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4. The history
When you know the history behind a passage it will also help your
comprehension. In the gospel of John, the whole key to
understanding the interplay between Pilate and Jesus is based on
the knowledge of history. When Pilate came into the land with his
emperor worship, it literally infuriated the Jews and their priests.
So, he was off to a bad start from the very beginning. Then he tried to deceive the Jews.
When they caught him, they reported him to Rome, and he almost lost his job. Pilate was
afraid of the Jews, and that’s why he let Christ be crucified. Why was he afraid? Because he
already had a rotten track record, and his job was on the line.

This type of historical information clarifies the Bible. Good sources for this type of
information are: The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible (Zondervan, 1976) or a
good Bible dictionary.

To interpret the Bible means closing the gaps. As you interpret the meaning of Scripture by
using the various sources, you will close the language gap, the culture gap, the geography
gap, and the history gap. But what are the principles you use?

Understanding Other Gaps

There is a great gap or separation between the people who lived in Bible times and the people who live
today. First of all, there is a great TIME GAP. The people we read about in the Bible lived thousands of
years ago. For example:

Abraham lived about 4000 years ago.
Moses lived about 3500 years ago.
David lived about 3000 years ago.
Peter and Paul lived about 2000 years ago.

There is also a DISTANCE GAP. The people that we read about on the pages of the Bible did not live in
North America or Africa. They did not live in the woods of Connecticut or Lusaka and they did not sail in
the Atlantic Ocean or Zambezi River. The people described in the Bible lived in the MIDDLE EAST, around
the Mediterranean Sea. The land of the Bible is thousands of miles away from where we live.

TIME GAP
Separated by years  The people described in the Bible lived
thousands of years ago.

DISTANCE GAP The people described in the Bible lived
Separated by miles  thousands of miles away from where we
live.

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