Getting Your Bearings in Scripture

My eyes opened. The lighting in the room was all wrong. The ceiling was wrong. The walls were wrong. The curtain on the window was unfamiliar. Then, as my sleepy head cleared, I got my bearings and realized that I was at my grandmother’s house.

You’ve used that expression before, getting your bearings.

So, how do you get your bearings when studying the Bible?

The idea I am referring to is called context. Context refers to the surrounding text. Without familiarity to the surrounding text, meaning is easily lost.

Context provides the framework for understanding words. For example, consider four Bible verses containing the word spirit:

• The spirit of life (Genesis 7:22)
• Whose spirit moved him (Exodus 35:21)
• Your spirit is so sullen (1 Kings 21:5)
• The spirit rested on them (Numbers 11:25)

Each verse uses the word spirit in a different setting. The context helps us to get our bearings so that we can understand its meaning in each case. The following gives a more specific meaning of each use of spirit above:

• Life essence
• Human spirit or human will
• Human emotion
• The Holy Spirit

If we were to look up the term spirit in a Bible dictionary or in a Hebrew or Greek lexicon, we would be presented with something that might look like a menu of choices. However, dictionaries and lexicons merely report how words were used. Within a range of meanings, the context ultimately determines specific meaning.

Context also provides the framework for understanding entire phrases, verses or passages. For example, the Apostle Paul described love in 1 Corinthians 13. Is the ‘love chapter’ about our love for God? Our love for our fellow man? God’s love for us? The context suggests first a focus on love for a fellow Christian.

Sometimes context reaches beyond Scripture forcing us to consult non-biblical resources that help us to understand words and phrases through ancient culture. For example, Jesus used the phrase “gates of Hades” in Matthew 16:18. Simple reasoning has led to a number of conclusions among Bible scholars. However, that exact phrase was used by ancient Greek writers for death.

Have you ever heard anyone say, “When in Rome…”? That’s only part of the saying, but it is so familiar that most people do not need the whole saying, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” That is sometimes the way New Testament quotations of Old Testament material work. For example, Jesus referred to “the abomination of desolations” (Matthew 24:15), and even indicated that it was spoken of by the prophet Daniel. Jesus expected his listeners to draw from the context of Daniel’s prophecy for understanding.

In a similar way, the quotation describing dramatic celestial events in Matthew 24:29 cannot be understood without first becoming familiar with the broad context of Old Testament prophecy that addresses the divine judgment of God.

So, sometimes context refers to the verses closest to the text while at other times context is an entire chapter or book or even related material in the Old Testament. Whatever the case, context is the key to proper understanding of the Bible. That's how you'll get your bearings in Scripture.

Mark Stinnett

May 22, 2022