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Do Not Depart

Encouragement and Tools to Abide in God's Word

You are here: Home / Bible Study Tools / Context is King!

Context is King!

March 12, 2012 by Kathy Howard 18 Comments

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“Stop, you’re killing me!”

Which of the following scenes produced the statement above?

  • A teenage boy won’t stop tickling his little sister.
  • A middle-aged woman just scored 75 points against her Scrabble partner.
  • A masked man is beating a defenseless elderly woman.

Does it matter? Absolutely! In the first two cases, the statement is meant to be teasing and playful. But the last scenario is life and death and someone needs to call the police!

Context does indeed matter in our daily life and in our study of God’s Word.

The Apostle Paul writing on a clay tablet. www.visualbiblealive.com

Unfortunately, many Christians fail to consider the context of a biblical passage before they come to a conclusion about what it means. As one of my seminary professors used to say, “A passage can never mean what it never meant.” In other words, every verse in the Bible has the same meaning today that it had when it was written. It may have unlimited applications depending on the individual and her circumstances. But God’s meaning never changes.

But here’s our problem: “the Bible was written in a foreign language to people who lived a long time ago in a different part of the world with a different way of life.”[i] In order to discover the original – and therefore current – meaning, we must consider the original context of the passage.

Biblical Context to Consider

Although numerous volumes have been written on the subject, there are a few things we can quickly consider to help us deal correctly with God’s Word.

  1. Literary Genre – Is the book you are studying poetry, wisdom, prophecy, narrative, or apocalyptic literature? The genre of the book affects the interpretation. For instance, narrative simply tells us what happened and not necessarily what we are supposed to do in a given situation. And wisdom literature, like Proverbs, states general life principles and not solid promises of God.
  2. Literary Context – Every sentence is part of a paragraph. Every paragraph is part of a larger passage. Every passage is part of an entire book. We cannot assign meaning to a verse without considering the greater context. For instance, knowing that Jacob stole the birthright from his brother Esau in Genesis 25 and Esua’s blessing from his father in chapter 27 helps us understand why Jacob was afraid of him in chapter 32.
  3. The Context of the Book – It matters who the author was, who he was writing to, and why he was writing. For instance, knowing that the author of the book of James was the half-brother of Jesus and not James the Apostle, definitely changes the way we understand the letter.
  4. Historical-Cultural Background – Every book of the Bible was written in a specific time in history, to a specific people, in the midst of a specific set of circumstances. We cannot accurately understand them outside of that context. The political climate, current customs, and speech idioms are just a few of the things that impact the original meaning of a passage. For instance, the book of Hebrews is packed with references to Jewish religious practices. Its rich meaning will be lost on us unless we go back and study things like the Day of Atonement and the Levitical priesthood.

A few resources to help with context

We cannot begin to cover everything here, but if you’d like to look deeper into the context as you study, here are a few suggestions:

  1. Read the introduction to a Bible book in your study Bible.
  2. Get a good Bible Dictionary. I have a copy of Eerdman’s Dictionary of the Bible.
  3. Another great resource is the two-volume set of The IVP Bible Background Commentary.
  4. Bible handbook like the classic Halley’s Bible Handbook 

Have you ever misunderstood God’s Word because you failed to consider the context? What is a verse that you think is regularly taken out of context?


[i] Introduction to Biblical Interpretation, Klein, Blomberg, Hubbard, Word Publishing, 1993, pg. 155.

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Comments

  1. Heather says

    March 12, 2012 at 8:15 am

    This is so good Kathy! I think the looking at what type of book (wisdom, narrative, etc) is an area I have drawn wrong conclusions before. Thank you also for the great resources!

    Reply
    • Kathy Howard says

      March 12, 2012 at 8:58 am

      Heather, the importance of the literature genre did not really strike me until I was in seminary. It makes such a huge difference in how we should understand the text.

      Reply
  2. Caroline says

    March 12, 2012 at 9:10 am

    I’m with Heather… I often study background, author, and sentence/verse context, but haven’t considered type of book as much. Thanks for these great tips and resources, Kathy!

    Reply
    • Kathy Howard says

      March 12, 2012 at 3:23 pm

      Thank you Caroline!

