Study to show thyself approved History is necessary for understanding Christianity. It’s necessary for interpreting the Scriptures. If we hope to understand the Gospels in any sufficiently thorough sense, then we’ve got to understand the context in which they were produced and in which the events they narrate took place. History helps fill in much of what the Gospel writers simply assumed. It explains why Pilate was so worried about his status as Caesar’s friend and thus so ready to convict an innocent man. Why Jews didn’t associate with Samaritans. Why the Sanhedrin didn’t have the authority to execute Jesus (John 18:31) but had the authority to execute his brother. Who the chief priests or the Pharisees were. How much, if at all, Jesus’ interpretation of the Old Testament differed from his opposition or his disciples. Why Jesus was crucified as a messianic pretender. In fact, more basic than all of this is the fact that without history most of us wouldn’t have access to the Scriptures, since most of us aren’t native Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek speakers. Every time we use a modern English version or look up a word in BDAG, we admit the necessity of history and acknowledge our dependence on it. #KNOWledge
Posted on: Wed, 16 Jul 2014 02:26:28 +0000
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