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CHnprun Foun

Contextual AnalYsis
The Historical, Literary, and Canonical
Contexts of the Text
A text without a context is a pretext.

-Anonymou

The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.

Shakespeare, The Merchant ofVenice
-Williarn

Oh that I knew how all thy lightq combine,

And the configurations of their glorie!
Seeing not onely how each verse doth shine,
But all the constellations of the storiel
Herbert, "The Holy Stiptures (II)"
-George

tn what historical, sociopolitical, and cultural situotion was the

passag.e written?

How does the passage relate to what precedes and follows it,
and to the document os a whole?

The Bible did not.iust "drop out of heaven," nor was it written in
a special language with uniqrre literary forms !y some strange
clais of humins unaffected by their social and historical situa-
rion. No, the Bible was written by and for real people, living in
specific historical contexts, to address particular individual and
ctmmunity needs. (This does flo, necessarily imgly, however, that
the Bible is merely a human book. Jews and Christians have al'
ways believed that the Bible was rhe result of some combination of
huLan and divine effort.) Close analysis of a biblical text requires,
to the greatesr degree possible, caretirl attention to its historical
and literary contexts.
Indeed, context is so crucial to interpretation that it is no exag-
geration whatsoever to say that if you alter the context of a word
70 CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS

or sentence or paragraph, you also alter the content of that text.

Sometimes the effect is relatively minimal, but often it can be
very significant. For example, the meaning conveyed by a Person
shouting "Fire!" will be very different depending uPon the cir-
. cumstances inwhich he or she shouts thatword; while running out
of a house engulfed in flarnes, while sitting inside a movie theater
that is not burning, or while standing beside a line of men armed
with rifles facing a lone man who is blindfolded. The meaning of
that one simple word is clearly very context-dependent.
In this chapter we consider the historical (including sociopolitical
and cultural) and the literary (including rhetorical) contexts of a
text. We also note briefly the subject of the canonical context of
a text-its place in the Bible as a whole.

Historical, Sociopolitical, and Cultural Contexts

People and communities are constituted in large measure by

three things:
. the significant events they experience (either personally or vicariously
through stories) and retell
. the private and public relationships in which they are engaged
. the values that they embrace, consciously or not

These three facets of human life-our historical, sociopolitical,

and cultural contexts-were also, of course, facets of life in "Bible
times." Of all elements of exegesis, understanding the historical,
social, and cultural contexts-which we will refer to collectively
as "historical context" for short-is the most difficult for the non-
scholar (and even for the scholar!).r Reconstructing the historical
contexts of the biblical writings is a never-ending task in which
professional biblical scholars, historians, and others are engaged.
Because historical reconstruction is an arduous task, because it

rThere is no one ideal term to refer to the complex reality that is

embodied in the long phrase "historical, sociopolitical, and cultural
contexts." To those wlio imphasize the sociopolitical or sociocultural di-
mension, "historical" is sometimes taken to refer only to events, with in-
sufficient attention to political realities, cultural values, and networks of
social relationships. Because I find the term "social context" inadeqrr.ate
and the terms "s6ciopolitical context," "sociocultural context," and "so-
cio-rhetorical contexi' a bit cumbersome, I have chosen to use the term
"historical context," but I mean it in the broadest sense possible.
 Historicol, Sociopoliticol, ond Cultural Contexts 71

