Participatory Bible Study: Map to the Method

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Participatory Bible Study Blog

Participatory Bible Study

Understanding Context

This page is part of the basic guide to the participatory study method designed by Henry Neufeld. You may want to start from the outline of the method or at the introductory description.

Introduction

You're discussing a Bible verse with a friend, and suddenly he says, "You're taking that verse out of context!" You didn't think you were taking it out of context, but how do you know?

Quite frequently the "out of context" claim is used to stop arguments, often with no basis in fact. Yet many times Bible texts are taken out of context, and made to mean things which their authors never intended them to mean. How do you respond to this argument? How do you make sure that you are not the one guilty? What is context anyhow?

Types of Context

People usually think of context as a single thing. But each text has a number of different contexts, and different types of literature need to be considered differently. Let's look first at a number of types of context.

• Syntactic Context
  This is simply the linguistic structure of the verse, and how various elements of it fit together. It means you need to get various clauses and phrases attached to the right element of the sentence.
• Literary Context
  Where does this element fit in the broader structure of the passage I'm reading. In part, this involves understanding what type of literature you are reading.
• Historical Context
  When in history was this passage written? What were the circumstances? What elements of the history contribute to the nature of the material written.
• Cultural Context
  This overlaps with historical context, but goes beyond it. How did the people who wrote and/or heard the piece of literature you are studying understand the world, and written texts? What concepts were available in their world?
• Canonical Context
  Where does this passage fit in the overall canon of scripture. For those who are reading the Bible as part of the literature of their faith, this is particularly important. There are reasons why these texts were chosen and put together into the larger book we call the Bible. How does your passage fit into this broader picture?
• Spiritual Context
  Where does this passage fit in spirituality generally?
• Experiential Context
  What is the nature of the religious or spiritual experience of the people who wrote and read or heard the passage you are studying?

Syntactic Context

This is simply a matter of careful reading, though those who read the Bible in languages other than the source languages, such as English, need to be aware that often choices must be made by translators in order to provide a readable English text. Comparing translations can help show you where such choices needed to be made, since not all translators will necessarily make them in the same way. For more information see Reading Precisely.

Literary Context

Literary context is more commonly violated. I provide an example of taking a portion of a passage out of context in my essay on interpreting prophecy, in which Jeremiah 4:22-27 is commonly taken out of the context of the entire prophetic oracle that begins at 4:5. People see these few verses as applying to a different time and place, even though the context--words on both sides of the main passage, indicate the topic. One excellent way to avoid this type of context problem is outlining and phrasing (see Reading Precisely).

Frequently quoting out of context is much more subtle. Psalm 12 is frequently cited by KJV Only advocates (see my Bible Translations FAQ) in support of their view that the Bible must be preserved word for word through all translation processes. The verse they cite is Psalm 12:6, which reads literally, "The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace in the ground, purified seven times." One can immediately point out that the context is not one of Bible translation. The Psalmist is not dealing with a translated text at all. What he is dealing with is God's promises, and he is stating that God's promises are true and will come to pass. (Read all of Psalm 12 to get this literary context.) This is why many translations use promises here rather than just words--because in context, that is the precise meaning of the Hebrew word used.

A more subtle case is leaving off portions of a text that don't relate to whatever point we are trying to make at the moment. Sometimes this is simply necessary because of time, but often it leads to problems. Consider the following passage: