You're listening to Tim Bulkeley's
5 minute Bible A text without context is dumb!
Of course, in English, dumb has two senses
some one who is said to be dumb is unable to speak
often they've been rendered unable to speak but somebody else's action
texts can be dumb in that sense, we can render them unable to speak
the other sense which we use dumb is when someone's stupid we say they're dumb
both senses are applicable my saying
"a text without context is dumb" for our first example let's look at the best
known Psalm in the Old Testament
Psalm 23 look at verse 5
"You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies you anoint my
head with oil
my cup overflows." Okay let ignore the bit about the table and the enemies
and focus in on the: "you anoint my head with oil"
let's forget all we know about the Bible
all we know about the ancient world, and just think
in today's terms, when do people anoint their heads with oil
around here? Well, my son puts gell on his hair when he is going out of a Saturday
evening
and come to think of it, my dad used to put some stuff called Brylcream on his
hair years ago
Ah! Obviously this guy is going out of an evening
so: "you anoint my head with oil
my cup overflows" Why is his cup overflowing?
Well presumably there in the pub and they're drinking and
the guy who is pouring is a little bit tipsy and well you know the rest
in this example the Bible context
starts to set us straight, anointing...
Who gets anointed in the Bible? Kings and priests
The ancient Near Eastern context may help us even more
maybe you read about the perfume cones that they used to use in ancient Egypt
cones of waxy stuff
impregnated with perfume that they set on their heads and
over the evening it melted and sent out a lovely smell
The Bible context also alerts us to the double meaning of Cup
it's not talking just about
things we drink from, it's also talking about
our lot in life, our future and all the rest of it
Think of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane Or take a look at another
well-known Bible passage Genesis chapter 1 verse 27
see me there to say that humanity is created in the image of God
again without context presumably it means we look like God
can't think what else in the image of could mean
He is the image of his dad we say.
So, we look like God! Well, no we don't, you may,
but I don't, I'm a balding aging ordinary bloke
Text without context
is dumb! Where did you find
images in the ancient world? You found images of the emperors
in every city of the empire just about
a dirty great statue of the Emperor to remind you
who ruled. We are created in the image of God
God rules okay!? and of course in temples
that's another story
So, text without context is dumb but
there is also our context, whether we recognize it or not
whether we like it or not, our context impacts our reading
and we can't avoid it, just think about the way in which
because the Bible was read for generations mainly
in public, at least, by men, the women's stories in the Bible got forgotten
overlooked and ignored, or listen to my post on
"Praising the fraudulent agent" for a cultural example - we need to dialogue
with the text in its ancient contexts
but also to dialogue with other readers and hearers of the text
if we're going to make sense of it . A text without contexts (plural)
is dumb
So, that's the message for today, a text without contexts
is dumb Don't be dumb ;)
bye see you next time