190 Understanding the Bible correctly – Part 2

How God speaks to us    Talk 6 Understanding the Bible correctly (Part 2)

In the last talk we saw that to understand the Bible correctly we must be aware of what part of the Bible we are reading and of the context of the passage we are looking at. We considered the literary context and the cultural/historical context. It’s now time to talk about the immediate context.

 

The immediate context

By the immediate context I mean the verses and chapters around the verse or passage you’re looking at. The key to the meaning of a verse will usually be found in the verses that precede it and those that follow it. Take, for example, the last two sentences I have written.  In the first sentence I used the word around. Now around can have a variety of meanings depending on the context in which it’s being used. If you don’t believe me, take a look in a dictionary! One I just consulted listed at least eight different meanings[1]. But I wasn’t using the word to mean all these things. The key to how I was using it is found in the second sentence. I used around to mean the verses that precede and those that follow the verse or passage we’re studying.

 

So be careful! Don’t read into a word every possible meaning it can have. Sadly, far too often have I heard preachers fall into this error. The Greek, they tell us, can mean this, or this, or that. That may well be true, but it almost certainly can’t be meaning all those things in one particular verse. Let me illustrate this further with the use of two examples, one from modern English and one from NT Greek.

 

First, let’s think about the English word court. As a noun it can refer to a law court (the building or the people assembled within it), or a tennis court, or a courtyard. As a verb it can be used in expressions like to court someone’s favour, or to mean to be dating someone. Now let’s imagine that some zealous Bible student decides to check out the origin of this word and he discovers that court (English) comes from the French word cour which basically means an enclosed space. This comes from the Latin word hortus and the Greek word chortos, both of which mean garden. And if he studies further our student will discover that all the various meanings of our English word court are historically connected with the original concept of an enclosed space. But, as interesting as all this might be – and as a linguist I have always been fascinated by the meaning and origin of words – it is of little value in helping us to understand the meaning of the word court in a particular English sentence. The context will usually make it abundantly plain.

 

The same applies to the origin of the Greek word sōzō  which basically means to make safe. Long before the New Testament documents came to be written, sōzō was being used in a wide variety of ways, rather like the way we use the English word save today. We can talk about saving money, or saving time, or saving a goal in football, or saving someone from drowning, or being saved from our sins.

 

In the Greek language spoken at the time of the New Testament, sōzō was used in all of these ways – with the obvious exception of football! Its basic meaning is make safe or deliver from a direct threat or bring safe and sound out of a difficult situation. So it is not surprising to discover that New Testament writers use sōzō in a variety of different contexts, rather like we use save in many different ways today. They apply it mainly in three quite distinct and different contexts, salvation from sin, deliverance from disease, and rescue from danger.

So it can mean save or heal or rescue. But it won’t mean all of these things at the same time! When Peter is walking on water and begins to sink, he cries, Lord, save me! He doesn’t mean heal me and he doesn’t mean save me from my sins. He means rescue me. The immediate context makes it plain.

One way to avoid this pitfall is to read the passage in two or three different translations comparing them with each other. Although I have numerous hard copies of different Bible translations, I rarely use them today as it’s so easy now to access them online[2].

 

And although I have been studying Greek for over seventy years – and have taught it to several generations of Bible College students – and have found it of great value in my study of the New Testament, I would strongly recommend that, for most Christians, the use of the many various English translations that are available to us is more than enough to help us understand what God is saying to us through his word. So I suggest that you read a passage two or three times using a different translation or version each time. As you do so, begin to ask yourself questions. The questions will vary depending on the passage you’re reading, but the following should be a helpful guide.

 

Who said it? To whom?

These are obviously very important questions to ask. For example, the Bible records not only the words of God, but also the words of men. It also on rare occasions records the words of Satan. We have examples of all three in the book of Job. Of course, it’s clear when it’s Satan who’s speaking because the Bible tells us so and we aren’t in any danger in confusing what Satan says with the voice of God. But it’s not always so straightforward when it comes to what men are saying. Much of the book is a record of the very bad advice Job’s so-called comforters were giving him, so to ask the question Who said it? is clearly very important. We mustn’t receive the advice of Job’s friends as if it were God speaking to us.

