Contextual Reading
Reading Scripture with attention to its audience, setting, and purpose—essential to fulfilled understanding.
What is
Contextual Reading
Contextual reading means interpreting Scripture within its historical, cultural, and literary setting. TGNN teaches that understanding context is essential to seeing the Bible’s fulfilled message.
Explanation
Many theological errors arise when verses are taken out of context. TGNN teaches that Scripture must be read contextually—which means paying close attention to who wrote it, who they wrote to, when, and why.Contextual reading includes understanding the genre of the writing (poetry, prophecy, narrative, apocalyptic), the covenantal period it belongs to, and how its original audience would have understood it. For example, Jesus’ warnings in Matthew 24 were not about our future—they were directed at first-century Israel.Without context, readers project modern fears and assumptions onto the text. With context, we see a coherent, fulfilled story—one that ends in reconciliation and liberty, not confusion and dread.
