11. The Significance of Background
Many of us grow up with some knowledge of the background to the Bible. Even from childhood we may have had at least a mental picture of the kind of clothes people wore in the Near East in biblical times, and we know they had camels and kings! If we have read a little about the biblical world or seen films and television programs about it, we may know a little more about the great empires with which ancient Israel interacted, and that by the time of Christ, Judea was part of the Roman Empire. But, surprisingly, many Christians never go much beyond this very basic picture and do not realize how a little more knowledge of the world of the Bible can tremendously enrich and deepen our knowledge of the Scriptures themselves. Background information can often shed light on Bible passages that we cannot get from the text or context.
Imagine, for a moment, what it would be like if you were to visit a foreign country where you do not speak the language and do not know much about the culture of the people. But you want to find out what is going on, so you buy a newspaper, and ask a friend who knows the language to translate the stories for you. When you read the translated stories, although you can understand the words, you realize you still don't fully understand many of the things that are said because you don't know what articles are alluding to, the background to the stories, or the significance of the examples they mention. You can understand a lot, but there is much that you are not getting. Undeterred, you spend a little time reading about the history and culture of the country, its political parties and problems, and then you are pleasantly surprised at how much better you suddenly understand what is being said in its newspapers.
Reading the Bible can be much like such an experience in a foreign country. This is not to say that you cannot learn a great deal from reading a good translation of the Bible without any outside information whatsoever. But if we do not know anything about the history and culture of the ancient biblical world, we are always going to miss many of the allusions the Bible makes, many of the meanings in its stories, and many of the points that its ancient readers would have seen immediately. The things we miss may not be matters essential to salvation, but they do frequently affect our grasp of biblical doctrines and principles of living, so there is every reason to consider spending a little time learning information that will help us understand the Bible better.
In the following chapters we will take a look at some examples from the archaeology, history, and culture of the biblical world to see how knowledge of these areas can greatly repay us in our study of God's word.