is in part art as well as science, and because it is always chang_-

ing ai new discoveries are made and new theories are advanced,
sote .eaders of the Bible conclude that the real-life context of
the biblical writings can be ignored. Some would even argue that
we imperil ourselves and our readings if we make interpretation
dependent on historical, social, and cultural contexts.
This book affirms that the task of understanding the worlds of
the Bibte and of particular texts is necessary, albeit difficult. Texts
are often the product of specific occasions, composed to address
certain needs, and neglecting these contexts is more perilous
than the risk of making mistakes in our historical reading. People
communicate within a social network locatedwithin a particular cul-
mre and political situation at a specific point in time. Our goal,
in part, ii to discover the social network within which the writ-
ers and hearers/readers of biblical texts communicated. We also
want to discover the common cultural beliefs and values-the
"presupposition pool" as some have called it-that authors and
h.ar.itheud..s of the original text would have brought to their
production of or encounter with the text' Making this challeng--
irrg pro..tt all the more complex is the fact that the authors and
reiders/hearers of the text may well have all had different social '
networks and presupposition pools! The same applies for the au-
thors of the sources underlying the text.
It should be noted that frequently we cannot reconstruct the exact
or even an approximate "occasion" for a biblical text.2 That is,
we cannot atwiys discern precisely which event in precisely which
year, or even what kind of event and what kind of circum9tance,
iriggered the writing of a passage. This does not, holvever, rgPove
the need to attend to a text's historical context, more broadly un-
derstood. In the biblical texts we find references to the histori-
cal, political, religious, and symbolic worlds that their writers and
readLrs/hearers inhabited. In order to understand these n'orlds,
an exegete may need to understand something about, for elample,
ancieni Near Eastern covenant treaties, ancient attitudes toward
death and dying, honor-shame relations, or Roman irnperial ide-
ology. These contexts may be conceptually and even chronologi-
cal!'rather broad, but they add much to our understanding of
the text even when there is no way to identify the text's exact date
and occasion

2The specific situation of the author and readers/hearers of a bibli-

cal passage or document has often been called the "occasion" ofthe text.
Moie recEnt$, it has been referred to as the "rhetorical situation"' :
72 CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS

The average reader cannot possibly know in detail the complex sto-
ries of anc--ient nations, communities of faith, and individuals that
are the concern of biblical scholars and historians. Most people
must rely on the technical works or more popular publications. of
these scirolars. These can be found in books, Bible dictionaries,
commentaries, scholarly journals, and certain magazines written
by scholars for nonscholars. (Some of these works are listed in sec-
qion 4 of chapter 11.) Modern scholars adopt not only more tra-
ditional appr-oaches to history but also relatively new approaches
that are indebted to such social sciences as sociology a_ng cultural
anthropology. some are interested primarily in social descript'ion,
or whai, while others are intereste d in social analysis, ot wh1, often
utilizing stanilard models and procedures from the social sciences.
The goil of all of these approaches is to understand the contexts
of thi biblical texts as thoroughly as possible-the social an$ po-
litical environmeni in which texts were written, the cultural values
expressed in or challenged by the texts, and so on'
will
As you read a biblical text, questions about these sorts of topics
natgrally arise. They should be noted carefully for investigation.
Using one or more of the kinds of resources noted above, you should
attempt to answer these questions as well as find out as muc| ai y9u
can ,6out the historical, social, and cultural situation in which the
author and readers lived. Ask yourself these kinds of questions:
. what are the chief characteristics of the people (often referred to as
the'tommunity') addressed by the passage? What can be known of
their history? social location? beliefs and practices?
. What ancient events, political realities, places, customs, values, and be-
liefs are mentioned or alluded to in the text (sometimes called "histori-
cal background" or'extratextual realities") that must be understood in
order to comPrehend the text?3
. What circumstances, or what kind of situation, might have prompted
. the author to write this text?

The last of these questions may be the most challenging, for dis-
cerning the occasion or rhetorical situation of a text is often tricky

lWhen writing an exegesis PaPer, one is always faced with decisions

aboutwhere to discuss such matters-in the contextual analysls or m the
detailed analysis. In general, the contextual analysis should o1lly con-
sider the arp"c6 ofhiJtorical, social, and cultural context that affect the
whole passage, and should normally do so relatively briefly. Discussion
of extiatextilai realities not associated with the whole text should usu-
ally take place in the detailed analysis, which may also require m-ore
injdepth iiscussion of certain aspecis of the context first mentioned in
the contextual analYsis.
 Historical, Sociopolitical, ond Cultural Contexts 73

