Literary context

In the previous post, I argued that properly understanding any portion of Scripture requires knowing its context, and that most of our errors in interpreting Scripture would be corrected simply by being aware of context. In this post, I want to begin to look at specific ways in which context aids us in biblical interpretation. Or to put it another way, I want to begin to look at specific kinds of contextual tools.

One helpful way to understand context is to understand in what kind of book the passage of Scripture sits – the genre. We need to know the literary context of a passage. We do this automatically in our everyday lives. Take the words, “Toilet paper.” If those words occur on a grocery list, we respond to them differently than if they occur in a short story or newspaper advertisement. We read a grocery list differently than we do a personal letter, and both of those differently than a novel, and all of those differently than an essay in a journal. The kind of material determines how we read it.

The same thing is true in the Bible. When reading a letter, we will want to see how each passage is developing the writer’s argument, and application will often be more direct. When reading a narrative, we need to keep in mind elements such as plot, character development, and conflict when understanding the themes the writer is developing; application may be imitation of behaviors in the story, but may not be since narrative is fundamentally descriptive. And Hebrew poetry is organized around imagery, meter, and parallelism. It does not flow as a letter or a story, so it needs to be handled on its own terms. And there are other genres as well: legal material, apocalyptic, and so on.

Examples are always helpful, so we will look at Luke 15:11-32, commonly called the Parable of the Prodigal Son, to get a feel for the importance of literary context. Parables are short stories, which means they contain the elements found in narratives such as plot, character, theme, and conflict. In addition, parables describe everyday realities in order to make a moral or spiritual point. On the lips of Jesus, parables describe the kingdom of God.

I have heard Lk 15:11-13 used to illustrate the need for wisdom in parenting and in sharing wealth with children. No doubt many a father needs such wisdom, but using those verses to make that point takes them out of their literary context. A parable is a narrative, and we will not understand the role these sentences play in making Jesus’ intended point until the narrative is concluded and plot, character, and thematic development have been analyzed.

Later in the passage in Lk 15:22-24 the father calls for his restored younger son to be given a robe, a ring, and shoes, and for a fattened calf to be slaughtered for a feast. I remember a Bible study in college in which the leader went to great lengths to connect each of those gifts to an Old Testament passage to show what the gift represented (see for example Hag 2:23 or Isa 61:10). Although the effort was well-intentioned, it was also misguided. If a narrative is going to function as an allegory, with each and every element having a deeper meaning, there are typically clues in the narrative (see for example the Parable of the Sower in Mark 4:1-20). While the mistake in the previous paragraph underanalyzes the narrative, this mistake overanalyzes it to find meanings that are not there.

The title “Parable of the Prodigal Son” obscures the reality that the father in the parable has two sons, one who has lived a profligate life but then repented, and one who has lived such a moral life that he does not realize his need for repentance. The parables of Jesus use earthly stories to tell us about the kingdom of God; this parable tells us how God relates to the unrighteous and gently challenges the self-righteous to self-examination, an interpretation the previous two parables confirm (Lk 15:1-10).

Perhaps Tim Keller has a better title for this parable: The Prodigal God. Attention to literary context helps us understand what Jesus meant when He spoke, and what Luke meant when he wrote it down.