“I’m mad about my flat.”

What does that English phrase mean?

You may recognize every word in that sentence, but you do not know its meaning. Because you do not know the context in which those words are being spoken. If you are an American and in the United States, “I’m mad about my flat” means “I’m angry about my car’s flat tire.” But if you are British and in the United Kingdom, “I’m mad about my flat” means “I’m happy about my apartment.”

It’s not that the phrase can mean anything whatsoever. But you have to know the context of those words before you can confidently know their meaning.

The same is true of Scripture. Contexts provide evidence. You can corroborate the contextual meaning of words by other usages in contemporary literature. It’s not a matter of “the literal meaning” or “the plain meaning” of the words of Scripture. After all, what is “the literal meaning” or “the plain meaning” of the phrase, “I’m mad about my flat”? There is none. And that’s not the right question. In fact, usually, people who appeal to the “literal” or “plain” meaning of words is trying to say that their context alone determines what those words mean.

The Church and Language explores how stabilizing words is necessary for any community, especially a spiritual and theological one. The Church as a community is a particular context, as the Hebrew-speaking Jewish community was and is a particular context, because it was built into the language itself: because vowels were not written, but implied, there was a requirement that the human community carried the oral understanding to accompany the writings.

N.T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God, Chapter 1: The Sun and the Arrows (book, May 2003) The phrase "I'm mad about my flat" means: "I'm angry about my flat tire" in the US, but "I'm happy about my apartment" in the UK

Mark Nichol, 75 Contronyms (Words With Contradictory Meanings) (Daily Writing Tips, Sep 14, 2011) "the oversight was sanctioned" has four virtually opposite meanings, which must be understood from the context in which one uses the phrase

Saturday Night Live, Bushwick, Brooklyn 2015 (Saturday Night Live, Jan 18, 2015) comedic sketch about the difference between urban black and suburban white use of the same words

Margot Robbie, 50 Australian Slang Terms in Under 4 Minutes (Vanity Fair, Jul 6, 2016)

Jessica Brown, English Words That Have Totally Different Meanings Around the World (Indy100, Oct 16, 2016)

Austin Sarat, Trump's Loose Talk Came Back to Haunt Him in Judge's Travel Ban Ruling (The Guardian, Mar 15, 2017) shows how words have a context

Yahoo! Answers, How is "Hold You Down" a Good Thing? (Yahoo! Answers) how a phrase in one context means something different in another

Fr. Lawrence Farley, David Bentley Hart’s "The New Testament: a Translation" (No Other Foundation blog, Oct 9, 2017) makes helpful remarks about languages and translations

Fresh Off the Boat, Funny Moments #13 (Fresh Off the Boat / Random Clipz, Jan 1, 2019) at the 3 minute mark; demonstrates by subtitling English for English how even English words need to be interpreted in the context of the relationship in which they are spoken; competitive sisters can say and understand otherwise polite words like insults

John Behr, Origen and the Early Church, Part 2 (On Script Podcast, Aug 27, 2019) at 10:20 says that “veiling” and “unveiling” is a fundamental dynamic of communication, as the speaker has a thought and communicates it using symbols (language). Behr uses the helpful example of, “The plant is swarming” which could mean “the living green plant is swarming with insects” or “the factory is swarming with people.” Context is required.

Trevor Noah, Trump’s Ukraine Call Released (The Daily Show, Sep 25, 2019) a demonstration of how context determines the meaning of words, as Ukraine confirmed that they understood Trump to be offering a quid pro quo. See the 6:00 min mark, where a Soprano clip is shown.

Brian Tyler Cohen, Chris Wallace Loses It on Trump’s Lawyers for Ludicrous Defense on Air (Brian Tyler Cohen, Feb 13, 2021) what “fight” means in context

Trey Ferguson, Twitter (Feb 16, 2021), “One day y’all gon have to explain to me why “butt” and “booty” are synonymous, and “dial” and “call” are synonymous, but “butt dial” and “booty call” are very much not synonymous.” An entertaining example of how synonyms go in different directions.

Adam Kinzinger and the January 6 Select Committee, Despite Pleas, Trump Refused to Instruct Capitol Rioters to Disperse. PBS News Hour, July 21, 2022. During the invasion of the Capitol Building, Trump’s staff and advisors begged Trump to message the rioters and condemn the violence, and Trump used double-talk instead. At the 9 minute mark, witness Sarah Matthews, former Deputy Press Secretary for the Trump Administration, attests that a debate ensued about what message to send, because Trump did not want to call for peace. Trump eventually tweeted during the Capitol riot to “please support our Capitol Police, they are on our side, do not harm them” and the insurrectionists and rioters interpreted this as encouragement from Trump to continue the insurrection. “He didn’t say not to do anything to the Congressmen. He did not ask them to stand down.” This is a very important example of how double entendre and understatement work.

How to Understand Scripture as Literature

How the Meaning of Words Are Determined by Their Context

How Movie Soundtracks Help Us Interpret Scripture

Hope Filled Full: How the New Testament Quotes from the Old Testament