Drew in Contemplation

You’ve probably heard this before: Context is everything . Most of us would agree with that. For example, when we hear a shocking story on the news, we want to know more about the situation that led up to that event. We want to know the context. So, what do we do? We follow the story on the news and sometimes go to other news sources, or social media, to find out other angles and more information on the story. This is like how we should study the Bible. Of course, bearing in mind that the medium is different . When we find something interesting in Scripture we should ask, “Why was this written in this way?” “What events led to this writing?” “What is the author’s goal in this writing?” The way of studying the Bible that I want to propose in this blog is focusing firstly, and primarily, on the Literary Context . So, what does it look like to study the literary context when studying the Bible? Let me first tell you what it’s not. It’s not interpreting certain passages of Scr...

Hey Everyone, I'm working on a post about how to study the Bible more effectively. In it, I walk through how to read The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:2-17) in their "Literary Context" (That's a good thing to Google if you want to know where I'm headed) and how they are (1) a remarkable gift and (2) a reorientation tool for the purpose of turning a group of slaves (with a broken identity) into worshippers (with a restored identity). Exodus is an amazing story of God being generous to His people. It has many correlations for us today in the Christian faith. My study has been meaningful so far, but it's still a work in progress. I look forward to sharing it with you next week. Here's something to read in the meantime by the person who taught me this method of studying the Bible that I discuss in the forthcoming post:  https://scriptureandlife.com/2012/03/31/literary-context/ Many thanks, -Drew West