      Reply
  3. Brooke Espinoza says

    March 12, 2012 at 12:34 pm

    This is so true! Context is essential to rightly dividing the Word of truth. This is one reason I prefer to memorize a passage of scripture over individual verses. When I memorize a psalm or other chunk of scripture I am getting the whole truth fit together as God intended, rather than just one piece of that truth. Without knowing the contex of a scripture, it is too easy to accidentally misinterpret a scripture. When I went to Calvary Chapel Bible College they told us in my Inductive Bible Study class a great way for avoiding misinterpreting scripture. My teacher referred to it as The Golden Rule for Bible Interpretation. It says “When the plain sense, makes sense, don’t seek any other sense, lest it be nonsense.” It all goes back to context. :)

    Reply
    • Kathy Howard says

      March 12, 2012 at 3:23 pm

      Brooke, thanks for the insight! Good point about memorizing chunks of Scripture!

      Reply
  4. Joyce says

    March 12, 2012 at 6:53 pm

    Great post Kathy! Our pastor shared about this in his sermon yesterday.

    Reply
    • Kathy Howard says

      March 12, 2012 at 7:57 pm

      Joyce, did I miss anything important? :)

      Reply
      • Joyce says

        March 13, 2012 at 1:56 am

        Nope, I think you got it! Makes me want to dig deeper into a passage.

        Reply
  5. Susan says

    March 12, 2012 at 7:43 pm

    This may sound silly…..how do we know if it is narrative etc?
    Love your posts,they make me think and focus
    Susan

    Reply
    • Kathy Howard says

      March 12, 2012 at 8:02 pm

      Susan, not a silly question. Sometimes it’s easy to tell and sometimes it’s not. And sometimes a book will mix genre. For instance a narrative book will also include a poem or song. A good study Bible might tell, but any commentary or Bible handbook definitely will. Make a trip to a Christian bookstore or go to CBD.com and purchase a one-volume commentary or a solid Bible handbook. It will help with literary genre and more!

      Reply
  6. Carmen says

    March 16, 2012 at 12:54 pm

    Kathy, I just discovered your many-faceted ministry through surfing the web. I find your websites amazing, and have ordered two of your Bible Studies! I am working on “Before His Throne” currently, and find through this study , I am growing closer to God. I am enrolled in Liberty on-line, and have just finished my first class “Old Testament Survey” i cannot wait to see what God has planned for us! What an exciting time!

    Reply
    • Kathy Howard says

      March 16, 2012 at 4:42 pm

      Carmen, thanks for letting me know you are working on “Before His Throne!” I was so challenged in my relationship with God through studying and writing that material. “Old Testament Survey” was one of my favorite seminary courses. May God richly bless you as you study to equip yourself for His service!

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Why Use a Bible Dictionary? « Do Not Depart says:
    March 14, 2012 at 5:01 am

    […] a dictionary won’t provide an all-encompassing study and won’t give you much context (other resources are available for that), it is a great starting point and is often all the extra information you […]

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  2. How to Read the Bible “Christianly” « Do Not Depart says:
    March 21, 2012 at 12:14 am

    […] in her post “Context is King” gave us great tips on looking at the context of Scripture. In addition to looking at the immediate […]

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  3. The Love Like Him study starts TODAY! « Do Not Depart says:
    May 14, 2012 at 7:31 am

    […] Understanding the context of a passage of Scripture is very important. Many good study Bibles (the The ESV Study Bible is my favorite!) have a great introduction to each book, which gives us helpful information to understand the “why” behind the book’s writing. […]

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  4. “The Love Chapter” in Context « Do Not Depart says:
    May 21, 2012 at 5:01 am

    […] post, I talked about four areas of context that helps us understand a passage. (Read that post “Context is King.”) Let’s briefly consider each one for First Corinthians […]

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  5. "Fruit of the Spirit" Summer Study - You're Invited! says:
    July 2, 2013 at 5:45 am

    […] The way God chooses to apply the truths found in His Word can vary with the individual and their circumstance. However the meaning of a biblical passage never changes. It will always mean what God originally intended for it to mean. Before we can make application to our lives we must have a good grasp of the original meaning by considering the larger context. (For more information on biblical context read “Context is King.”) […]

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