Faithfullyliven:the podcast
Do you want to learn how to study the Bible? Do you wish you could understand the Bible better? Do you want to know how you can remain faithful to historic Christianity in our contemporary society? Let's take a journey to explore and learn how to be a faithful follower of Christ. Faithfullyliven, the podcast is here to uplift your soul and encourage you to live a life honoring to God
Faithfullyliven:the podcast
Bible Study Blueprint: What is the Context?
Discover the unseen layers of meaning in the Bible that can transform your understanding of its teachings. In this episode, we guide you through the intricacies of scriptural interpretation with an eye-opening discussion that reveals the indispensable role of context. From the historical to the cultural, and the geographical to the literary, each facet provides vital insights that often go unnoticed. We'll confront the common misstep of isolating verses like Matthew 7:1 and unravel the complex tapestry of messages intended by the original authors. This episode promises to equip you with the tools necessary to traverse the rich landscape of biblical wisdom and avoid the trap of superficial readings.
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Welcome to Faithfully Living, the podcast where we learn how to live for Christ in our daily lives.
Speaker 1:I am Dwan, your host, and I would like to invite you on a journey with me to explore and learn how to be a faithful follower of Christ. Hi everyone, welcome to Faithfully Living, the podcast, where we strive to encourage you to live for Christ faithfully, but offering guidance on studying the Bible, how to understand the Bible better and how to remain faithful to historic Christianity in a contemporary society. So when you are reading and studying the Bible, the context is going to be very important and it helps us to understand the passage and then the passages we are reading around it and how to better interpret the meaning of the passage. So what is context? So let's look at the definition of context. Context is the parts of a written or spoken statement that proceed or follow a specific word or passage, usually influencing its meaning or effect. So there are different types of context in which you can view the Bible. There's general context is what we are going to be looking at today but then there's also historical context, cultural context, geographical context and literary context. So why look at context? So, when you look at the context of a particular scripture, it's going to help you to understand the meaning of that particular passage. When you take a particular passage out of context, it could lead to misunderstanding, misapplication and even inaccurate theology. It could lead you down a road of thinking that the Bible says one thing when it really doesn't. So that's why it's so important to understand the context of a particular scripture, to try to understand what the author of that particular text was trying to convey to his audience. So how do you look for context? So, to look for context, if you see a single verse, it's important for you to read the chapter from which that verse is taken, from the verse of before and after. It's also helpful to look for what the theme of that particular chapter is and even what the theme of the whole book from which that verse within that chapter is taken from, because it's going to help you better understand what the author was trying to convey to his audience. It's helpful to look at an outline of the book so it can help you better understand what that single verse that's pulled out that you're reading is really meant to mean to us as Christians and to the audience, and where the author was writing to Alright, so let's look at applying what we have just learned about context.
Speaker 1:So a popular passage among believers and non-believers alike is taking the words of Jesus in Matthew 7.1. That says do not judge others and you will not be judged. So people usually take this passage and say that you should not judge other people because Jesus says not to judge and this is the common belief of the meaning of that passage. But this passage is taking out of context from the true meaning. What Jesus is trying to say is he is referring to typical judgment, and you will see that it's typical judgment because Jesus says it himself. But you have to continue reading the verses that follow. So that is what we're going to do, so we can take a look at this and see. So we are starting in verse 1. It says do not judge others and you will not be judged, for you will be treated as you treat others and the standard you use in judging is a standard by which you will be judged.
Speaker 1:And why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own eye? And how can you talk and how can you think of saying to your friend let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye when you can't see the law. See past the log in your own eye, hypocrite. First get rid of the log in your own eye, then you will see well enough to deal with the speck of your friend's eye. So you can see here that Jesus is talking about hypocritical. So to help you understand this a little bit better, kind of like a present day analogy would be you and your friend are walking down the street, you decide to go into a convenience store and you see your friend swipe a candy bar. So you tell your friend hey, that's wrong, you shouldn't be swiping a candy bar, that's not your candy bar. But the only thing is that morning you went into a bank and took $300. So it's like you standing with your friend, hey, you shouldn't steal that candy bar when you are guilty of this very same thing stealing. You're both stealing, so you can't judge or tell your friend hey, don't do that when you're guilty of the same thing.
Speaker 1:But another thing, now that we see that this verse isn't talking about hypocritical, is talking about hypocritical judgment. It still doesn't tell you that Jesus told us not to judge. Because if you go down in chapter 7 to verse 15 through 20,. Jesus is talking about trees and fruit and bearing fruit. So he says beware of frost prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep or really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thorn bushels or figs from thistles? A good tree produces good fruit and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so can you identify people by their actions. So when you look at this verse, what is Jesus telling us to do? If you take the definition of judging, the definition is to form an opinion or to estimate. So when you take this scripture here that Jesus is talking about and the definition of judging, how would you know a false prophet? How would you know what is good fruit and bad fruit? How would you know that actions are good? You would have to make some type of adjustment right.
Speaker 1:So the next type of context is going to be one of my favorites its cultural context. What is cultural context? It is looking at the culture in which a biblical passage takes place. The Bible was written at a certain point in history that is different from the place and times in which we live today. So why look at cultural context? Knowing the historical period in which a passage comes from helps us to pinpoint the culture of that time. Living in America, we have a different culture than the one in the Bible. Learning more about how people live and understand what they knew helps us to better understand what the author assumed that his audience already knew. Dr John Walton and Dr Craig Keener helps us to understand why we should look at the cultural context of the Bible.
Speaker 1:Even though the Bible was written for us, it wasn't written to us. When we take our Western modern culture and impose it on the text, we're putting in meaning that wasn't there and we're missing the meaning that the text has. Sometimes people get frustrated with the Bible because the difficult figures of speech and the images and the customs they read about sing foreign to them. But when we explain these, then we open up the text of the Bible in a fresh new way to understand what the text of the Bible is really addressing. Learning the cultural nuances of the Bible helps us to understand the ideas behind the text of the Bible. When you're utilizing the inductive method, knowing the cultural context helps with step two, which is interpretation.
Speaker 1:When you're looking at where does this passage fit, there are some questions that you can ask yourself, such as who is the audience and what circumstances did they find themselves? In? What point in history were these people living? What was going on politically, economically, culturally and religiously at that time? So here are some examples you can look at of the cultures of the Bible In the region of the ancient Near East. We can look at the Babylonian, assyrian, egyptian and Canaanic cultures. When we're looking at the Old Testament, Some cultures in the New Testament you have the Jewish culture and the Greco-Loman. So let's look at an example of how Norwenna culture is helpful to understanding the passage of Scripture.
Speaker 1:We're going to go to Exodus, chapter five through twelve. This is when God sent plagues to Egyptians, when he had sent Moses to ask Pharaoh to let his people go and Pharaoh refused. So if you know the culture of the Egyptians, they had a lot of gods and goddesses. So all the plagues that God sent to Egypt demonstrated that God was greater than any of the Egyptian gods and goddesses. So, for example, when God turned the water of the now into blood, he demonstrated his power over the god Hapi, which was an Egyptian god of the now. And then, when God made the whole Egyptian land filled with darkness and he allowed where the Israelites were living to still have daylight, this showed God's power over the god Ra, which was an Egyptian god of the sun.
Speaker 1:Where do you look to find the cultural context? So resources you can look at could be study Bible, bible dictionaries, bible handbooks are also helpful and sometimes commentaries can also be helpful. These references could help explain what was going on during the time in which that particular verse or passage or Bible story was written. Cultural context is also one of my favorites because I love history, so let's look at that next.
Speaker 1:What is historical context? Historical context is looking at the historical background of a particular passage. The Bible is written doing a certain point in history within a certain set of circumstances. So examples from history we can see Xerxes the Great, who's the person King, traditionally identified as the husband of Esther. This was a historic, historic person whose scholars believe live and ruled. Ruled from 486 to 465 BC. We also have Herod the Great, who was the king of Judah that believe that scholars believe live from 37 BC to 4 BC and Herod the Great was the king during the time of Jesus. So that can kind of help you understand. If you know about Herod the Great, you can better understand the political and governmental rule and culture during the time of Jesus.
Speaker 1:You also have various nations, such as the Canaanites, moabites, the Amorites, who live during the Old Testament and with the Israelite. Interacted with the field of archaeology has helped us to understand these cultures a little bit better. The field of archaeology is to put a definition if we don't know is the scientific study of historic or prehistoric peoples and their cultures by analysis of their artifacts, inscriptions, monuments and other such remains, especially those that have been excavated. So understanding the historical context of these peoples and times can help us a better understand the stories that we read in the Bible. So while I look at historical contexts, our historical background, wayne Grudem gives us a definition of the why. Historical background information can certainly enrich our understanding of individual passages of scripture, making it more precise and vivid.
Speaker 1:So when you're utilizing historical context, usually within the step of interpretation, we ask the Christian how does it fit? Some other Christians that you can ask would be what else was taking place in the world during this time? What were some of the influences on the writer and those to whom he was writing, such as political or social context? So historical context is often often relates to shared assumptions between the author and the reader. There are some things within the writings, within culture, that is known by the author and reader, and these elements are understood, but not necessarily and explicitly stated. So what is a common mistake when using historical context? A common mistake would be missing the point of the text. So sometimes we spend so much time on researching things outside of the text that we don't focus on the text. So just making sure you're keeping everything in balance looking at the historical context, seeing how can help you better understand the passage, but spending most of your time in trying to understand the passage itself when do you look to find the historical context? So you can look at study bibles, bible handbooks, bible dictionaries, bible commentaries these things can help you better understand what was going on during the time in which the text was written.
Speaker 1:So I've never been great with maps or geography, but it's helpful when you're reading various biblical accounts in the Bible. So let's look at geographical context and why it could be helpful to us. What is geographical context? Geographical context is when you study the land that means the places and terrains of the Bible to learn where the people of the Bible live. This includes mountains, rivers, deserts. Maps are great resource to see where people live, where they travel to and when they travel. They usually travel by foot. Sometimes they had a donkey, they would travel in groups. Sometimes, if they had the cross like a seed, they would use a ship. So why look at geographical context? When we look at geographical context, it helps us to better understand where people live in the Bible.
