It's been a while since I added to the Bible Study series, so you might want to go back and review. Then again, you might not. Your call. So far we have had a laser focus on the selected text we are studying. Don't leave it. Stay in it. Let it speak. Today I want to talk about best practices for starting to move outside the text. The two things we are going to talk about are literary context and cross-referencing.
Literary Context
The literary context is the literature in which the text is embedded. Unless your text is one entire book of the Bible (I suppose this is possible) it has a literary context. Outside of what your passage actually says, the material surrounding it has the greatest bearing on the meaning. The reason it is so vital is that the ideas your text is communicating are only a part of the big ideas that the whole piece of literature is trying to communicate. Imagine you are examining a staircase in a house. Without looking at anything other than the staircase, you can get to know it pretty well. How steep is it? What is it made of? How many steps does it have? How do you use it? Etc. All these questions can be answered, but some very important ones can't. What is the purpose of the staircase? Who is going to use it the most? Why does it face the direction it does? These are bigger and more profound questions, but the only way to answer them is to examine the rest of the house. A staircase to an unfinished basement is much different from a staircase to a full-story master bedroom. Likely, the details you learned by looking at the staircase alone will be filled with meaning when you look at the whole house.
The same is true of a passage and its context. If you're reading a story, you need to know how the characters have been developed thus far. You have to understand the narrative history of the setting of your passage. You need to understand the plot. If you don't, you'll know what your text says, but you'll miss much of what it means. If you're reading a letter, you need to know the overall tone. Is it affectionate, or reprimanding. Is it highly personal, or more general? If your passage is full of commands, you need to know what the basis of those commands is. Hopefully, you get the picture.
As far as strategy goes, I would recommend reading the whole book at least once. Admittedly, this is a big undertaking if your passage is in a big book. I think you'll find it worthwhile though. You need to know the whole plot or argument or construction in order to know a piece of it. I would then pay special attention to the 2 units before and the 2 units after. This will help you hone in on the larger function of your passage. Why did the author say what he said in your text where he said it rather than somewhere else? Why was that the perfect place to put it? I think these will be fruitful questions to answer.
Cross-Referencing
I'll be honest with you, I am generally opposed to cross-referencing. Here's why: people use it to fill the meaning of a text they don't understand with the meaning of a text they think they do understand. Or worse, people fill the meaning of a text they don't like with the meaning of a text they do like. The Bible is a really complicated book because it seeks to describe the very complicated reality we inhabit. This is uncomfortable, so we try to simplify it to be more manageable and bite-sized. Not only is this a perversion of God's good Word, but it is also a self-destructive blinder that cuts us off from the salvation God is trying to provide us. So cross-reference with care.
That being said, good cross-referencing is really important, so let me give you a few tips
1. There is a cross-referencing priority filter. The most important references are those from the book of the Bible you are in. If there is another passage that talks about the same thing your passage talks about, you better believe it's important. The next most important references are those from the same author. Different authors use words and phrases differently. They are not contradictory, but they are not exactly the same. Paul fills the word "believe" with different connotations than John, so try to find references from the same author. The next priority level would be Testament. Moses had different worldview categories than Peter. Not contradictory, but different. Don't assume Moses meant what Peter said.
2. Use tools. Lots of Bibles have cross-references in the margins or at the bottom, so follow their guidance. Smart people put those things together.
3. Stand firm. The cross-reference can color in your interpretive sketch, but it should not redraw it. Every text of the Bible is valuable and important in itself. It provides something that no other text can so don't let that special gift be covered up by other passages.
That's what I've got for you! Happy studies.
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