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Money, Bible Verses, And Context
Welcome back!
By Kalinda Rose Stevenson, Ph.D.
What happens when people try to build a Christian doctrine of money? They usually start by quoting Bible verses, without putting them into a larger context. This is the basic problem with many Bible study guides. They quote Bible verses out of context.
As a theological seminary student in my first preaching course, I learned an adage that has stayed with me ever since. “A text without a context is a pretext.” Often, paying attention to the origin of a word gives insight into its meaning. In Latin, the word, “text,” refers to what is woven. A pretext is a fringe or covering, often obscuring what is behind it. A context refers to weaving together.
When a Bible verse is separated from its context, it becomes a pretext, obscuring what is behind it.
Every Bible verse has multiple contexts. A Bible verse is part of some sort of written document. The document was written in a particular language, at a particular time, in a particular place, in a particular social and economic environment, based on a particular theology. The Bible also developed over time, and so it has layers upon layers of text, language, and historical, social, political, and theological contexts. Every single one of these particular factors is a context. And so a Bible verse is not simply a discrete group of words, but words in a set of overlapping contexts.
©Kalinda Rose Stevenson, Ph.D.
