The Bible is the greatest book ever written. But it is not just a single book written by a single author over a long Summer. It is a compilation of letters, prophecies, history, and stories written by many different authors over the span of thousands of years. But there’s more. It is a book like no other because each individual author was inspired by God to create their written accounts. This makes the Bible the inspired word of God and it is the only book on earth that carries that specific identification. Because it is such a special book, it requires special attention to how it is read.
One must consider why they read the Bible. The goal should never be to simply gain head knowledge or to enjoy a good story. The Bible teaches us about God, who he is, what he represents, what he likes and dislikes, what he expects of his creation, and so much more. We study the Bible to get to know him, the true author. We study to learn his will, how to live a holy lifestyle, and how to carry his message into every part of the world. Studying the Bible is about taking what he’s given to us and applying it to our lives so that we can fulfill our God-given mission.
As we study, we need to do so with an understanding of how to properly interpret what we are reading. This is incredibly important. If we get it right it sets us on the path of life and if we get it wrong, it can take us in some crazy directions. So, this is why it’s so important to make sure we get it right, to make sure we understand the principles and the techniques for how to study the Bible so that we really understand what it’s saying and that we’re not misinterpreting what God is trying to speak to us for our lives. It is not rocket science, we just need to know some key principles. In the theology world, we call this hermeneutics, which can be generally defined as proper biblical interpretation, and that’s what we’re going to dive into in this article.
The first thing to consider when reading the Bible is the literary context. When we read, we need to read in context. Reading a single verse, apart from what surrounds it, doesn’t provide the necessary context to grasp its full meaning. This is a common mistake. Many people will use a singular verse to hang a theological position on, without considering the surrounding verses. This method can lead to skewed perspectives about God and inaccurate beliefs that, if not corrected, can create a lot of unhealthy theological perspectives and possibly even lead to heresy. This type of activity occurs on social media quite often where someone posts a Scripture verse out of context to support a particular point. They are not doing it on purpose. They are not trying to mislead anyone. They just have not learned the proper process for good biblical interpretation. Their theological point may even be accurate, but they back it up with the wrong passage. So, we want to make sure we get this right, for ourselves in our personal studies, and for others who listen to what we have to say.
The primary rule of biblical interpretation is this: context is key. If you do not get anything else out of this article, remember that context is key. We need to read every verse in context to draw out its true meaning. This requires reading more than just one verse. One cannot take a single verse, read it, and say, “Ah I’ve got a new theological position.” We need to read the verses before it and the verses after it almost like you’re reading a paragraph in a book. People do not just read one sentence in a book, they read the content that surrounds it, so they understand what is being conveyed. The reality is that if we just read one Bible verse it is hard to see the context of what is being shared.
Look at John 11:35 as an example. “Jesus wept.” We cannot draw anything out of that single verse by itself. If we do not know the story, we will not know why he is crying. What would happen if we created a theology out of this verse? We might say, “Jesus wept, and we all need to weep like Jesus.” This is something people often do with other verses. They will pull out a single verse and try to create a theological position around that verse. It is a very irresponsible thing to do. The better method is that when we come across an interesting verse and wonder what it means, the next step should be to read the surrounding verses. Try to ascertain the meaning based on the fuller context. This is where we lean on the Holy Spirit to reveal the meaning of Scripture to us. In some cases, as we are reading different chapters, we realize there is a need to read the entire book to get the big picture. My recommendation is to never read small portions of Scripture. Always read several chapters or even the whole book to get a fuller context. Even if you want to drill down on a particular verse, start broadly first and then narrow it down. Keep in mind that these chapter and verse numbers were added much later, for our convenience. Context can spread across multiple chapters, so keep reading!
Put this literary context process to work and you will quickly find yourself seeing the deeper meaning in scripture. But this is just the first piece. Literary context keeps us focused on the full picture, but we also need to consider that the content in the Bible was written a long time ago. This means we need to read it from the perspective of those who were living when it was written. The Bible was not written to us, it was written for us. It was written in a different era to a different people group with a different culture and should be read from those different contexts and perspectives. We cannot read the Bible through the lens of someone living in the 20th century and expect to understand its full meaning.
Unless you are a collector of ancient books, the Bible is likely the oldest book on your shelf. Because of this, one should study it in a way that reveals what the original author intended to convey to the original recipients. How would a first-century Christian living in Corinth interpret Paul’s letters? To determine this, we need to look at the historical and cultural contexts of Scripture. This requires studying ancient Middle Eastern history and culture, to include the many different people groups who occupied the region over the centuries. A good student of the Bible will reference ancient sources every time they undertake a deep study.
