7 Things I Wish Christians Knew About the BibleSýnishorn

THE IMPORTANCE OF READING THE BIBLE IN ITS HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Even though the Bible is for us, it was not written to us, nor was it written about us. When we read the Bible, we enter a historically and culturally distant world, and we must “mind the gap,” as they say on the London Tube. In a rush to make the Bible instantaneously relevant, we can inadvertently misuse it by not recognizing the specific situation of the authors and lazily pick up something that seems handy to us on a first read. In terms of Bible study, this is like browsing Wikipedia rather than spending a few hours in your local library. Reading Scripture for quick practical application, and ignoring the social, historical, and cultural gap, is like looking for instant gratification without the hard labor of study.

The problem is that if we disrespect the historical distance, we will potentially distort the Bible’s proper interpretation. Accordingly, it is essential to ask what Isaiah 53 meant for the Judean exiles in sixth-century Babylon before asking how it applies to twenty-first-century Baltimore, Brisbane, or Bogotá. Otherwise, we will end up with a superficial reading of the Bible, or worse, we will end up reading our own context and times into the Bible.

Figuring out how to get right with God from reading the Bible is pretty straightforward, but after that, you might need one of those nerd guys and gals called “teachers” or “pastors” to help you understand things. Then, in extremely rare and technical cases, maybe you even need a biblical scholar, philologist, or archaeologist to help too. From time to time, we all need a Philip to run beside our chariot to answer our questions about what we are reading in Scripture (Acts 8:26–36). In addition, I would not deny the illuminating work of the Spirit in assisting Christians in gaining a basic and adequate understanding of the Bible. However, by immersing ourselves in the culture, texts, and artifacts of the ancient world, we give the Holy Spirit more to work with in terms of opening our minds and hearts to the core issues that the biblical authors were talking about.