Reading in context

Legal training teaches you to read documents that were not written to you: letters between other people, old contracts, statements prepared for a particular purpose in a particular year. I have learned that the same sentence can mean quite different things depending on who wrote it, who received it and what was happening at the time. A line that looks alarming on its own often makes perfect sense once you know the surrounding circumstances. The Bible is no different. Every passage was written somewhere, by someone, to someone. Reading in context simply means paying attention to that.

A verse and its neighbours

Here is a well-loved verse that many people know from cards and fridge magnets: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end” (Jeremiah 29:11, KJV).

It is a beautiful promise. It is also worth reading the chapter it comes from. Jeremiah 29 is a letter the prophet sent to people from Jerusalem who had been taken into exile in Babylon. They were far from home, living among strangers. Some voices were telling them the exile would be over soon. Jeremiah’s letter says otherwise. He tells them to build houses, plant gardens and raise families, because they will be there for a long time. A few verses earlier he writes: “And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace” (Jeremiah 29:7, KJV).

Read in context, the promise of verse 11 does not lose its warmth. If anything it deepens. It is God’s word to a displaced community, spoken into a long wait. It comes with an instruction to work for the good of the place where they find themselves. Anyone who has ever had to start again in a new country or wait longer than they hoped for something to change, may hear it with fresh ears.

This is the simplest habit of contextual reading: before deciding what a verse means, read the verses around it. If you can, read the whole chapter.

Four questions to ask

When you come to a passage, a few plain questions will take you a long way.

Who is writing and who are they writing to? A letter of Paul to the church in Corinth addresses real problems in a real congregation. A psalm may be the prayer of one person in distress or a song for public worship. Knowing the audience helps us understand the tone.

What was happening at the time? The Bible spans centuries of history: wandering families, a nation with kings, defeat and exile, return and rebuilding, life under the Roman Empire. Many study Bibles include short introductions to each book. Reading that introduction before you begin a book is one of the most useful five minutes you can spend.

What kind of writing is this? As we saw in the last lesson, poetry, law, history, prophecy, parable and letter each work differently. When Jesus tells a parable, he is telling a story to make a point. We should ask what the point is. When a psalm says that “the mountains skipped like rams” (Psalm 114:4, KJV), it is using the language of poetry.

What would the first hearers have understood? Some details that puzzle us would have been obvious to the original audience: customs of hospitality, the significance of a shepherd, the meaning of a tax collector in first-century Galilee. Learning a little about these things makes the text clearer and often more striking.

The humility of good reading

Reading in context takes a certain humility. It means admitting that we are not the first readers and that the text was not written with our particular week in mind. That might sound like it puts the Bible at a distance. In practice the opposite tends to happen. When we understand what a passage meant then, we are in a much better position to hear what it might mean now. We are also less likely to make it say something it never said.

There is a moment in the book of Acts when Philip meets an official from Ethiopia who is reading the prophet Isaiah in his chariot. Philip asks him a direct question: “Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me?” (Acts 8:30-31, KJV). I find that exchange encouraging. The official was a serious, educated reader. He still knew he needed help. Asking for guidance, whether from a commentary, a study Bible, a pastor or a friend, is not a sign of weakness. It is how readers have always learned.

You do not need to become a historian to read the Bible in context. You only need to be curious, to read beyond a single verse and to ask honest questions about the world the text came from. Over time these small habits change the way you hear familiar words.

Reflect

1. Read the whole of Jeremiah 29:1-14. How does the setting of the letter change the way you hear verse 11?
2. Think of a time when you misunderstood something because you lacked the background. What helped you understand it properly?
3. Choose a book of the Bible you would like to read and find a short introduction to it. What is one thing you learned that you did not know before?