We should ask a lot of questions as we read Scripture. What did this passage mean to the recipients? What did the author mean to convey? Why was this particular example used? Is there a unique cultural meaning to this phrase? These types of questions push us to go deeper into learning the author’s original intent. It is not about our opinions, it is not about what we want it to mean, it is about the original intent. We have to consider that the Holy Spirit inspired people to write content in that era and that time that was specific to the needs of the people. This does not mean that the Holy Spirit cannot apply it to a situation today, that can certainly be so, but we first need to understand the original intent and the original context before we can apply it to other modern situations.
First Corinthians, which was written around 52 AD, is a good example. If one is reading a letter to Corinth in the first century, one needs to know the culture of the city, common elements that existed, the way people lived their lives, ideologies, and even entertainment. It would also be good to understand the Christian culture within the city. And the same should be done for the other cities where Paul sent letters. This takes significantly more time than a quick cursory reading of a chapter, but apart from divine revelation, it is the only way to the true meaning. This is the type of work authors of commentaries undertake. We can lean on their work to point us in the right direction and then dig into the historical sources ourselves.
First Corinthians 11:1-16 is a great example of a cultural context. In this passage, there is a conversation about women wearing head coverings. Paul’s mention of heads being shaved in verse five should raise some questions. What does a shaved head have to do with dishonor? There are a few possibilities here. Caesar Augustus established laws in 17 and 18 BC regarding social morality that also mandated dress code requirements for women in differing social classes (see lex Julia de maritandis ordinibus and lex Julia de adulteriis coercendis). One element of this was the requirement for wives to wear head coverings. This was likely similar to how wedding rings are worn in modern times. Shaving a woman’s head was a form of punishment to shame them if they were convicted of adultery. This is because prostitutes often cropped or shaved their heads. Caesar’s laws in this case did not apply to prostitutes or men, so the cultural expectations were different. This brings us to the second possibility.
The Greek Geographer Strabo recorded the existence of a temple in Corinth where Aphrodite was worshipped. This temple included more than a thousand female prostitutes (See Strabo’s Geographica 8.6.20). Strabo lived from approximately 64 BC to AD 24 and wrote about the geography of different cities providing us with some great historical content. His note about this temple provides some more context to the culture of the city. We also know from Roman history that Corinth was completely destroyed in 146 BC and the rebuilding did not start until 44 BC, a few decades after Strabo’s birth. It is unlikely Strabo was describing the previously destroyed Corinth in this record because he would have walked through the city, measured its boundaries, and taken note of its structures.
A woman not wearing a head covering in public within that culture would be seen as acting disgracefully. Paul was not mandating all Christian women to wear head coverings for all time. The context was to the church in Corinth, and it had some very specific connections to the cultural expectations of that time period. This highlights the importance of taking the time to learn about historical and cultural contexts. There may be even more to this than has been discovered in historical documents, but we can at least throw away the assertion of mandated head covering for all Christian women. Some other great sources are the Roman-Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus, and the first church historian, Eusebius. Both provide a wealth of historical context.
One additional area of historical and cultural context is the important difference in the societal structures of an ancient Jewish community and those in modern times. Many nations today operate as individualist societies where people are typically focused on what is best for the individual. This is why teenagers typically cannot wait to move out of their parent’s house, go to college, and start their lives with the hope of becoming individually successful. The first-century Middle Eastern culture was a collectivist society where the needs of the community outweighed the needs of an individual. That same teenager may go off to college, but then bring what they learned back to the community to make the community better. One is not necessarily better than the other, but the people and situations we encounter in the Bible are those within a collectivist society. We cannot read the Bible from an individualist perspective. We must be willing to do our homework and learn about how the content would have been perceived in those societies.
So, this gives you a primer on how to study with literary, historical, and cultural contexts in mind. It should open up the Bible to you in a new way if you have not already been studying from these perspectives. Use these techniques in your own studies and to check the teachings of others. Just because someone is a pastor does not mean they always have the best hermeneutical or exegetical process. It is perfectly acceptable to double-check and to ask them how they arrived at their conclusions. One additional thing to note is to never look for Scriptures to support your ideas. This is backward. Scripture should inform us of what we should believe and how we should live our lives. Otherwise, one could read their ideas into Scripture and miss the true meaning. Of course, none of this discounts the work of the Holy Spirit in revealing his meaning and purpose to you. Always lean in to hear his voice, since it is his words you are reading.
Why are you still here? Go read your Bible!