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You're listening to Tim Bulkeley's
5 minute Bible A text without context is dumb (part 2)
the surrounding, COtext
"Cotext" is a fancy word for the verbal context of a text.
you can see how dumb a text without a cotext is
if you think about the conversations that I have with some family members
they chatter to me and I don't know what they're talking about
because they failed to provide me with any cotext
they failed to give me information around their words the tell me what
they're talking about
which John are they talking about? For example,
if they had only told me I'd understand what they were saying
a text without cotext is dumb too
In the case of the Bible
you get extreme examples when people take
a verse or sentence and rip it out of its cotext
taking something which made sense, and making it dumb!
now, that really is a daft
of way reading! But people do it
Of course they don't do it with this verse, do they?
Three times, the Bible tells us we should be atheists!
"There is no God" it's there in black and white
it's in Psalm 10 verse 4, Psalm 14 verse 1
Psalm 53 verse 1 "There is no God"
Of course you need to take the sentence out of context
you need to remove the cotext to make it make this stupid sense
"in the pride of their countenance the wicked say..."
'God will not seek it out!' all their thoughts are:
'There is no God.' Their ways prosper at times your judgments are on high
out of their sight." You see?
Reading the cotext it makes perfect sense.
Rip it out if its cotext and it makes a total nonsense
a text without co text
is dumb. Now, of course no
real Bible reader would make the stupid mistake
of ripping such a tiny fragment out of a verse but sometimes people do rip
verses, or even passages, out of their cotext
take a look at Ephesians chapter 5
the famous passage where Paul talks about wives submitting to their husbands
this is a really interesting one. Go to Ephesians 5 and look at verse 22
you're allowed to look at the cotext that follows it
but don't look at what comes before so Eph 5:22 and 23
"Wives be subject your husband's as you are to the Lord
for the husband is the head to the wife just as Christ is head of the Church
the body of which he is the savior just as the church is subject to Christ
so also wives ought to be in everything to their husbands..."
and so it goes on. Ripped
out if its preceding cotext like that it's obvious what this passage is saying:
the man is the boss and women should obey. But...
put the passage back into its preceding Co text
and you get a rather different picture even if you just read the verse before
"giving thanks to God the Father at all times
and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ
be subject to one another as a reference for Christ
wives be subject to your husband as you are to the Lord."
That puts a whole new slant on it, wives are to to be subject to their husbands
in the context of, every Christian
being subject to one another out of reverence for Christ
that's different!
Incidentally, here's one of my pet beefs about Bible translation
publishers
some Bible translation publishers stick a heading in between verse 21
and verse 22, making it quite safe because people will not read
verse 22 in the context of verse 21 and they'll miss the whole point of what Paul
is saying
still it supports one view of how Christian families should work,
so let's do it
doesn't matter if it rips the Bible apart!
No! Texts without cotexts are dumb
reading a verse or sentence, or even a passage, of the Bible
without taking into account the text that surrounds it is just plain stupid
and we shouldn't do it! Texts without contexts are dumb.
Text without co texts are equally dumb