The walk
Their World
You can understand their world and still keep the words at a distance.
Historical context has to explain the text, not explain it away.
Matthew 5:38-42 · Matthew 27:32 · Romans 15:4 · 1 Corinthians 10:1-11 · NCEC, The Three Worlds of the Text · National Gallery of Victoria, The Three Worlds of the Text Framework · Dallas Theological Seminary, W. Randolph Tate book review
They say
"You have to understand their world. You can't just take something written two thousand years ago and apply it to us as though nothing has changed."
The scene
They're right. You do have to understand their world.
The Bible was written to real people living in a world that wasn't quite like ours, and knowing something about that world can change how we understand it. Working out what a text means is called hermeneutics, and one useful way to do it is to look at the world it came from, read what is actually there and then ask what it means for us.
Take something Jesus said:
"Whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two."Matthew 5:41
Their world.
Roman soldiers could press civilians into service to carry loads. The word Matthew uses for "compels" is the same one he uses later when Simon of Cyrene is pressed into service to carry Jesus' cross.
Suddenly the mile looks a little different. Jesus isn't talking about someone asking you to go for a walk.
The text.
The mile doesn't stand alone. Jesus has been talking about retaliation: being struck, being sued for your clothing, then being compelled to carry a load.
Our world.
What does it mean for us?
No Roman soldier is going to compel you to carry his load. But people can still impose on you and make demands of you, and Jesus has been talking about how his followers respond instead of retaliating.
It's the living word of God.
The history can help you understand what he meant. It can't make his words somebody else's problem.
Paul says:
"Now all these things happened to them by way of example, and they were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come."1 Corinthians 10:11
They happened to them.
They were written for us.
And in Romans:
"For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that through perseverance and through encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope."Romans 15:4
The point
They happened to them.
They were written for us.
Sit with this
Do you look at the history of a passage to understand it better, or to get out from underneath it?