Task 3: Determine the Contribution to the Immediate Context and Overall Argument
Essence of the Task
If in Monday’s first task you examined the context of the passage to be studied and in the second you got a general idea of the passage itself, this third assignment is intended to relate your tentative understanding of the passage to its context. It is about linking the fruit of the second task with the fruit of the first task.
Detailed Description
What we are aiming for with this task is to describe, at least tentatively, the contribution the passage makes to the immediate context and the overall argument of the book. Just as later in the exegetical process of the passage you will formulate a «main idea» for the passage, with this step I am proposing that you tentatively determine what we might call a «basic contribution» or a «primary contribution».
The difference between a primary contribution and a main idea is that, although it would not be at all desirable or advisable, it is entirely possible to describe the «main idea» of a passage in isolation, that is, without relating it to what comes before it or after it or to the book as a whole. Writing a «primary contribution» before going deeper into the text helps us avoid this strange situation. It is a matter of discovering the purpose for which the author included this portion in the text.
To Do
What I suggest doing in this task is to expand on the points made in the first task by adding the corresponding observations. Remember what we did in Monday-Context, Task 1, where we completed the following sentences:
- Paragraph 1. «Just before our passage, the question of (…. fill in) was discussed.»
- Paragraph 2. «Immediately following, the issue of (… fill in) will be addressed.»
I suggest adding two more lines of contextual reflection to the two that you have already written:
- Paragraph 3. «In this portion our author tells us about (…fill in).»
- Paragraph 4. «This portion relates to the previous and subsequent portions, and to the book as a whole, in the following ways (…fill in).»
As simple as this is, one may wonder why on earth this was not done in the first step. The answer, of course, is that we had not yet begun to delve into the week’s passage and, therefore, venturing to determine the passage’s contribution to the overall context and argument would have been premature. Even so, we will still have time to nuance these observations in light of the detailed study that we have before us.
Keep in mind that if you summarized observations gleaned from your repeated reading in the previous step (Monday-Context, Task 2), you may already have what you need to complete the third paragraph. The fourth paragraph consists of reflective work, as noted above, between Task 1 and Task 2. Another way to reflect on the contribution of a pericope to its context and to the overall argument of the book is to ask: What would be missing from the message of this book if this passage were not there?
To Keep in Mind
This task is not complicated, but it is important. In fact, I would venture to say that much teaching lacks this kind of reflection and therefore contributes to messages that are scandalously detached from their logical setting. This ends up treating the passage as if it were a proverb – as if it were an independent truth that can be quoted without reference to a context.
I believe faithfulness in this matter is partly a matter of conviction and partly a matter of procedure. As conviction it is a matter of always acting upon the persuasion that the message is not ours and therefore, we have no right to do with the text what we think is best – neither at the level of content, nor at the level of the purpose for which that content was included in our Bibles.
My sense is that there are many honest students of the Bible who fully embrace the aforementioned conviction, but still predictably fail to link their study and teaching to the context and the argument of the book because they do not have the time or the built-in procedure to do so. I venture to suggest that a good deal of teaching and preaching would gain enormously in biblical fidelity by incorporating this simple task into our preparation: determining the contribution of the passage to the context and argument of the book.