Why Bible Background Matters - Dr. Ben Witherington III
Highlighted video transcript:
Text without a context is just a pretext for whatever you want it to mean. Sometimes people ask me, why do I need to know all this extra stuff? Bible, background stuff, foreground stuff, history, archaeology, language, this than the other. Well, the chief reason, of course, is that words only have meaning in certain contexts. Take for example the word ROW. In one sentence, the word ROW could mean a row of seats in the stadium. In another context, the word ROW, it could refer to an activity, a verb, row, row, row your boat. And in England, a yet third context could be where the word ROW refers to a Rao, an argument, or kerfuffle of some kind. Words do not have meaning in isolation. They only have meaning in context. And when it comes to the Bible, getting the meaning of text is crucial. And precisely for that reason, you need to know about background foreground, contextual issues of various kinds. Sometimes I have students who come up to me who think all of this extra learning about Bible background and context is, is additional. It may be nice, it's not really necessary. I even had a student who came up to me once after class when we were studying New Testament history. And he said, Dr. Ben, I don't know why I need to learn all of this background stuff. Why I can just get into the pulpit and the spirit will give me utterance. I said Charlie, you can do that. But it's a shame. You're not given the Holy Spirit more to work with. If words only have meaning in context, then you need to study the Bible in its various original contexts, historical, archaeological, linguistic, rhetorical, etc. One of the keys to doing that is getting at the Bible background, especially the history and the archaeology. Let me share with you about a tool that you can begin to get a grip on that. My colleague, Craig keener, has written a wonderful book, a book that's been a bestseller many times over called the Bible background commentary. That's precisely what he's doing. He's giving you the background, the foreground, the contextual stuff that you need to begin to understand the text in its proper context. Background information can be fascinated, can bring the texts to light in many different ways. Let's take one example. Let's take the famous story in Mark eight, which takes place it says a real Philip II. Outside of the Holy Land. Jesus takes his disciples up outside of the northern part of Galilee to a city called salary of Philippi, named after Caesar and Herod Philip, one of the Herod's. He takes them there and ask them, Who do people say that I am. One person says, Well, the people say you're John the Baptist, come back from the dead or you're like Elijah or Jeremiah, one or the other profits. Then Jesus points his finger in his disciples and says, But who do you say that I am? Peter raises his hand and said, I know you're the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus says right. Now what's interesting about this is not just that interpersonal interchange. What's really interesting about this is why in the world are they having this conversation outside of the Holy Land intercessory of Philip II, which was a pagan city. It was originally called Banyous, the city of Pan. There was a grotto. They are called the grotto of Pan, where there was this stream that came forth from it. And it was thought that it went down to the river Styx. The river of the dead, where people, according to pagan mythology, went on a boat. Varied by Chiron, the God who shuffled them off to the underworld. This was a city which behind where Jesus would have stood, were just filled with niches with statues of pagan deities. Why would Jesus take Jewish disciples, Jewish men to this location to ask the who question? Why here? Because Jesus was saying, I am the Son of God. And these folks or not, whether you're thinking of Apollo or pan, or Zeus, or Venus, or Aphrodite, or whichever Pagan deity you're thinking. They are the pretenders. I'm the contender. They are the parody of which I am the reality. Jesus took the disciples to a context where they could realize that Jesus is more than just the Jewish Messiah. He's the savior of the world. He's Lord and Christ. He is the Son of God, not a son of the gods, but the Son of God. He took his disciples to a place so that they would have to re-frame the way they thought about him in terms of all of the claims about God's in the whole world. A text without a context is just a pretext for what you want it to mean. And this is why you need to study the Bible in its original context. Day-by-day. Think on this.
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