In 2008, the Supreme Court ruled on a gun-rights case. We offered some thoughts on it Friday. Continuing that line of thought… The justices, in forming their opinion, studied the use of such phrases as “right of the people”, used elsewhere in the Constitution besides the Second Amendment, and “the people”. They noted that the use of “the people” in the Constitution stands in contrast to the use of “Militia” or the “State”.
When we study the Bible, we need to see how certain phrases and words are used by other writers. It has been rightly said that the Bible is its own best commentary. It does so by defining words and terms for us, if not in the immediate context, at least in the broader context.
The justices also did some studies on verbs. But they did not define the verbs by modern-day usage. That would be anachronistic. They used Samuel Johnson’s dictionary (1773), Noah Webster’s dictionary from 1828 and Sheridan’s Dictionary from 1796. Being more specific, they used Timothy Cunningham’s legal dictionary from 1771.
When controversy in Christianity swirls around words and their definitions, we cannot use modern dictionaries to define those terms. We cannot even use a modern Greek dictionary nor a classical Greek dictionary. The New Testament was written in a specific stage of Greek known as “Common” (Koine) Greek and it is that language and its use which defines the New Testament author’s use of their words.
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Finally, in one point of their discussion, the justices emphasize perhaps the single most significant point on interpretation – context! Again referring to the verb “bear Arms”, the justices state: “the fact that the phrase was commonly used in a particular context does not show that it is limited to that context, and, in any event, we have given many sources where the phrase was used in nonmilitary contexts [emphasis mine].”
Indeed, the context of any given passage in the Bible is going to help us understand what the author is intending to say. It may be the historical context, the religious context, the cultural context, or the literary context but context is important.
How Americans approach the U. S. Constitution has serious consequences for this generation and generations to come. Our approach to the Bible is far more serious with far greater consequences. We ought to study the Bible often, seriously, prayerfully and reverently.
