Context matters. After our assigned readings each week, I receive this message in some form or another. In our reading this week from The Rise and Fall of the Bible, Timothy Beal emphasizes the importance of understanding what kind of world Jesus lived in. He uses Luke 4 as a starting point, discussing the story of Jesus reading from Isaiah in the synagogue. Beal reminds us that Jesus would have read from a scroll, sung the verse, and the synagogue could have been a gathering place in a house. Furthermore, Beal notes that early Christians had no canon and a very different relationship with scripture than we have today.
Many people today claim Christianity without having much familiarity with scripture or the Jewish tradition that it came out of. I find the scripture culture we have today in the political sphere particularly interesting. For example, Donald Trump has tried to appeal to evangelical voters by referring to the bible, saying “"My mother gave me this Bible, this very Bible, many years ago. In fact, it's her writing, right here. She wrote the name, and my address, and it's just very special to me."” (source). In this political context, it is not about the message of scripture, rather the idea of the bible itself that has meaning for people.
What if Christianity today did not have such a closed canon? Politicians would not be able to rely on invoking the bible. Instead they would be forced to know what scripture they considered authoritative and why. This is obviously not our reality, but it is interesting to think about. The context in which Christians interact with biblical texts today is very different from the context of early Christianity. Again, context matters.
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