and we can learn more about the social setting

What information a can we learn about the social setting from Neh2:1-3?

Neh2:1-3 “1 And it came about in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, that wine was before him, and I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence. 2 So the king said to me, “Why is your face sad though you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of heart.” Then I was very much afraid. 3 I said to the king, “Let the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad when the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies desolate and its gates have been consumed by fire?””

Are you able to see the link of 1:1-4 and 2:1-3?

(Transition) - One more think to look at tonight, the literary context of the passage

Literary context

When you think about literary context what do you think of? Let’s look at our passage and learn a little more from it.

Would someone Google literary context?

Here is what you find: Literary context is background information or circumstances you provide to inform why something is taking place; context can also be the backstory of a character, provided to inform their behavior and personality.

This is the how we move in and out of a passage, the emphasis that the writer puts in it. It’s the story, it’s the flow of a passage. This is the easiest of the context, context, context we are looking at tonight. But much needed if we are going to have the right interpretation of the historical and the social context too.

Using our passage (Neh1:1-4) Can you see what is Nehemiah's concern?

(Application/practice)

Now turn to Heb1:1-4, we used that last week too, let’s glean

What is the historical?

What is the social or cultural?

What is the literary?

Sum it up, quickly all of these things we are looking at help us to have a more effective bible study, to gain better understanding of the scripture so that we can apply it where needed or just learn from it where not.