Is the Bible 31,103 Fortune Cookies?

1. Not really. Each verse stands on its own. It carries its own meaning.
2. Absolutely. Of course it does.
3. What's most important is my own personal interpretation.

Hmmm, it's tough to vote for just one! It really depends upon the purpose for using the scripture, and the actual scripture itself! Some scriptures stand alone really well, while other scriptures require context for proper exegesis.

I have had a scripture quoted to me way outside of it's intended context, and to mean something that it had in no way been intended to mean by the author.. but it just so happened that those words flicked a switch in my mind, and it helped me to become convicted and repent.

So, even misquoting scripture for a valid purpose.. who is going to judge against that guy for doing it?

.. So, yeah, all three, depending upon which is effective! All Scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for restoration, and for training in righteousness, so that the person belonging to God may be capable, fully equipped for every good deed.

jimmyjimmy said:

“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” (Jeremiah 29:11) This is one of the most quoted, yet I think most misunderstood verses, in the entire Bible.

God, the ultimate Author of this text, like any good author, provides the subject of the passage for us: “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon … “ (Jeremiah 29:4). Yet we use this verse in graduation cards, and it's printed on posters in the church nursery. . .

Are we misapplying this text, and countless others, when we take them from their context, and put them on a feel-good bumper stickers?

Does context matter, or are we free to take any text and apply it in any way we wish?

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According to Exodus 20:7, speaking in the name of God is a very serious matter, not to be treated casually. After all, we do pray "hallowed be your name" - or do we merely recite it? 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 has a meaty answer too.

A well-developed skill of applying Ephesians 4:29 should keep a person pretty well clear of any blame

Thanks for the topic!

Of course context matters. That's one of the first things you learn in hermeneutics. And knowing what it meant to the original audience matters, too.

I presume that the 807,361 from the title is your take on the number of words in the Bible? My suggestion is that you not hang your hat on that number. I went through a period where I wanted to know all kinds of stats about the Bible and came away with five different counts of the number of words - all in the KJV. Counting them is not as easy as one might think. (Btw, your number does not match any of the five I came up with ;-)

jimmyjimmy said:

The number of words, is not important to this conversation.

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I realize it's not important, but you're mistaken. The number of verses in the Bible is closer to about 32,000. (I can give you a book-by-book breakdown if you like.)

jimmyjimmy said:

I changed to title to reflect the number of verses rather than words, but in either case, there are a few factors which determine these stats.

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Cool. I didn't know you could change a title once it's posted. Now, hopefully everyone will forgive my rabbit trail and get on to the meat of the question. Is context important?

dysert said:

Is context important?

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It has to depend upon the purpose. If the purpose is to establish a truthful fact, or a yard-stick for Christian behaviour, yeah sure, it is essential to understand exactly what the writer meant to convey with his words. Whereas if the purpose of the quote is to teach, reprove, restore and instruct in righteousness, then the skill of it's swordsman is going to matter far more than the context. People can get caught up in disputes over the context of the scripture, and fail to achieve anything worthwhile in their conversation. This would be similar to what St. Paul was describing in 2 Timothy 2:14 or 1 Timothy 1:3-7.

Serving Zion said:

It has to depend upon the purpose. If the purpose is to establish a truthful fact, or a yard-stick for Christian behaviour, yeah sure, it is essential to understand exactly what the writer meant to convey with his words. Whereas if the purpose of the quote is to teach, reprove, restore and instruct in righteousness, then the skill of it's swordsman is going to matter far more than the context. People can get caught up in disputes over the context of the scripture, and fail to achieve anything worthwhile in their conversation. This would be similar to what St. Paul was describing in 2 Timothy 2:14 or 1 Timothy 1:3-7.

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On the other hand, though, you can't ignore what Scripture is properly teaching in order to make a point that you want to make.

Bad choice of words on my part. I should have said, "you *shouldn't* ignore what Scripture is properly teaching". And I agree, it does happen constantly.

jimmyjimmy said:

From reading your 2 posts in this thread, clearly your answer to the poll is #3.

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No, it really does depend upon the purpose for which the scriptures are being used. Not everybody is so readily able to repent at a word of truth, sometimes they will need to be cornered in their deceit before they will admit the error of their ways. In those cases, the application of scripture must be absolutely robust according to the writer's intended context, to avoid being discredited.

jimmyjimmy said:

You believe that meaning is found in the hand of the reader, not the author.

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When the author is not available to correct the reader's misunderstanding, this is the only possible conclusion anyway.

However, when the scriptures are used by someone who is operating in The Holy Spirit, then the same spirit that crafted the words is also handling the words and is present to ensure that the recipient of those words has no doubt whatsoever his liability and responsibility to the truth (Matthew 18:20, John 16:7-11).

dysert said:

On the other hand, though, you can't ignore what Scripture is properly teaching in order to make a point that you want to make.

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100% accurate, given worthy company

This highlights the importance of solid doctrine so that scripture is not distorted by reader's contextual bias, and that in turn highlights the importance of devout repentance to that end (Ephesians 4:11-16, 2 Thessalonians 2:3, 2 Peter 2:1-2).