The challenge is this: You’re supposed to ask the question: How can today’s subject improve the lives/walk of the class?
So I had to come up with a reason they needed to know this stuff. The reason I used was to let them know that knowledge is power and the knowledge takes away their fear regarding stuff they consciously or unconsciously know they don’t really know. It’s time they learn it and stop fearing the unknown about the bible and its history.
You know how Heiser always talks about understanding what is in the head of the bible writers? Well, this analogy popped in my head in class and I shared it (the average age in the class is about 45 or 50): I said, imagine I said, “ZSA ZSA has done it again! What do you think she did?” One of the women sheepishly raised her hand and said, “get married?”
I said, yep!. And we know that because we lived in the day when she was famous, so that simple line communicates volumes to us. But what of someone 2,000 years from now that sees that sentence, and ONLY that one mention of Zsa Zsa in all writings? What will they make of it?
I then said, That is what Genesis 6:1-4 is. To us it means very little, but to the people of the day it speaks volumes. And if we want to know more about it, we can go to 1 Enoch. It gives us the gory details even though it’s not “Canonical”.
So much of the bible is just waiting to be discovered through this type of information. The bible was not written to us. It was written FOR us. To better understand it, we must understand what those TO whom it was written actually understood.
For example, I recently was reading a commentary on Matthew 5:5 and it was explained that the Greek word for "meek" (praÿs, pronounced prah-ooce)--as in "the meek will inherit the Earth"--was used by Greeks to mean, for example, a soldier who was potentially dangerous but kept his sword sheathed.
Meekness like that of Christ who could have ripped the world apart with one word but went quietly to the Cross.
Bible commentator David Guzik says this about the word "meek":
It is impossible to translate this ancient Greek word praus (meek) with just one English word. It has the idea of the proper balance between anger and indifference; of a powerful personality properly controlled; and of humility. SourceAs they say, context is everything.