I found it appropriate that my first blog of 2009 should be on that deals with context. So many people made resolutions to change their life, whether that be weight loss, cut back on some pleasure, organize, etc. and another great way to change your life is to look at different aspects of the world around you in a new way. I have heard many people say that context is important, yet many of us do not know what that means or how that would look. For the purpose of this writing, I am going to focus on Biblical context in the form of Scripture Interpretation, however I suggest that it is important to understand the context for everything to truly understand what that object is.
Let me give an example: Many times I hear people quote a Bible verse as meaning one thing when it does not really mean that at all. Matt. 5:29 says "If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell." So what does that mean?
Part of what it means to have context is to look at the entire picture: the who, what, where, and why of that particular time. The Israelites were a people who used vivid imagery because they were very much an oral society with I believe very active imaginations as well. Someone is most likely to say that what I quoted is not in context and so they will put it in the context that is given in the Bible, Matt. 5:27-30 "You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell."
I do not know about you but if people just heard this without context there would be many people without hands and without eyes. However that is not the context that it was meant to be heard in, that was only what the people who printed the Bible wanted in that section. The Bible was meant to be read as a whole, not taking out pieces for our own gain. That being said, we must understand that nothing is outside of its historical context, yes not even the Bible. In order to truly understand what the Bible is saying, we have to understand that it was written in a specific time in history and that it was not the writters idea to write it to us today. It was written by people in history to people of that time frame. There where events that shaped what was written, there was other people writing who shaped what was written. Only then can we understand what the Bible truly means.
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