Reverse Context

We always say that the context of a particular passage in scripture is important. And certainly it is, it provides the backdrop for whatever a passage says. However, there had been instances where people first give the passage a meaning, then form a possible context to give the passage that particular meaning. The key I must emphasis is to Form the context... This, I believe to be an erroneous method..

Let me cite an example. Remember David once said that he heard of an interpretation for the saying that it is easier for a camel to enter the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven.. The interpretation went as such, that there was a gate, which was called the eye of a needle, and that the gate was very low, so the camel must first be unloaded before it can enter through that gate, and that this is a parallel to the rich man, who must unload his wealth before entering heaven.. Which sounds like good doctrine, since we do believe that material possessions must have no hold on us. Unfortunately, this gate does not seem to exist. At least, no one seems to have heard of it from any other source.. In other words, this seems to be a case where the interpretation precedes the context. The context was formed to give the interpretation. More likely, the hyperbolic meaning that it is really very very very difficult for rich people to enter heaven (for some reason expounded in the scripture before this)

The danger of this is twofold. Firstly, it is bad exegesis. That is plain enough. The other is that it misleads others, especially with an air of scholarship. We only know of this type of context by the works of other people. Unless you bother to check out where this information comes from, it is difficult for you to verify. (So please do verify if given a context to explain the passage).

As such, I tend to avoid using external context.. Unless I had checked that the context is true, I don't use them to explain a passage. What I do use is internal context though (ie: contextual information which we can find within scripture itself). For instance, John's description of Jesus as the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world is a reference to the Levitican practice of having a sacrificial lamb on the Day of Atonement to take away the sin of the nation; as opposed to, say, a description of Jesus as being very meek and humble (characteristics of lambs).

By the way, this is a problem I had with some of the study books.. They seem to be telling me the context from the text, but dressed up as interpreting the text from a context (from other sources)..