business. In fact, sometimes even the broader historical context

in which the text was written cannot be known with any certainty.
For example, the same Old Testament psalm may be dated to the
tenth century B.c.E. by some scholars and to the fifth century B.c.E.
by others. Certain New Testament letters are believed by some to
have originated in the mid-first century and by others to have de-
rived from imitators working in the mid-second century. Indeed,
the authorship and audience are quite disputed among scholars
for many biblical books, including the books of the Pentateuch,
the Historical Books, the Gospels, and several of the Letters. In
some cases, what used to be called "the assured results of criti-
cism" are no longer assured,a
Nevertheless, the exegete needs to explore the scholarly oPtions
for situating the text historically and, at the very least, identi$
those references in the text to extratextual realities that can be
determined. Many of these references-for example, to kingship
or covenants in the ancient Near East, or to wedding banquets or
adoption in the Roman Empire-should actually be discussed in
the detailed analysis. But noting them at this stage will often help
the exegete discern the rhetorical situation that seems to give rise
to the writing of the text at hand.
In your attempts to discern the historical context, be careful not
to stray beyond the evidence. Many times, for instance, exegetes
assume that a word or phrase in a narrative text about Israel or
Jesus alludes to a particular belief, situation, or problem in the
later community for which the text was written. While the exis-
tence of such connections is plausible, even likely, the burden of
proof is on the exegete to demonstrate specific connections. An
i*port"rrt example-of this is the occurrence of thfee references
in the Gospel of John to believers in Jesus being put out of the
synagogues (John g:22; 12:42; 16:2). Many scholars have argued
or assumed that these references reflect the situation of disciples
in the time the Gospel was written..rather than that of disciples in
the time ofJesus. These arguments and assumptions are now being
questioned.
A related problem is sometimes called "mirror reading," the at-
tempt to reconstruct the beliefs and practices of a community on
the basis of what is said not only aboal it but also fo it, especially in
'

aln the second hatf of the twentieth century, for instance, scholars
made bold assertions about the nature of the individual communities to
which the four Gospels were addressed.'Ihese scholarly "certainties" are
now increasingly disputed and even dismissed.
74 CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS

a New Testament letter. For example, the presence of an iqiunc-

tion to brotherly/sisterly love does not necessarily mean that the
community being addressed is full of friction or hatred. The care-
ful exegete wants to make sure that such reconstructions do not
result in one's exegesis being built upon a house of cards.
You need also to be careful not to let the introductory questions
of biblical studies-the who, what, rvhen, and where of the biblical
writings-divert you from the main task of exegesis. Yogr assign-
ment i; exegesis is to .t gug. the text, not to review the academic
debates about the book in which your text is located. Do not turn
the first part (or any part) of your exegesis paper merely into a list
of possible scholarlY Positions.
Nevertheless, despite these words of caution, understanding as
much as possible of the historical, social, and cultural contexts is
absolutely essential to exegesis. For example, you cannot grasp ei-
ther the irony or the message of the story of the Good Samaritan
(Luke 10:25-37) unless you understand something of first-century
Ezekiel's vi-
Jewish-samaritan relations. Nor can you understand
sion of dry bones coming to life (Ezekiel 37) without some knowl-
edge of his people's spiritual and political destruction, exile to
Babylon, and consequent desPair.

Since in preparing a basic exegesis of a text you cannot, and

should not, read (or write!) a lengthy history book or review of
research about the historical context of your text, ask yourself,
' "'\,Vhat are the key facts and issues related to this passage (and the
book in which it is found) that will help me interpret it?" It is these
key things that you must focus on in your research and, when you
write an exegesis Paper, point out to your reader, either in broad
strokes in the discussion of historical context or in more detail in
the detailed analysis. A hermeneutical circle will be at work: the
more you learn about the context, the sharper your questions will
become and the more able you will be to zero in on that which
really matters.

