Why Context Is King In A Bible Study.
Do we want our theology to come from the writers of the Bible or the writers of Bugs Bunny?
We often try to apply current cultural constructs and modern linguistics to Biblical writers' when reading the Bible. We must always understand and take into consideration the language and culture of a passage before we begin studying God's word.
In 1937, Bugs Bunny began calling his nemesis, Elmer Fudd, the bumbling buffoon of a hunter, a Nimrod. As culture evolved, this word, Nimrod, came to mean idiot or buffoon. When someone does something foolish, we quickly call them a "Nimrod." In a purposeful attempt, Satan has used media to desensitize us to this evil man. We no longer understand his position in world history or his level of evil. This false idea of who he is has removed our ability to recognize this type of leader in present and future times.
In The Bible, Nimrod is the first King of Babel, a mighty hunter, a savage slayer of men and animals, and possibly the man we can credit with being the inventor of war. His arrogance was so great that he tried to build a tower to reach God. Why is this important? Nimrod is the archetype of all evil rulers to come as well as the eventual Anti-Christ. If we see him as anything less than wicked, we start from a dreadful disadvantage.
When we read Genesis with the modern meaning of idiot or buffoon, we get a vastly different picture of this king than when we read it with the correct cultural connotation of a violent and mighty hunter of men and animals. Do we really think an imbecilic character like Elmer Fudd would aspire to build a tower tall enough to challenge God? Do we think a man who was to inept kill a rabbit with a gun could gain enough followers to undertake this mammoth task? The enemy wants to soften these figures up so when new versions of them appear, our guard is down and they can move throughout our world with impunity.
Cultural context and rightly defined words differentiate between understanding scripture as intended and fitting scripture around Satan's modern-day agenda, the social gospel, and weak understanding of Biblical truths.