Each Day Grow Older

Context, Context, Context

While teaching lately how to study the Bible (using Kevin Rhodes’s book as a guide for the first sequence of sessions), I covered the basics of biblical context.

As I (and Rhodes) see it, there are essentially four broad layers of context for a given text, each with its own sub-elements:

  1. General,
  2. historical,
  3. literary, and
  4. immediate.

The inquisitive Bible student requires each layer of context to adequately interpret his text. Most students naturally prefer one or two of these layers, depending on their background and education. For example, the average member in the churches of Christ will be quick to apply his knowledge of general context (i.e., biblical, covenant, and book context), while most critical scholars are fain to analyze the historical and literary backgrounds. Preachers urge, “Now remember the context!” —by which they invariably mean the immediate context.

These layers must all be considered, yet with hierarchical weight. One must never omit any layer of context. Those focusing solely on one or two consistently discover unreasonable and faulty conclusions. Excluding any layer confronts the hermeneutic of certainty —

“All relevant information and data must be considered to reach conclusions with certainty.”

The hierarchy dictates that, although the successive layers increasingly elucidate the precise meaning of a text, they can only narrow the possibilities for interpretation, not broaden them; a passage will never be permitted by literary context a meaning disallowed by general context, nor is it rational to conclude that the immediate context contradicts the historical.

I encourage all who wish to grow in their study of God’s word to identify their weakest areas of contextual understanding and spend time educating themselves in those areas. Nothing happens instantly, but knowledge grows with time. The sooner an acorn falls, the sooner it can take root. This article is a brief compendium of resources for each contextual stratum.

Caveat lector, but meditētur lector et discat.

Before I go any further, I’d like to endorse Accordance Bible Software (this is not paid, nor do they sponsor me…this is a genuine endorsement!). I’ve been using it extensively for almost four years, and I can safely say it is my most used tool for biblical study. A few of the books below are available through Accordance, and it is unparalleled for speedy, agile analysis in the original languages. Other books are out-of-print and only (reliably) available through Logos. Most other links are to Amazon.

General Context

This is the highest and broadest layer, covering a good deal of material. General context includes such information as is contained within the Bible, down to the particular book. Unfortunately, these are the only types of context that you can’t just look up for a given passage. This layer takes prior understanding, derivative from prior study. These are inductive processes, reliant on observation and the scientific method.

Biblical context

Biblical context is the overall message of the Scripture on anything. This frequently changes how we read various passages.

Biblical context requires tremendous familiarity with all of God’s word, which can only be obtained through effort and diligence. While God never contradicts Himself, sometimes a passage is an exception to a rule.

Various books are intended to be helpful here, but I would lean on none of them. To begin with, you might read a brief work on the scheme of redemption, but frankly, I don’t have many recommendations. Turning Points (by Steven Lloyd) is a short, succinct, and enjoyable overview.

Covenant context

The particular covenants (Adamic, Noachic, Mosaic, and Messianic) each contain laws peculiar to their participants. This layer not only applies to matters of authority but also to the way we understand the behavior of persons involved in the text. Once again, we in the church are usually good about considering the covenant, and there’s not much to do besides reading the Scriptures extensively.

Authorial context

Frequently, people try to define words particular to one book based on the way another author uses them. When reading in Romans about “salvation by faith and not by works,” one’s mind shouldn’t jump to James, but to Galatians. James and Paul were dealing with opposite issues. The way Paul uses a word in Romans and Galatians is much more likely to be similar. Another example is John’s unique vocabulary, which doesn’t align with almost anyone else’s.

Book context

Each book has its own purpose and theme, and one’s interpretation of the passages within it must be mindful of that context. Only now do books begin to help, but even so, they are rarely as effective as personal study. I recommend having a few decent introduction/survey books on hand. They come at different levels (popular, critical, homiletic), and your study needs should dictate your reading needs.

Popular

Critical

Homiletic

Historical Context

A text cannot mean what it never meant. To understand the Scripture properly, the diligent student must first understand what was intended by the original authors for the original audiences. This is the basis for studying historical, literary, and immediate context.

There are several aspects of historical context, almost all of which require external study. Whereas general context can only be discovered within the Bible, historical context can (often) only be learned outside it.

General reference

Geographic

Political

Read ancient history. Several of the general reference sources have much of this. You will likely find that generic secular sources on ancient Egypt, Assyria2, the Neo-Babylonian empire3, Achaemenid Persia4, Hellenistic Greece5, and Imperial Rome6 may be helpful. If you don’t like reading large amounts of history, there are still plenty of resources aimed at biblical studies.

Religious

It’s helpful to understand contemporary religious perspectives to see how the biblical authors interact with them.

Cultural

I confess I’ve never read any of these myself (I usually glean from more general sources), but I would start here—especially with deSilva; he’s a great scholar.

Chronological

Struggle to keep all the dates and times straight? Yeah, it’s not always obvious. While I enjoy the manual process of deciphering chronology, not all of you find the same joy. Sometimes it’s easier to lean on existing work.

Literary Context

Two authors especially stand out in this field of study: Leland Ryken and Robert Alter. My readers will likely find Ryken (an evangelical scholar and the literary stylist for the ESV) more comfortable in style and approach. Alter is more technical and academic, but his perspectives are clearly flavored by secular Judaism.

Overviews

Narratives

Hebrew poetry and wisdom literature

Epistles/Letters

  • Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students (Sharon Crowley and Debra Hawhee) — a textbook on classical rhetoric providing excellent background knowledge (does not tie itself into the biblical text); very expensive, so look in used bookstores for previous editions

Apocalyptic prophecy

Immediate Context

When we refer to “the context” of a passage, we most likely mean the immediate context. Immediate context is everything textual within the book itself.

Book structure

The last element in general context is “book context” (each book has a purpose). Book structure goes a bit deeper: How is the book arranged? How does the writer present his arguments or information?

The interpretation of a passage must accord with the writer’s purpose.

Good commentaries often help to identify internal book structures, especially exegetical commentaries, although they can be very technical sometimes. These are my favorite series (for exegesis and analysis), but I am not endorsing every volume from each series.

Pericope, paragraph, and sentence structures

Books can be broken into large sections (called pericopes). Within these, there are paragraphs that link together. A paragraph is just a set of sentences that together relate a single main idea. In turn, a sentence is itself composed of conjoined words, phrases, and clauses.

When we learn to appreciate sections independently, we will understand better how they fit together. Constituent sections flow through their arrangement. Learning to identify rhetorical markers (mostly various conjunctions) will help tremendously. Their presence indicates the type of relationship between a sentence, paragraph, or pericope and the one that follows.

The above commentaries are excellent tools when you feel stuck, but nothing will beat a good understanding of grammar and literary analysis. Sources for specific literary contexts are discussed above, but here are some grammatical tools.

  1. Out-of-print—and consequently hard-to-find—but one of my favorites. ↩
  2. E.g., Assyria: The Rise and Fall of the World’s First Empire (Eckart Frahm). ↩
  3. E.g., Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization (Paul Kriwaczek). ↩
  4. E.g., Persians: The Age of the Great Kings (Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones). ↩
  5. E.g., Ghost on the Throne: The Death of Alexander the Great and the War for Crown and Empire (James Romm) and The Hellenistic Age: A Short History (Peter Green). ↩
  6. E.g., SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, or Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman World, or any other works by Mary Beard. ↩

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