 

And it’s equally important to ask who the verse or passage is being written or spoken to. As we’ve already said, what God said to Israel in the Old Testament is not necessarily what he’s saying to us as Christians today. Indeed, the New Testament teaches very clearly that it is not.  I will say more about this when we talk about God’s promises in the next talk, but to illustrate the point, God’s promise to Abraham that he would become the father of a great nation was clearly specific to Abraham and is not directly applicable to us today. So as we read the Bible it’s always important to ask who said it or wrote it and to whom it is being said.

 

Why? In what circumstances?

Another question that it might be helpful to ask is why and in what circumstances the writer has said what we’re reading.  Sometimes it’s perfectly obvious, but if we’re not sure, a look at the immediate context will help us. For example, what did Peter mean when he said, By his wounds you have been healed (1 Peter 2:24)?

 

Some Christians believe that this means that because Jesus died for us we can claim healing from all our sicknesses, but a look at the context in which Peter said it suggests that this is not what he meant. The next verse makes it clear that Peter is referring to healing from the wounds of sin. And if you read the preceding verses you will see that Peter is talking to slaves who were often unjustly punished, and Peter is encouraging them to follow the example of Jesus who, though he was completely innocent, bore our sins in his body on the tree so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness.

 

So by considering the context and the circumstances in which Peter is writing we see that there is no mention of the healing of our sicknesses, either in the immediate context or anywhere else in the rest of the letter for that matter[3]. In fact the overall purpose of the letter is to encourage Christians who are being persecuted to endure suffering rather than to escape from it. But that brings us to the next question that it’s useful to ask.

 

What is the main theme of the passage?

Now, assuming that you’ve done as I’ve suggested and read through the passage two or three times, preferably using different versions of the Bible, you should be getting a fairly clear idea of the writer’s main theme or purpose. One thing that will help you to do this might be to ask if there are any key words that are repeated in the passage. In the section of 1 Peter we’ve been looking at you will notice the repetition of words like suffer and submit. As we’ve just seen, the main purpose of 1 Peter is to encourage Christians who are suffering persecution. And if we look at the immediate context of 1 Peter 2:24 we see that it’s set in a section where Peter is teaching his readers the importance of submitting to authority even if it involved suffering.

 

Verses 13-17 encourage Christians in general to submit to every authority (v13). Verses 18-25 encourage slaves to submit to their masters, and the first six verses of chapter 3 encourage wives to be submissive to their husbands. The purpose of this submission is that by following the example of Christ (v.21) those who are not yet Christians might be won over (3:1) to Christ and themselves live lives that will glorify God (2:12). So our understanding of this section of 1 Peter and our interpretation of individual verses within it should be influenced by our knowledge that the main theme of the passage is submission to authority.

 

Metaphorical or literal?

Another important key to understanding what God is saying to us through the Bible is being aware of the frequent use of metaphor. It’s important not to take something literally when the writer is speaking metaphorically. For example, sin is often referred to in terms of sickness. In Isaiah 1, where God is complaining about the sins of Israel he says:

Ah, sinful nation, a people loaded with guilt, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption! They have forsaken the LORD; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him.

Why should you be beaten anymore? Why do you persist in rebellion? Your whole head is injured, your whole heart afflicted.

From the sole of your foot to the top of your head there is no soundness – only wounds and welts and open sores, not cleansed or bandaged or soothed with oil (Isaiah 1:4-6).

The language used here is clearly metaphorical. In saying that the whole nation is sick, God is not saying that everybody is physically ill. Because of its rebellion and sin it is spiritually sick. Jesus himself uses the same metaphor for sin. When criticised for eating with sinners, he says:

It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners (Mark 2:17).

And, as we have already seen, when we read in 1 Peter 2:24 that by his wounds you have been healed the context strongly indicates that Peter is using the quote from Isaiah metaphorically.

 

So, to summarise what we’ve been saying in the last two talks, if we want to understand correctly what God is saying to us in the Bible, there are several questions that it will be helpful to ask:

• What part of the Bible are we reading? Old or New Testament?
• What is the literary context of the passage we are reading?
• What is the historical and cultural context?
• What is the immediate context?

And in this connection we should ask:

• Who said it and to whom?
• Why and in what circumstances?
• What’s the main theme? Are there any key words?
• Metaphorical or literal?

And finally, and perhaps most important of all, when we’ve discovered what God is saying in the passage we’ve been reading, we should ask ourselves:

How does this apply to me?

 

Next time well start to look at different ways God speaks to us through the Bible.