Speaker 1:Since we're in America here, we don't live in that part of the world and many of us hadn't had the privilege of visiting that region of the world, it's helpful to understand or to look at maps to see where different cities, rivers or towns are located, to help us get a better understanding of the context in which a pastor or scripture is talking about. Some courses you can ask yourself would be what was your train like? What was the weather like? How far was this town from places in the texts? What were the transportation routes for the people? What was the size of the town. What was the location known for?
Speaker 1:Alright, so let's look at some examples to get a better sense of the geographical layout of the Bible land. So the ancient Near East is the geographical region in which the Bible is set. Today it's called the Middle East, which includes Egypt, sudan, israel, the Palestinian territories, jordan, lebanon, syria, iran, iraq and Turkey. So, to zoom in just a little bit more, we specifically looked at the land of Canaan. This is the land that God gave to Israel in an ancient Near East. In this part, this region of the Near East, was the center of major trading routes. So the International Coastal Highway, which was a trading route, and then the King's Highway are two trading routes that connected Egypt and Mesopotamia. So you can see how important this strip of land was, important to the rest of the world because it kind of connected the rest of the world together, because they had to pass through to get to Egypt and then if they had to go further east, they would have to pass through Canaan to get further east to Mesopotamia.
Speaker 1:So where do you look to find your graphical context? It's helpful if you have maybe a steady Bible or a regular Bible. A lot of times they would have maps in the back to help you better understand the places and the regions of the ancient Middle East, of a particular story or town in which you're reading. There's Bible atlases which are helpful because they go into a little bit more detail about the terrain, cities and places and times in the ancient Near East. Also, if you have commentaries, a lot of times they would go into more detail about a Pacific town or a city, maybe a river or a story. That gives you some geographical context. So those are helpful. And also I would put a list of resources that you could use to help you get a better sense of the geographical context of a particular passage or Bible story in which you're reading.
Speaker 1:Alright, so the last type of context is going to be literary context. So let's take a look at that. 就是說sama Tyoung Haen. So that was the first information easter called Causeway. So what is literary context?
Speaker 1:Literary context is looking at the different forms of a book and passage of the Bible and taking into account how the text was written. When we look at literary styles, we think about poetry or narrative. So you know, the Bible is a collection of writings and each author communicated in writings in specific ways, as inspired and led by the Holy Spirit. So some of the major literary genres of the Bible would be narratives, last story, poetry, proverbs. Do we have visionary writings such as prophecy and apocalyptic? So, to put it into better context, when you look at Genesis and Exodus, those are some narratives that have some poetry in it. Do you have Psalms, which is poetry? When you look at Daniel and Revelation, it has prophecy in it, and then it also has apocalyptic writings in it. So why look at literary context? So literary forms require some level of interpretation. You think back to high school when you had to take that English literature class where you had to read a particular passage and then try to identify what literary form that particular passage was utilizing. So each literary form has distinct features which affect how we read the passage. So understanding literary forms within the books of the Bible helps to understand how the author was communicating to his audience. It's going to also help you better understand the message of the Bible and how it can apply to our lives.
Speaker 1:Alright, so now let's look at some helpful tips and understanding literary context within the Bible. So narrative is the dominant form in the Bible. So these are the stories of the Bible. So when you read a story you should be an active reader, and Leland Rankin, in his book how to Read the Bible as Literature and Get More Out of it, gives us some helpful tips. It says to read stories, well then, we need to be active in visualizing, in imagining scenes, in entering into the spirit of events and identifying with characters. One of his rules for reading stories of the Bible is simply this Looking to biblical stories as an invitation to share and experience as vividly and concretely as possible With the characters in the story. Stories are always built out of three basic ingredients Setting, characters and plot, meaning, action. Reading a story involves paying attention to the interaction of these three elements. So where do you look to find literary context?
Speaker 1:If you have a study Bible, study Bibles tend to have a introduction at the beginning of each book where it talks about the setting of the book, the author and a lot of times it talks about the literary form of that book.
Speaker 1:If you have a Bible handbook, they tend to have summaries of the book, goes into literary context and has a little bit more detail about that particular book Commentaries.
Speaker 1:So some commentaries go verse by verse. It tends to go into a little bit more detailed, explaining the literary context of within a particular passage, verse and chapter of a book of the Bible. You know there seems to be a lot of things that go into studying the Bible. You know context is one and most important, because it helps us to better interpret the passage and understand what it's trying to communicate with us. So, as you continue to study your Bible, I pray that you will try to include looking at the various types of context and seeing how it relates to the passage that you're studying or reading to get a better and accurate understanding of what the text is saying. So I pray that this episode was helpful for you and until next time, remember God is always good and he's always faithful. Thank you for listening to the podcast. Do me a favor by following the podcast and leaving a review to help spread the word. I look forward to hearing from you.
