Many years ago I was teaching about a set of certain scriptures to a group of senior women in a small-church Bible study. As I spoke, I noticed their faces grew increasingly tense, and their posture became progressively rigid. All to late, I realized that they were so cemented in their ways of thinking that they were incapable of learning, let alone hearing what I was sharing, even when I knew without a shadow of a doubt that what I taught was solid doctrine. To my shock, at the end of the meeting, one of their leaders stated emphatically, “Well, that may be what you believe, but we don’t think it’s right. We think you’re taking it out of context.” Stunned, I decided to press them to clarify what they found out of context. Not surprisingly they couldn’t answer me with anything substantial, because in reality, they were just parroting a pseudo-spiritual excuse that they'd used for many years designed to protect themselves from anything that made them uncomfortable. I was still quite young in ministry and was taken aback. It hit me that just because they didn’t agree with what was taught, and were unsettled with having to consider something else doctrinally, they excused their discomfort with the phrase “we think you’re taking it out of context.” The teaching wasn’t out of context, it was just outside of their comfort zones. Obviously, they didn’t know what “context” meant so they covered their religious ideologies and lack of Biblical knowledge with a stereotypical religious response. Now, many years later, having heard people of all ages and walks of Church-life parrot the same phrase, or similar religious defenses, concerning messages that other ministers delivered, I realize a vast number of Christians don’t have a clue about what “context” actually means. Consequently, I need to define this hazy concept so that you’ll expand your sense of what it means to study the Bible accurately and fully.
“Context” is a Middle English word originating, according to linguists, in 1568 AD. It comes from a Latin word, contextus, that refers to the weaving together of something. It’s contemporary definition means that it is the parts of a communication that surround a word or passage, and therefore, can throw light on its meaning. It can also include the interrelated conditions in which something exists or occurs, such as an environment, setting, or the historical background the idea originates from.
One cannot determine context, in a general sense, without taking three primary conditions into consideration. This procedure applies generally to any subject of study, but in our case, specifically in the study of the Bible, and including the pursuit for Kingdom Truth. The failure to use these combined factors will invariably construct a trap door where deception will regrettably, take hold. These primary three foundational causative dynamics or types of context are presented as follows. I have also included additional influence of the instruction of the Holy Spirit, necessary to accurate biblical study. I’ve incorporated the work of the Holy Spirit into this list so to prevent an unhealthy over-emphasis on the intellectual interpretation of Scripture. We must always allow for the spontaneous instruction of the Holy Spirit since He’s identified as the Spirit of Truth. Rest assured, the Spirit’s guidance will never discredit the truths of God’s word or err from the proper contexts the Word is to be interpreted through!!!
As we proceed, I will spend time defining each form of context as best as possible concerning our pursuit of Kingdom Truth through biblical truth. See the list below.
1. LITERARY CONTEXT
2. HISTORICAL CONTEXT
3. CANONICAL CONTEXT
4. INSTRUCTION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Biblical truth takes time to discover and unravel. If you genuinely desire accurate truth it’s imperative that you guard against mixing truth with erroneous interpretations. That can generally be accomplished by consistently acknowledging the three primary standards of context. But now, let’s dive into the Literary type of context and discover how it should be utilized.
THE LITERARY CONTEXT
WHAT DOES THE LITERARY CONTEXT DO TO HELP YOU INTERPRET SCRIPTURE?
Bearing in mind that a large number of believers through the world do not own a Bible or have biblical resource materials to assist them, we need to remember how blessed we are if we have those tools at hand. In a future series of blogs I will describe how the Holy Spirit guides and teaches Kingdom truth! Now let’s look at the literary context.
The literary context consists of several notable forms and features. Likewise, each of these must be considered before you begin study because when you don’t take these things into account your interpretation may be slightly skewed and you will read your Bible without considering who it was and is written for, why, when, and how it was meant to be heard. The literary context of the Bible includes assortments of letters, prophetic visions, accounts of an event, poetry, prose, the Gospels, apocalyptic revelation, historical narratives, proverbs, drama, parables, hymns, prayers, instructions, commands, Law and much more. These forms should be determined prior to any study you attempt to do. Consider the genre of the letter with me if you will.
