Putting Your Reading into Context

According to Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, "there are two basic kinds of questions one should ask of every biblical passage: those that relate to context and those that relate to content. The questions of context are also of two kinds: historical and literary."

Understanding the time and culture of a particular book is of great importance in understanding the meaning of the text. Study Bibles or Bible Handbooks provide a good summary of this information, including maps and other visual aids.

Keeping things simple, literary context has to do with understanding the plain meaning of a sentence. In most cases, the sentence has meaning within the broader context of a paragraph, or as it relates to surrounding paragraphs, or the book as a whole.

Content refers to the meaning of the actual words used and it may be necessary to examine outside sources to fully understand some references in the Bible. Depending on the Bible you are using, you may find that uncommon terms are defined in footnotes or in special note sections. Bible Handbooks or Bible Dictionaries are good sources to consider. It is worth noting that the books of the Bible were originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. A variety of English translations were noted in our first post. If you're having difficulty with a particular passage, you may find it helpful to review the passage in another version.

Generally speaking, we would encourage you to do your level best to understand a passage considering the above and seeking God's guidance before you resort to consulting a commentary.

We'll examine these principles and expand on them during the tour. If you'd like to examine this more closely for yourself, we highly recommend, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, by Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, as an excellent reference on how to understand Scripture. Fee and Stuart also recommend the book, Knowing Scripture, by R.C. Sproul as a basic primer.

As we close this post, we would like to end with another important quote from Fee and Stuart, "The aim of good interpretation is not uniqueness; one is not trying to discover what no one else has ever seen before. The aim of good interpretation is simple: to get at the plain meaning of the text."

As always, we would invite your comments and questions.

Yours in Christ,

Sue and Peter

mbp@hillsideonline.ca