Living by the Book/Living by the Book Workbook Set (36 page)

Content

Context

Comparison

Culture

Consultation

W
hen the psalmist prayed to God, “Give me understanding, that I may observe Thy law, and keep it with all my heart” (Psalm 119:34), he was knocking on the door of Interpretation. He realized that apart from understanding the meaning of the text, there could be no application of the Word to his life. Conversely, once the Spirit opened the door of insight, he was prepared to act on what God had said.

Are you? Is that your aim in coming to the Scriptures—life-change? If so, then get ready for action, because God always opens the door to the one who knocks for that reason.

In this chapter I want to offer the first of five keys that will help you unlock the biblical text, five basic principles of Interpretation. The first key is one you already possess:

There is a direct cause-effect relationship between content and meaning. The content of a passage is the raw material, the database, with which you will interpret the text. And because of your work in Observation, you already
know quite a bit about how to determine the content of a passage.

Remember, you looked for terms, structure, literary form, and atmosphere. You asked a series of penetrating, practical questions: who, what, where, when, why, wherefore. You looked for things that are emphasized, repeated, related, alike, unlike, and true to life.

In short, you have barraged the text with a variety of strategies aimed at answering the question, What do I see? If you have done your homework well, you have uncovered the content of the passage. In other words, you’ve answered the question; you know what the author is saying.

That is why I say: The more time you spend in Observation, the less time you will have to spend in Interpretation, and the more accurate will be your result. The less time you spend in Observation, the more time you will have to spend in Interpretation, and the less accurate will be your result.

So whatever you do in Observation will provide the basic content out of which you will interpret the meaning of the text.

But don’t stop there. God has provided four more keys to help you unlock His Word.

R
emember the old spiritual:

That’s primitive physiology but good methodology. It recognizes the connectedness of the body: that it all hangs together. There’s unity.

So it is with Scripture. The Bible is a sixty-six-book collection, but it hangs together as one Book. It’s a unified whole. And that’s the principle on which the second key of biblical interpretation depends:

What do I mean by context? Context refers to that which goes before and that which follows after.

I suppose anyone who has had to face the press can appreciate the
importance of context. When I was chaplain for the Dallas Cowboys, I was visiting one day at their old training site in Thousand Oaks, California. Quarterback Roger Staubach had agreed to an interview with
Sports Illustrated
, and I was sitting in the room with him during the session.

I heard every word that Roger said. But when I read the article in the next month’s issue, I couldn’t believe it. A number of his statements had been ripped out of their context and presented in a way that completely distorted their original meaning. It made Roger appear to say things he had never actually said.

A person can do the same thing with the Word of God. In fact, every major cult is built on a violation of this principle of context. I mentioned the two men who came to see me about their religious persuasion (
chapter 28
). They were distorting the text of Scripture. But a great deal of that sort of doctrinal error could be corrected by simply asking, “Would you please read the previous verses or the ones that follow?”

I wish I had known that as a boy. I used to visit the home of a little girl that I loved to play with because she was so easily scared. (Little boys thrill to scare little girls.) Her house had an ancient parlor where the shades were always down, and her family rarely used it. I liked to hide there, especially behind the couch, while she looked for me. When she finally came in there, I would jump out and shout, “Boo!” and she’d go through the ceiling.

But while hiding in that parlor, I occasionally stuck my head out to look around. And there on the wall was a placard with the motto: “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” I had a vague sense that it was a quote from the Bible. But it scared me to death. I thought,
If that’s true, there’s no hope for me. I’ll never make it.

I was correct in thinking that those words came from the Bible. They are the last part of Philippians 2:12. But I was incorrect in my understanding of them, that salvation is basically by works. Unfortunately, many people read that verse the way I did, and come to the same erroneous conclusion. It was not until years later that I discovered what the next verse says: “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (v.13,
KJV)
. That throws verse 12 in an altogether different light.

Likewise, remember our observation of Acts 1:8? We broke into a paragraph at verse 8, and because the verse begins with “but,” a contrast, we were
forced to look back at the preceding context. There we discovered the disciples asking Jesus a question about the kingdom. Verse 8 turned out to be part of His answer.

But we also discovered that immediately following verse 8 is the ascension. And that ended up having a profound effect on verse 8. What Jesus said there turned out to be the last words of His life. And of course, last words are lasting words. So given the context, His listeners would have never forgotten what happened and what Jesus said. His words must have galvanized them into action.

So whenever you study a verse, a paragraph, a section, even an entire book—always consult the neighbors of that verse, that paragraph, that section, that book. Whenever you get lost, climb a “contextual tree” and gain some perspective.

There are several kinds of context. Each one gives a different slant on whatever passage you are considering.

In the Acts 1:8 example in
chapter 6
, we saw an illustration of literary context, that is, the words before and after verse 8. The literary context of any verse is the paragraph of which it is a part, the section of which that paragraph is a part, and the book of which that section is a part. And, given the unity of Scripture, the ultimate context is the entire Bible.

In other words, when is this taking place? Where does this passage fit in history? What else was taking place in the world at this time? What were some of the social, political, and technological influences on the writer and on those to whom he was writing?

Culture has a powerful influence on all forms of communication, and the cultures in biblical times had a profound effect on the creation of the Bible. So
the more you know about ancient cultures, the more insight you’ll have into the text. Because this issue is so important, I’ll come back to it, as well as the matter of historical context, in chapter 33.

Geography is a fascinating subject that is incredibly relevant to the interpretation of Scripture.

For instance, in Mark 4 we saw the miracle of the stilling of the storm, and I pointed out the geographic features around the Sea of Galilee that bring about storms like that. Knowing that information lends tremendous relevance and realism to Mark’s account. It also gives us a clue as to how violent that particular storm must have been; it terrified the fishermen who had seen a lifetime of storms on that lake.

Investigating the geographical context answers questions such as: What was the terrain like? What topographic features made this region unique? What was the weather like? How far was this town from places mentioned in the text? What were the transportation routes for these people? What size city was this? What was the layout of this town? What was this location known for?

In chapter 34 I’ll mention some resources, such as atlases, that you can consult when you look into the geographical context.

The question here is, what did this author know about God? What was the relationship of his readers to God? How did people worship Him at that point? How much Scripture did the writer and his audience have access to? What other religions and worldviews were competing for influence?