Three Levels of Context

1
Three Levels of Context

• Contextualization Incorporating the text into
  your personal setting

• Historical Context Author, Recipient, Date,
  Situation.

• Text Surrounding a Passage
• Purpose of the book
• StructureGenre Plan
• Immediate Context

2
Circles of Context
Author
Book
Section
Paragraph
Text
Pericope
chapter
Covenant
3
Dangers to Context

• Memorizing individual verses

• Attitude of quasi magical formula of verses
  (power verses worn as amulets)

• Concordance Work

• Claiming promises or commands not made to you.
• Axiom 2 Context is King (of interpretation)

4
Identifying the Purpose of a Book

• Sometimes its clearly stated (Jn 2031 Lk
  11-4 1 Jn 513 Prov 11-6 Eccl 1213)

• Flow of thought

• Sometimes it is implied
• Selection or placement of details
• Hortatory or parenthetical comments

• Occasion for writing Jeremiah Amos Philemon,
  etc.

5
Special Consideration

• A book may have multiple purposes

• Its purpose may be disputed

• Specialists, such as teachers, commentaries or
  even personal memorization, can help.

6
Structuralism The Plan of the Book

• Authors structure their books differently

• Others have little order (James, Prov., Psa).

• Some are meticulous (Mt, Lk/Acts, Heb, Rev)

• Outlining is the best way to see the order

• Dont strictly follow verse divisions. They come
  from the 13th century and dont always work well.

• Poor examples Acts 81 Eph 521 Isa 531 2
  Cor 21

7
Various Structural Arrangements

• Chronological Gen., Exod., Josh., 1 2 Kings,
  1 2 Chron., Ezra, Esther or Geographical
  Neh. , Jonah, Acts

• Biographical Ruth, 1 2 Samuel, Matthew, Mark,
  Luke, John

• Legal Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.

• Cyclical Judges, Job, Ecclesiastes, Song of
  Songs

• Letters Rom., 1 2 Cor, Gal., Eph., Phil.,
  Col., 1 2 Thess.,
• 1 2 Tim., Titus, Philemon, Heb., 1 2 Peter,
  13 John, Jude

• Wisdom/Poetry Psa., Prov., Ecclesiastes,
  Lamentations

• Visionary Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel,
  Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Micah, Nahum,
  Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi,
  Revelation

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Literary Devices

• Parallels Genesis 1-2 Psalms Lk 15

• Inclusio Genesis 37-39 Mk 1112-25

• Chiasm Mt 13

• Acrostic Prov 3110-31 Psa 119 145 Lam 2

• Parallelism Lk/Acts

• Ascending/Descending Judges

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Identifying Contextual Parameters Look for
change and repetition

• Grammatical Clues

• Transitional conjunctions

• Change in verb tense

• Narrative Clues

• Change in time, persons, or place

• Repeated term, phrase or proposition

• Repeated thought

• Rhetorical Questions

• Vocative, imperative, or hortatory