I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU HAVE WRITTEN THIS.
I have been saying all along that context is the key to properly understanding Scripture, yet we see Roman Catholics taking so many verses out of context.
I have had several Roman Catholics ask why context is such a big deal.
I am glad to see the msgr possibly understands the importance of context.
I offer this excerpt from gotquestions.org on the importance of context.
Question: "Why is it important to study the Bible in context? What is wrong with taking verses out of context?"
Answer: It's important to study Bible passages and stories within their context. Taking verses out of context leads to all kinds of error and misunderstanding. Understanding context begins with four principles: literal meaning (what it says), historical setting (the events of the story, to whom is it addressed, and how it was understood at that time), grammar (the immediate sentence and paragraph within which a word or phrase is found) and synthesis (comparing it with other parts of Scripture for a fuller meaning). Context is crucial to biblical exegesis in that it is one of its most important fundamentals. After we account for the literal, historical, and grammatical nature of a passage, we must then focus on the outline and structure of the book, then the chapter, then the paragraph. All of these things refer to "context." To illustrate, it is like looking at Google Maps and zooming in on one house.
More at the link.
https://www.gotquestions.org/context-Bible.html
Oh, eal,
You do understand, don’t you, that context can be subjective.
That is why your constant attempts at using that term is not convincing.
Context is based on applying information found outside of a particular passage to help understand the passage correctly.
Which contributing information one relies on, however, can be influenced by a person’s pre-existing biases, which is why some people will emphasize certain passages to support their interpretation while others will call those same passages irrelevant.
Either way, each person is using their own intellect to determine context, which means they are both using something extra-biblical to interpret the meaning of bible passages.
For example, when Jesus says 5 times in one conversation that we must eat His flesh and blood, my intellect and experience tells me that that repetition supports the passage being literal. You discount that. You cite other passages to refute this. I discount those.
I take the fact that He let people leave Him and risk eternal damnation rather than explain that He was NOT being literal to also support that interpretation. You discount that.
I think you are wrong, you think I am wrong.
I will explain to you why I believe what I believe, but I don’t assert any authority over you to make you believe it or claim that you have no reason to believe what you believe. I see that you have biblical basis for your beliefs, I just don’t interpret the bible the same way as you do. Fine.
You, however, keep saying that any interpretation other than yours is unjustifiable, and people must believe as you do or we are not saved. That, dear eal, is acting as your own personal magisterium, which I think you think is a bad thing.
You are trying to do exactly what you condemn the Catholic Church for. If it is not OK for them, why is it OK for you?
Love,
O2
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But when they don’t believe that the scriptures are the word of Yehova, of what value is context?
.
Weren’t we just told on another thread in the very recent past, that context DOESN’T matter?