This is a short essay written in response to a question posed by my New Testament Survey teacher at the Ramp School of Ministry. I certainly could have put more careful thought into this, but here ya go.
Background
There is a very important element to Bible study that we cannot afford to ignore: context. Context has to deal with cultures, time-specific situations and historical backgrounds. We must understand the background of the texts we intend to study. The background we must seek are the previous events leading up to the moment of time in a particular New Testament passage. If we do not dig deep enough to understand the Holy Script in it’s proper context, we have not dug deep enough to fully understand it.
We cannot perceive the main characters in the New Testament the way they were perceived in their day unless we understand the historical events that led up to the moment of their arrival. For instance, the acts John the Baptist preform seem as if they should have made him an unpopular minister. He was telling the people of God that they were as unclean as the Gentiles. John was telling them that they must repent and be baptized. So why did great numbers of people go out to be baptized by John? “Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.” (Matt. 3:5-6 NKJV) The answer to this question can be found in studying the historical background of this text. The people of God had not heard a single word from a prophet in over four hundred years. They knew they needed a Messiah, and they knew John was the voice sent to prepare them. There is nothing that will make you more hungry for the word of a prophet like four hundred years of silence. “For the story of the Israelites, God’s chosen people, the curtain remained closed for four hundred years–four centuries of rearrangement and preparation for the greatest drama in human history.” (Sproul, Wolgemuth 218) Because of this historical context, we now understand more fully how the hungry people must have embraced John’s voice. This is only one small example out of hundreds found in New Testament study.
We are radically indifferent to the cultures of those who wrote the books of the New Testament. Because of the reality of our indifference, we have no choice but to dig deep into the culture and minds of those who wrote these books. We must be willing to mine the soil of centuries past to find those precious hidden gems that make the Bible the most important book of all time.
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