Literary and Rhetorical Contexts

It has been said that a textwithout a context is a Pretext-an excuse

for finding one's presuppositions confirmed by the text. In other
'words,
many misinterpretations of the Bible are due to neglect
of the literary context. To understand a passage, you must try to
 Literary and Rhetorical Contexts 75

see how it fits into the larger literary unit(s) in which it occurs: for
instance, the chapter, the section of the biblical book, and the book
as a whcile. Literary context, therefore, is really contexts-Plural.
The text is often like the center of a set of concintric circles, each
circle representing a larger section of the biblical book. These
contexts are usually referred to as the nearer, or i,rnmed,iate, context
and the larger context(s).
The nearer, or immediate, context is thatwhich directly precedes
and follows the passage. The larger context of a passage is the
major division of the biblical book in which it appears and then
the biblical book as a whole. For example, the immediate context
of the story of Nicodemus's encounterwithJesus (John 3) includes
the events narrated and interpreted in chapter I and especially
chapter 2, as well as the subsequent encounter of the Samaritan
woman with Jesus in chapter +. The larger context includes the
first half of the Gospel, often called "the book of signs" (John
t;19-12:50, following the prologue) and beyond that the Gospel
ofJohn as a whole.

One helpfirl, almost necessary tool in the task of contextual analysis,

especially for the larger context, is an outline (even a brief one) of
the book of the Bible in which the passage occurs. Outlines can
be found in many editions of the Bible and in Bible dictionaries,
introductory texts, and commentaries. Ideally, however, students
should construct their own outlines of biblical books that they
study.
In addition to the literary context, a text also has a rhetorical con-
text. Rhetoric is the art of effective (and therefore often Persua-
sive) speaking and writing. According to Cicero, the purpose of
rhetoric is to teach, delight, and move hearers or readers. Rhe-
torical context, therefore, refers to the place ofa passage in the
document's overall strategy of rational, artistic, and/or emotional
influence and persuasion. Rhetorical context is a function of liter-
ary context, but it is more. Analyzing the literary contbxt means
asking where a text is located; arla|yzing the rhetorical context
means asking uh) a text is located where it is. The fundamental
question is what effect the text has, or might have, on readers by
virtue of its situation within a larger discourse. For example, tlre
relationship of John 3 to each of the other small and large text
segments mentioned above wiII affect the way we understand the
narrative of the encounter of Nicodemus with Jesus.
The average exegete, and even the biblical scholar, cannotbe ex-
pected to grasp all the intricacies of rhetorical criticism. Some of
CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS

the basic structures of rhetoric indicated in tt . next

chaPter are
tool for
helpful to know, but perhaps. the single most.important
Constantly ask
rhetorical analysis is ihe diiciplined imagination.
yourself, yo, look at the text, "Why this and why here? lf I am
",
the hearer/reader, what do I sense this text trying to do to me?"

Asyouconsiderliteraryandrhetoricalcontexts,then,youwillbe
ut(ittg yourself the following kinds of questions:

For the'lmmediate Context

preced.ing
. What is the subject of the paragraph or.two immediately
passage at hand?
thiipassage? How does this materi;l lead into the

.Doesthematerialfollowingthepassageconnectdirectlytoitorhelp
exPlain it?

.Doesthispassageworkinconnectionwithitsimmediatecontextto
goal?
achieve a particular rhetorical

For the Larger Contexts

.Wheredoesthlspassageoccurinth.estructureofthebook?ofwhat
,.loir"itlon is ii a par-u wtrat significance does this poiition have?
. in the
What has "happened" (whether in narrative, argument, etc')
book sofar, and what will happen later?

,. What appears to be the text's function in the section and

in the book
this passage appear to serve the agenda of the
as a *hole? How does
entire work?
bib-
Brief observations about the literary-rheto: rical context of two
ii.ui r.*o may be helpful here, as examples of how the immediate
and larger contexts'can inform an uriderstanding of a specific
o..r"n ."u sometimes it is more helpful to begin with the larger
Io"i.it of the entire book and work inward, so to speak, and
sometimes it is more b.eneficial to begin with che nearer context
anduzor(oftnffin illustration of each follows'
"i(it"ay of Genesis 15:l-6, the famous.text in which God promises
Abr; (ater Abraham) descendants like the stars and then reck-

