In yesterday’s post we considered who the primary audience of Proverbs was. Why bother?
The main reason is because, although the Bible was written for us (1 Cor 10:11), it was not written to us. Every book of the Bible was written by a particular person, for a particular group of people, in a particular situation. We put ourselves in danger of misunderstanding the text if we don’t first understand these historical circumstances. We must put ourselves in their shoes.
Imagine if I showed you a letter in which I wrote the sentence “You’re making me go crazy.” How would you read that line if you knew I had written the letter to my child? To my employee? My neighbor? My wife? My pet snake? A customer service rep at a store from which I made a significant purchase?
At the office where I work, we maintain a quote board for just this purpose: to catalogue the random statements which, removed from any context, become hilarious. We have entries on the board like:
- “Did you forget the pot this morning?”
- “If you’re gonna die, it’s nice to do it at home.”
- “I’m going to do number two tomorrow, but it’s going to take me a while, because I haven’t done it in awhile.”
- “The longer I live, the more I don’t want to.”
- “I keep trying to say funny things to get on the quote board.”
When it comes to studying the Bible, let’s keep the original audience in mind. Otherwise, we can miss the point. For example:
- Genesis (as a book) was prepared for a nation of people who had just come out of centuries of enslavement and were trying to figure out their identity. It was not primarily written to people who were examining the origin(s) of all things.
- Daniel was written to Jewish exiles in Babylon and Persia to help them understand how God could possibly still be in control. Daniel’s predictions were largely intended to prepare these people, and their converts, for the coming Messiah (King of the Jews). It worked, since some from that region knew what to look for at just the right time (Matt 2:1-2).
- Revelation (and it’s rich symbols) was not primarily about 21st century events. The book would have made sense to believers in churches scattered across Turkey in the 1st century AD (Rev 1:4). We ought to read it accordingly.
Whenever you approach a book of the Bible, make sure you find out who the original audience was (as much as is possible) and do your best to put yourself in their shoes.
Nice quotes! I've been enjoying re-reading some of the Proverbs manuscript and look forward to encountering the new material I haven't seen yet. This blog is a fun break-from-work reading activity for me.
Is your comment on the audience of Genesis based on Moses being the author/compiler of the information? I think he's typically put forward as having either written or compiled Genesis, but the passages I've often seen to support his authorship don't seem super conclusive (Ex. 17:14, Deut. 31:24-27) that he was responsible for Genesis-Deuteronomy. Does something like Ezra 6:18 tell us that these first books of the Bible were originally a single "book of Moses"?
Jeremy, I agree that the Bible is not super-conclusive. I am not aware of anywhere that Genesis is quoted alongside a comment like "as Moses says…." However, I think the testimony of tradition is strong enough to suggest that Genesis through Deuteronomy were one work complied by Moses for the people of Israel. Moses may not have "written" Genesis (in fact, he identifies his sources in Gen 2:4, 5:1, 6:9, etc.), but I think we can be pretty sure he included it in his series, according to passages like the ones you referenced. Any other thoughts?
Peter,
Growing up in a futurist view of Revelation. How do you both sides view (Preterist included), how Revelations was to be interpreted by the early church? This whole topic actually scares me a little from studying in any formal bible study any of Revelations.