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Context: Putting Scripture in Its Place

Josh Scott

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Apr 05, 2024 Matt LeFevers rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I remember first hearing Chris Tomlin's inescapable 2010 mega hit, "I Will Follow", with its attention grabbing first chorus ("Where you go, I'll go / where you stay I'll stay...") and thinking... isn't that a verse from Ruth?

"I Will Follow" is a jam, but, those words aren't spoken to God in the Bible, they're spoken by Ruth to her mother-in-law, and even a younger me with fourteen years less knowledge of Scripture knew enough to think, Tomlin's using this line a little out of context.

Context is I remember first hearing Chris Tomlin's inescapable 2010 mega hit, "I Will Follow", with its attention grabbing first chorus ("Where you go, I'll go / where you stay I'll stay...") and thinking... isn't that a verse from Ruth?

"I Will Follow" is a jam, but, those words aren't spoken to God in the Bible, they're spoken by Ruth to her mother-in-law, and even a younger me with fourteen years less knowledge of Scripture knew enough to think, Tomlin's using this line a little out of context.

Context is, of course, both the title and the topic of Josh Scott's second book, and that Ruth verse is one of the examples he digs into here. It's far from the only one: Scott rolls up his sleeves and comes after several of Christianity's most beloved out-of-context inspirational verses, from "I can do all things..." to 1 Corinthians 13's famous 'love' passage, to "I know the plans I have for you" in Jeremiah. I could probably walk into a Hobby Lobby right now and see any of these printed onto wall art and merch, and at least one of them is hanging in my own home right now.

But the way we tend to use these out-of-context feel good quotes (and a few feel-bad ones too) is totally divorced from what the original authors meant by them, and being mindful about the original context is crucial to making sure we don't misuse the Bible to prop up our own ideas.

It would be so easy to write a book like this from a sarcastic, more-educated-than-thou place, but much like with his first book, Bible Stories For Grown-Ups, Josh Scott approaches it with kindness and warmth and a genuine pastoral care. He's not some cold, clinical scholar dissecting the Greek grammar of our most beloved texts (much as I love reading those folks), he's a pastor who loves the Bible and loves the stories in it, and that love is evident on every page of this book.

Reading a Josh Scott book is like hearing a really top shelf sermon that digs into the Bible with honesty and academic rigor and intelligence, but also starts and ends with compassion and a call to make the world better.

I love nerding out on the Bible, and reading a dense academic tome about canon formation or the textual transmission of Hebrew manuscripts, or whatever, but at the end of the day, the most pressing question is always: what does this mean for the way I live and engage with the world? How does this help me love my neighbor better? Or as Josh Scott writes: "Beginning with the context that produced a text then allows us to ask the question we really want to ask, the question that causes us to come to the Bible in the first place: What is this saying to us, today?"

In Context, Scott provides both things: history and Greek definitions and ancient Southwest Asian background, but also thoughtful answers to that most vulnerable of Bible questions: what does this mean for us? ...more

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Dec 11, 2024 Travis rated it really liked it · review of another edition

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