What is the Bible about? Are there central storylines or themes that tie each book of the Bible together? That tie the whole of Scripture together? And does recognizing such storylines and themes aid us in properly interpreting a given passage of Scripture that we come across during devotional reading, Bible studies, or sermons?
I think that the intuitive answer to each of those questions is “yes.” Most of us have had the experience of having something we have said taken out of context. Just a couple of days ago I was speaking with a friend, and one of us described a headache as “feeling like someone kicked you in the head.” A third person approached us just at that moment and heard nothing but “kick you in the head.” He correctly inferred that he must have missed the context. But had he taken it out of context, he could have come to some awful conclusions about the speaker’s character and intentions.
Taking things out of context can lead to interpretations and conclusions that fall wide and short of the mark. That much appears obvious from everyday experience. So why would we make the same mistake when interpreting a text in the Bible? A paragraph surrounds every sentence. An epistle or gospel or some other genre of literature surrounds every passage. The Bible, the grand story of God working in history to redeem humanity and restore His creation in Jesus Christ, surrounds every book in the canon.
We cannot properly understand any portion of Scripture without placing it in its immediate textual context and its context within its book. Otherwise we will miss what the human author intended. And ultimately we need to understand texts in their context in the whole of Scripture. Otherwise we will miss what the Divine Author intends.
That is a fine sounding idea. In principle I agree. But what should I do when confronted with a particular text? There are several tools we can use to help us, tools we will think about in subsequent posts. But in my estimation (though admittedly limited and fallible), most of our goings astray in interpreting Scripture would be corrected merely by being aware that there is a bigger context into which each passage fits. That may sound oversimplified, but it seems to me to be true. The matter of context seems to be where many a Bible study, sermon, or book goes astray. So just being aware of context is helpful.
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2 comments:
Nice post, Justin. However, I've seen appeals to "context" misused in the same manner as the quick prooftext quoters. In their hands, appeals to "context" become a means to draw conclusions from a text which seemingly invariably a) support the theology they brought first to the text, and b) argue against the plain, face-value meaning. So, whereas proof-texting would draw a wrong Biblical conclusion by reading too little, "context" arguments can do the same by reading too much.
Just to be clear, I absolutely agree with you that context is obviously critical. To avoid reading larger context is tantamount to saying one doesn't care what God really means. But, I've also seen this error mentioned above. I will be curious to see in your subsequent posts how you propose avoiding these errors.
Thanks for the comments, Sam. I hope I can elucidate how I see context shaping biblical interpretation in such a way that avoids the concerns you have raised.
Thanks for reading!
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