5Of all the biblical books, only in the book of Psalms (a_collection
frv*"0 it there really anything resembling series of independent'
of -a
i;il;A;;;t;ithr"t # ou.rrt liit'g context' It should be noted' horv-
;;;li;;;holars have recently paid-mor€ atrention to the structure and
psilins
of the book of to the literary context even
and thus
org;rirutio,
-these
of individual Psalms'
 Literory and Rhetoricol Contexts 77

ons Abram's response of faith as righteousness, only makes sense

in light of its larger and more immediate contexts. Genesis is a
book of origins, dividing neatly inro rwo mqjor parts: the origin of
the world and its peoples and problems (chs. 1-11) and the origin
of Israel through God's covenantal promises made and fulfilled
(chs. 12-50). The first section of rhe secondpartfocuses onAbram/
Abraham and is sometimes called the'Abraham Cycle" (Genesis
12:1-25:11). Thus Gen 15:1-6 appears near the beginning of a
major cycle and of a major part of the book. Yet this short narra-
tive must also be read in connection with more proximate parts
of the grand story: God's call of Abram and God's original prom-
ise (Genesis 12:1-9); the unfolding story ofAbraham through the
end of chapter 14; the ratification of the covenant in ritual, in-
cluding circumcision (15:7-2L; ch. t7); and the lack of faith that
led to Isaac's birth (ch.16)-all before the promise made in 15:l-6
is fulfilled in the birth of Isaac (ch. 21).
An examination of I Corinthians 13, the "love" chapter read at
weddings, would require consideration of the structure and con-
tents of the letter to discern its function within the document.
Chapter 13 stands right in the middle of a discussion about the
use and abuse of spiritual gifts in the body of Christ (ch. 12), espe-
cially the divisive gift of speaking in rongues (ch. 14). Much of the
second half of the letter (chs. 8-14) deals specifically with several
issues related to worship, and chapter 13 provides away of operat-
ing as faithful members of the one body of Christ in the middle
of the original "worship wars." In 1 Corinthians more broadly,
Paul deals with various forms of confusion in the practice.of the
gospel at Corinth, and self-giving love seems clearly to be part of
the solution to a set of multiple problems (e,g., divisiveness in chs.
1-4 and litigious behavior in 6:1-11). In facr, one might argue thar
for Paul love is the principal solution to the entire array of issues
in Corinth.
It should be clear that the process of analyzing the literary con-
text of a text entails hard work. It means carefully reading more
than the short passage you are trying to understand or analyze.
But it is necessary hard work if you really want to grasp something
of the original significance of a biblical rext and if you want to in-
terpret the text responsibly. (Thus, those who use a lectionary for
preaching must be especially faithful in reading the passages for
the week in a Bible, not just in the lectionary.) In the cases where
little or nothing can be said with certainty about the historical
context, the literary and rhetorical contexts-which are always
very important-become even more so.
78 CONTEXTUALANALYSIS

More often than not your subsequent detailed analysis of the text
will cause you to modify your initial conclusions about th6 literary
and rhetorical contexts-as you would probably have expected
by now

Canonical Context

For those who read the Bible theologically, one of the contexts
within which a text may be considered is the Bible, or canon, as a
whole-the canonical context. This does not mean that theologi-
cal interpreters may ignore the historical and litgrary contexts
discussed above but, rather, that they may also supplement or ex-
'
pand these contexts by viewing the text as Part of the one.book
called the Bible.6
Ifyou decide to consider the canonical context, you will be asking
yourself the following kinds of questions:
. What role (if any) does this text, and/or its primary theme(s) and
character(s), play in the rest of Scripture?
. What, specifically, is the relationship (if any) between this text and
texts in the otherTestament (Old or New)?
. With which other biblical texts or themes does your text stand in har-
monious relation?
. With which other biblical texts or themes does your text stand in ten-
sion? Can or should this tension be resolved?

That is to say, considering the canonical context allows the ex-

egete to put biblical texts in conversation with one another.