The New Testament letters composed by Paul, James, Peter, John, Jude and such were written to the people living in the 1st century Mediterranean world. They addressed specific concerns affecting those unique early Church meetings. Many of the issues discussed in their verses were pertinent to that time and frame of history and culture. Therefore, if we don’t know to consider those conditions, we can easily misread what was actually being addressed and superimpose the issues of our times into their context. This is dangerous because had those writers been living in our day, the counsel might have been very different. A number of these letters were additionally occasional letters written as a pastoral response to specific questions and requests of the people of that time. In order to be accurate in the translation of the context of the verses, a good Bible student must get a grasp on what the purposes for which those letters were written, otherwise they will not be able to determine their interpretation thereof.
Secondly, the Literary Context incorporates investigating the languages and how the grammar of the wording is used in the original text. For example, in order to fully benefit in the study of the Old Testament, I would encourage you to dig into the ancient Hebrew words and text. The same principle applies to New Testament Greek. Many reliable language resources are available to modern believers. However, no matter which ones you use, it’s important that you remember to find and continually utilize the resources of resources that take you back to the origins of the word, the historical background of it’s usage, the cultural environment in which the word was used and the potential nuances the author may have intended when using it. The grammar and manner of the treatment of the words will radically affect how the text should be read. Regrettably, some concordances and lexicons offer only a very superficial and general definition that may or may not be accurate for the particular verse. It’s dangerously easy to jump to conclusions when working with this type of concordance. Give yourself time to survey the language properly. The translation of some of the Hebrew and Greek words into English have suffered miserably at the hands of translators who were influenced by their doctrinal persuasion and social climate making them interpret rather than translate the text into something they wanted to mould the text to say. To do this accurately we must examine the words in each verse.
Understandably, very few believers read and understand the ancient Hebrew and Greek texts of the Bible. Even those who do, and are considered experts, sometimes translate the words influenced by their culture, traditions, doctrinal tendency, their personalities and personal preferences. Consequently, such translations will have biases originating from a change of the meanings of words, distance of time since the writing and cultural differences. In order to choose a good translation one must determine if there are a wide variety of persons translating it for broad and authentic translation.
As difficult as it may be for people to accept or believe there are no singular original manuscripts!!! People who say they’ve gone back to the original manuscripts sometimes accidentally mislead others because translators incorporate and work from literally thousands of pages of ancient text. Some of these sources contain small differences and text errors, yet it is agreed, even with human error considered, none of these manuscripts alter the message or affect its overall truth in the original languages.
Furthermore, translators can innocently become interpreters of what is written as well. There are innumerable Hebrew and Greek nuances in the translations of the words that are often difficult to translate into our own languages. Therefore, sometimes translators, in order to try to make sense of certain words, may change the grammatical structure and create an interpretive problem. There are numerous instances of this throughout history. This is very hard for a lot of people to accept, but nonetheless it does happen. Let me share about one example that shocked me.
I had been teaching at various church groups in France and was privileged to visit a museum in the Cevanne region dedicated to the time of the Huguenot conflicts. It was a fascinating place displaying a wide range of artifacts from that era. However, one of the most astounding exhibits I encountered there was displayed in several large glassed-in wooden cases presenting an assortment of French Bibles translated during the years of the revolution. To my astonishment when I read portions of the texts, for example from Psalms 23, I was stunned to see that the Huguenot scribes had interpreted the Bible in a French manner of speaking quite different to what I was accustomed to in English translations. Throughout the verses the translators depicted the shepherd as a warrior rather than the usual gentle portrayal we’re familiar with. The tense climate of that troublesome time affected how the Bible had been transcribed into the French. I was sternly reminded that God’s word is settled in heaven, not earth when I saw these Bibles with my own eyes.
For these reasons we must remember that no one specific translation is exclusively correct. There are literally dozens of angles how words can be translated. We must search out to the best as we can, and seek for what best honors what Jesus did on the cross, and is consistent with the entirety of God’s word. For some Christians this is too much of a challenge because sadly they’ve built their belief systems on translations and interpretations instead of what the Bible actually says in the Hebrew or the Greek. I realize the inner tug of war this creates and have wrestled through this myself. But I want to know the truth and if that means I have to discard traditional but inaccurate human interpretations for accurate translation I’m willing to engage in this wrestling match.
Finally, when you examine the literary context of Scripture, you have to consider the intention of the author.
- Why was the author writing this message?
- What did the writer hope to accomplish?
- Was it merely to detail a historical account for future generations to produce faith?
- Was it to correct an attitude of the heart and rouse up conviction and repentance?
Sometimes in our attempt to be spiritual we lose sight of context and make the words read differently than God intended and then call that “revelation”. That, my friend, is not revelation. It is deception.
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