Have you ever seen an ‘out of context’ video? Lines of dialogue that make perfect sense in the context of a movie, show, or discussion sound ridiculous when removed from that context, giving people an impression that the show or movie is filled with nonsense. The Bible can be taken out of context too.
I recently finished reading a book called How (Not) To Read the Bible by Dan Kimball. As the title suggests, Kimball’s book discusses how to make sense of the more troubling and commonly misunderstood parts of the Bible by using sound study practices. A recurring theme of the book is the phrase “never read a Bible verse,” which Kimball quotes from Greg Koukl. Of course, Koukl and Kimball don’t mean to suggest the Bible should never be read at all. The phrase means that we should never read a verse by itself, but make sure we also understand the verses around it, the book that contains it, and the Bible as a whole.
There’s a danger in knowing the Bible only in bits and pieces. Imagine if someone picked up a Bible for the first time, flipped randomly to the start of Ecclesiastes, and read “The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem: ‘Meaningless! Meaningless!’ says the Teacher. ‘Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless’” (Ecclesiastes 1:1-2, NIV). We know from the context of the rest of the book and the whole Bible that life isn’t meaningless. But if that person never read further, they might come away with a rather depressing impression of what the Bible teaches. To avoid “reading a Bible verse” out of context, there are a few study practices we can use to help us.
Step 1. Understand the original audience of the text.
Another point Kimball reminds his readers of is that “the Bible was written for us, but not to us” (32). God inspired the words of the Bible and preserved them for us so that we can learn about Him and get instruction from it. However, the original books weren’t written to us. Each book had a human author who was living and writing at a specific time, in a specific culture, for a specific purpose, to a specific group of people. Therefore, we need to be aware of that context in order to understand every part of the Bible as it was meant to be understood. All of Scripture is useful for us today, but we can get into trouble when we try to understand it as if it had been written in our time and for our culture.
Step 2. Understand the purpose of writing.
When we read part of the Bible, we also need to understand why that portion of Scripture was written. What point was the original author trying to make to the original intended audience? Even though the Bible answers many questions we may have directly and can be used reliably to teach principles for how to deal with other issues it doesn’t directly address, we often look for explicit answers to our contemporary cultural, scientific, social, or political questions when those don’t match up with the original purpose of the work (Kimball 163). While we absolutely should go to the Bible to help us make God-honoring decisions in modern life, we need to start by correctly understanding His Word in context. For example, in our culture, we expect exactness when reporting numbers, facts, and quotations, especially in scientific and historical writings, as well as exact citation and attribution of others’ ideas. However, not all of today’s cultures have the same practices regarding writing, and that also extends to the cultures that produced the text of the Bible (see the Assemblies of God position paper on the inerrancy of Scripture). These portions of Scripture aren’t wrong or in error, but they just may not fit exactly with the way we’re using to understanding texts from our time and culture.
Step 3. Understand the genre.
The books of the Bible are a collection written in many different genres, including history, poetry, prophecy, wisdom literature, and letters. Each of these literary types uses different writing techniques to be effective. So, for example, a verse from 1 Samuel shouldn’t be understood in the same way that a verse form Proverbs can. The biblical writers used figures of speech including metaphor, simile, and analogy as well as parables, poetic hyperbole, and war rhetoric (Kimball 282-285). When the authors observed miracles, events, or prophetic visions, they recorded what they observed and didn’t attempt to explain in exact terms. They used the “language of appearance” to give an account of what must have been difficult to describe (AG). In addition, because the Bible talks about real events, not every action or line of dialogue in the Bible aligns with what God wants or approves of for His people. History literature often records false statements by people or actions that were not God-honoring. So, we need to understand the full context of a verse before we apply it to our lives.
Step 4. Understand where the passage fits into the broader story of Scripture.
Finally, all of Scripture fits together into one story about God, His relationship with human beings, and the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. When we read any part of the Bible, we need to look for what that Scripture teaches us about God and how it fits into His great story.
The Bible is inspired by God. It’s “alive and active” (Hebrews 4:12, NIV) and applicable to all times and cultures. However, we still need to put in the work to understand the original audience, purpose, genre, and context to ensure we are getting the intended message rather than misusing or misrepresenting Scripture.
Works Cited
Assemblies of God (AG). The Inspiration, Inerrancy, and Authority of Scripture. Official AG Position Paper, adopted by the General Presbytery in Session 1-3 August 2015, https://ag.org/Beliefs/Position-Papers/Inspiration-Inerrancy-Authority-of-Scripture.
Kimball, Dan. How (Not) To Read the Bible. Zondervan Reflective, 2020.
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