For example, in considering the canonical context of Genesis

15:l-6, discussed. above, you might wish to note the role of God's
proqrise to Abraham and Abraham's response of faith as a signifi-
cant motif in one or more other parts of Scripture: later in the
book of Genesis, in Exodus and Deuteronomy, in 1-2 Chronicles,
in Acts, and in Paul's letters. On the other hand, if you are doing
an.exegesis of Paul's use of Abraham in, say, Romans 4, you not
only will have to consider the narratives in Genesis (since Paul
does), but you also may wish to address (and maybe even try to re-
solvel) the apparent tension between the "faith alone" perspective
of Paul and the "faith + works" perspective ofJames.
6For further discussion of theological interpretation and the role of
canonical considerations within it, see chapter 8.
 Chapter Summary 79

These canonical concerns should not preoccupy you as an exegete,

but neither should they be dismissed as irrelevant to the larger
goals of exegesis when it is done for theological ends. In an exege-
sis paper, the discussion of canonical context can take place in the
section on contextual analysis and/or elsewhere, as appropriate;
often it fits well into the final section of the paper on theological
reflectios. In a sermon or homily based on'soiid exegesis, o:tt"o-
tion to the canonical context is especially relevant, as people in
the pews often wish to know how one text or theme fits into the
big picture, the greater economy of God.

Conclusion

A text without a context-a text isolated from its various contextJ

(plural)-is a potentially dangerous weapon. Responsible ex-
egesis acknowledges the difficulty of discovering those contexts,
whether historical, social, cultural, literary, rhetorical, or canoni-
cal in nature, but refuses to abandon the task. The alternatives to
engaging in the hard work required by this element of exegesis
are too costly.

Review & Study

Chapter Summary

The exegetical process includes the difficult but necessary

task of discerning the historical, social, and cultural con-
texts ofthe text.
Analyzing the literary context of a text means asking where
the text is situated in its nearer as well as larger contexts.

Considering the rhetorical context means asking why a text

is where it is and what effect it has on readers/hearers by
virtue of its location.

Considering the canonical context means thinking about

the role of the text in the Bible as a whole and about its
relationship to certain other portions of the Bible.

A text without a context is a pretext.

80 CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS

PracticalHints

1. When considering the historical, sociopolitical, and cul-

tural contexts, which can encompass a vast quantity of in-
formation, always askyourself, "Of everything I could learn
and say about these contexts, what are the key facts and
issues related to this passage that will affect my interpreta-
tion of it?" ln writing a paper, eliminate, or at least greatly
abridge, all other data

2. When considering the literary and rhetorical contexts,

again askyourself, "What do I need to know (and to say, in
a paper) about the literary and rhetorical situation of the
teit ihat witt enhance my understanding of the text itself?"
As you work through the text, keep asking yourself, "Why
thr's and why here?"

3. When considering the canonical context, keep in mi4d

that the Bible contains diverse, even if ultimately comple-
mentary, voices and that the biblical authors did not al-
ways know the works of their fellow'tontributor5'-svsl'1
their contemporaries and near-contemporaries.

For Further lnsight and Practice

1. lsaiah 9:1-Z which contains the wordi "For unto us a child

is born," is celebrated in Handel's oratorio Messiah and is
read especially during the Christmas season as a prophecy
of the birth of Jesus. Skim the first nine chapters of lsa-
iah and consult a one-volume Bible commentary to find
some information about the original historical context
of this eighth-century B.c.E. text. (This assignment, by the
way, raises the very significant question of how much the
meanlng of a biblical text is tied to, or dependent on, its
' originalcontext.)

2. Read Mark 3:1-6, a story early in the narrative of Mark's

Gospel that ends shockingly with the Pharisees plotting to
kill Jesus. Then read carefully Mark 1-2 (and other parts of
Mark, if time allows) and a Bible dictionary or encyclopedia
article on the Pharisees. Based on your reading, explain in
a few paragraphs the importance of the literary and social
contexts for understanding the intense conflict between
the Pharisees and Jesus that is portrayed in this story.
 For Further lnsight and practice gl

' Eil',1y;!,'ilil1l;.''u"'on 4' pp' 2v.-T"Resources ror

4. Read the sections on historical and literary contexts in

the sample exegesis papers in the back of tfris Uoof
Appendix C.