Table of Contents
Below are 3 common ways the Bible is taken out of context.
Historical Context is Ignored
On social media, an apparent contradiction in the Bible was circulated. In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus was crucified on the “third hour” (Mark 15:25). But the Gospel of John says Pilate sentenced Jesus to crucifixion on “about the sixth hour” (John 19:14).
Of course, Jesus could not have been crucified twice. Either one of the accounts, or both, is false.
But maybe we are looking at this from a very modern lens?
We need to remember that time was not always recorded in the same way. In the first century, there were no clocktowers or watches. After the industrial revolution and the dawn of the machine age, a new world was created, one in which seconds and minutes were measured with precision, and where time was dissociated from human events, as Lewis Mumford notes in Technics and Civilization.
But prior to this age, and especially during the first century A.D., time was recorded differently. While sundials did exist, they were quite rare, and there was no unit of time that was smaller than the “hour.” Further, Jews conceived of a day (sunrise to sunset) as comprising of 12 hours. This is evidenced in John 11:9 when Jesus asks his disciples rhetorically, “Are there not twelve hours in the day?” Finally, Jews divided the day with three reference points.
In Jesus’s parable of the vineyard and the laborers he refers to “the third hour [from sunrise],” “the sixth hour [from sunrise],” and the “ninth hour [from sunrise]” (Matt. 20:1-9). These referred to mid-morning, mid-day, and mid-afternoon.
These are the only time markers listed in the crucifixion accounts (Matt. 27:45; Mark 15:25, 33; Luke 23:44; John 19:14). There is also an analogy with the way a first-century Roman or Jew would understand the night.
In Mark 13:35-19:14: Jesus tells his disciples to stay awake, “for you do not know when the master of the house will come, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning” Here we see “night” divided into four distinct parts: evening, midnight, rooster-crow and morning.
What about Mark 15:25 and John 19:14? The word “hours” refers to rough approximations of the sun’s position in a quadrant of the sky. It could refer to midmorning from 7:30 or 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., depending on the time of year and the location of the Sun.
Cultural Context is Ignored
Turn the Other Cheek
You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.
— Jesus Christ, English Standard Version (Matthew 5:38–42)
It is possible to interpret the passage as meaning that one should opt for total non-resistance, and even harm oneself, which is likely how most people interpret this passage.
Jesus’ teaching on turning the other cheek was seen as a way to subvert the power structures of the time. At the time of Jesus, striking backhand a person deemed to be of lower socioeconomic class was a means of asserting authority. The left hand was used for unclean purposes, so a back-hand strike on the opposite cheek would not be performed.
The biblical account of Noah’s ark shows that public nudity was viewed as bringing shame on the viewer, and not just the naked, as seen in Noah’s case (Genesis 9:20–23). Wink continues with an interpretation of handing over one’s cloak in addition to one’s tunic. By giving the lender the cloak, the debtor was reduced to nakedness.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Wink argues that Jesus uses the Angaria law of distance as a vehicle for making the oppressor break the law. The commonly invoked Roman law of Angaria allowed the Roman authorities to demand that inhabitants of occupied territories carry messages and equipment the distance of one post but prohibited forcing an individual to go further than one post.
But as you can imagine, there can be a different interpretation. Bishop Fulton Sheen, in one of his sermons, describes “walking an extra mile” and “giving one’s cloak in addition to one’s tunic” as examples of giving more than one is asked for. The sermon was about hard work.
While the Biblical verses may be viewed with more accuracy if one considers the social and historical context, it is still possible to interpret various proverbs and sermons spoken by Jesus and written by the authors of the Bible for one’s own purposes rather for their original intent.
Scriptural Context is Ignored
“Judge not lest ye be judged.”
This is a common sentence that is taken out of its proper context within the text. On face value, the sentence implies that Christians should not judge others, but the full passage reads:
“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:1–5)
Jesus was not saying we should not judge others, but that we should remove the log from our own eyes first, and that we should do so for their benefit; not simply to condemn them.
In the most critical moment of the entire Bible, the moment when Jesus dies on the cross, he shouts from the cross a phrase that can be puzzling to those of us reading the account so many centuries later: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
The phrase is found in both Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34. The English Standard Version of the Bible relates it like this: “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’
But why would God forsake or withdraw from his own son?
The more likely interpretation is that Jesus cries out this phrase in reference to Psalm 22, the messianic psalm where King David relates his vision of what will happen to the Lord’s Messiah. Jesus only shares the first verse of the Psalm, but because people were scripturally literate in those days, most would have recognized the statement as referring to the entire Psalm.
In Psalm 22:6-8, David’s enemies are mocking him because he trusts the Lord and that the Lord would rescue him. Mathew 27:35-44 and Mark 15:29-32 both say that people mocked Jesus by saying that if God truly loved him so much, He would save him in that moment.
Psalm 22:18 states that the clothing of the author was divided up and the oppressors were “casting lots” (a game of chance) for the possession of it. And Matthew 27:35 tells us that Jesus’ garments were divided up and the new owners were decided by casting lots.
It is uncanny that although 1,000 years apart, David’s vision and the recorded actions of the death of Jesus were so similar.
Why Does Jesus Cry “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me”?
In the Book of Leviticus, Moses describes the need for God to demand justice for the offense of human sin. Ultimately, it comes down to an exchange or substitution. However, how effective is a sacrifice that has to be renewed continuously? Is there some way to pay the price forever? The early sacrifices were in place to understand what Jesus would do when he came to walk among us.
Jesus would be able to satisfy the demand for a perfect sacrifice because he was perfect from before conception. You see, sacrifices had to be perfect animals. Humans are not perfect from birth. Only Jesus could pay our price, only Jesus could suffer in our place.
When Jesus hangs on the cross, despised, suffering, and dying, he carries the entirety of all sin. God cannot look upon sin, so he turns his back and withdraws his favor. The burden is now fully upon his Son and the reality of God’s wrath for sin reveals itself in full. Here is where Jesus cries out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
In this moment, there is both the despair of death and hope for deliverance. Jesus still trusts in God. He has ultimately submitted to God’s will. The terrible beauty in this death is that it demonstrates God’s love for us by taking our place on the cross and dying in our place.
Sources:
- https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/my-god-my-god-why-have-you-forsaken-me.html
- Saving Truth, Abdu Murray
- https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/hour-jesus-crucified-resolving-apparent-bible-contradiction/
- Technics and Civilization, Lewis Mumford
- Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination, Walter Wink