Reading content that was written thousands of years ago creates unique challenges. One of those challenges is to determine the author’s original intent when penning their letter. What did the author intend to convey to the reader? This is an important question when studying the Bible because we cannot read Scripture through the lens of our own experiences, culture, or time frame. We have to put ourselves into the place of the original recipient and consider what the text would have meant to them. Some passages are easier to understand today because they include activities similar to those encountered in ancient times. Take this passage in 1 Corinthians 9 for example:
“Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it. Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one. So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air; but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified.” 1 Cor. 9:25-27
We can relate to the athlete analogy today. There are plenty of athletic challenges throughout the world making it easy for the modern reader to extrapolate a meaning from this passage. It would have had even more specific meaning for the Corinthian recipients in the first century because the Isthmian games were held according to a regular schedule on the Isthmus (land bridge) of Corinth. Corinthian believers would have been aware of these Olympic-style games, and some may have even competed in the events. Paul’s analogy here is similar to the style of message a chaplain may give to a sports team.
Other passages include topics that are foreign to most 21st-century readers living in a Westernized nation. While Paul was in Athens, he noticed the prevalence of idols and idol worship. When he had an opportunity to address the issues to an assembly of Athenians, he had this to say:
“For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.” – Acts 17:23-25
Unless you have spent time in Asia where Buddhism and Hinduism are prevalent, and idols are set up throughout the region it may be difficult for you to picture what is happening in this situation. Paul turns this idol established for an “unknown god” into a teaching moment about the one true God. Paul was not promoting the idea of setting up an altar for God, nor was he suggesting all idols should be destroyed except for this one. I have never met anyone who attempted to interpret this passage in this way, but I want to make the point that we should not read into the text and set idols to God in our homes. That would be the result of ignoring the author’s original intent.
For every passage, consider what the author was trying to convey. What would their analogies mean to someone living in a Jewish community during the reign of Solomon? How would a new Christian living in the first century respond to the imagery of Roman armor? This requires taking the time to interact with the text instead of quickly reading through large swaths of content. The deeper we dig, the more we understand about the one we serve and about his plan for our lives. It is worth the time to dig deeply.