At face value, preachers and teachers have long encouraged us to study within the context of a passage of Scripture. The context helps us understand what the Bible intends to teach. Often the teaching about context urges us to consider the verses before and after a passage.
Making these applications are not wrong – but are relatively shallow. You have heard preachers and teachers admonishing you to examine the context of a verse of Scripture. Often we teach context means what comes before and what comes after the passage. It does, but context means so much more. For a more thorough understanding of context, see our helpful article on context.
Mediterranean Context
This section of our studies is called “Mediterranean Moments” to help us understand that context is a picture as big as the Mediterranean Sea and the culture it contains. Context included the historical setting – what was going on in the communities around the Mediterranean at the time the book was written. This is called the immediate context of a passage. This context also includes the literary background of the passage – is the passage a record of history, is it poetry (remember Hebrew poetry is different than American poetry), or is it anyone of a number of other literary conventions?
A second area of context is called it larger, biblical context. This portion of context often involves doctrine and theology. Many passages of Scripture teach us about God and about what is involved in having a relationship with Him. Doctrine falls into a category all itself. It has a jargon – technical talk that is only used and understood by a select group of people. There is nothing wrong with jargon. Most of us have those kind of words in our vocabulary that not everyone else understands. Medical professionals have a jargon. Attorneys have a jargon. There is even a jargon for the members of your family. Christians have a jargon.
Context and You
Finally, the context of the Bible involves you. The meaning of a passage of Scripture is critically tied to how it applies to you today. The context of the Bible involves the culture of the time in which it was written, but it involves the culture today because it speaks to the times today. Paul was unaware of the COVID pandemic when he penned the book of Philippians. If Jesus is the same “yesterday, today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8), then the context must include how it applies to the COVID crisis. We often call this context “the application of a passage.”
The danger in my writing those words and you reading them is that it seems very subjective. The meaning of the Bible cannot be totally dependent upon what it means to you. The absolute nature of an unchanging God prohibits that. But the context of a passage of the Bible must blend the other three things. To focus only on one of these four critical areas of context and ignore the others does the Bible a disservice.
Take a Moment
The menu on the right lists all of the Mediterranean Moments that have been published on the site. The selection shows the Scripture and the topic that are connected with the article. Browse the articles to better understand the context of the Bible and provide a context for your life.