We often take things out of context. We see this in the media. Writers pull words and phrases from a talk or a book. We post quotes. We read snippets and headlines: tweets and cute messages — or not-so-nice comments. But even though a quote from a larger text conveys meaning, sometimes we use these words taken out of context to represent the whole story — which they are not. I happen to hate snippets. I also hate reading historical fiction — novels where the author has mixed truth and make-believe.
The political and news media use “soundbites” to promote a particular perspective. It is so ingrained in our society that we accept it as truth. I believe it often causes havoc. And most of the time, that is the intention of those kinds of headlines.
We do this with our religious readings too. Someone decided to put our scriptures into verses with numbers, and thus we forget it is part of a story, a journal entry of sorts. Sure, it helps locate things, but then we may not be aware of the storyline. And we may use the quote to fit our needs when the author had an entirely different message. It would probably be better to have the lines numbered off to the margin as they do in poetry and Shakespeare to not distract from the story.
One of the reasons we need to read scriptures and ancient texts in context is because the words, as used by the author, may not have the same meaning to us today. We often think the words they used have the same meaning to us  — but we should readily see that this is not true. I am reminded of the movie Back to the Future when Marty uses the word “heavy” to describe something as incredulous, and Doc Brown says, —”There’s that word again. “Heavy.” Why are things so heavy in the future? Is there a problem with the Earth’s gravitational pull?”
We have to be careful not to assign the same meaning to a word used at a different time. For Joseph Smith’s time, you can use the online Dictionary from 1828. But for more ancient texts, it is more complicated. I have learned that we misread scriptures — I loved the two books, Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes and Misreading Scripture with Individualist Eyes.
I have also used Bible Hub to read different translations and watched some videos about Hebrew words and their meanings.
Also, you have to see how the same author used the word throughout his entire text. That will give you some clue.
And thus, you see the reason for not taking things out of context. We need to read the whole book or at least the entire story. It’s like a little detective work on your part — as if you were reading and deciphering someone’s journal to understand them better and what they are saying. But also, Hebrew is a very different language than English, and all translators will naturally see their own perspective when translating. Unless you know Hebrew and Greek and Aramaic, you are highly dependant on someone else’s point of view. It’s like the whole “marring” of the servant — which text do you translate — the Masoretic text of Isaiah or the Dead Sea Scrolls?Â
I think Alma the younger is often a little difficult to understand, for example, when you read his words about denying the Holy Ghost:
For behold, if ye deny the Holy Ghost when it once has had place in you, and ye know that ye deny it, behold, this is a sin which is unpardonable (Alma 39:6)
Or when the apostle John writes,
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)
I think it’s a good idea to read the scriptures as a book or scroll — skip the headings, read it as it was intended — I don’t want anyone going over my journal and making headings for their interpretations — you know what I mean. Penguin Classics has The Book of Mormon as a book — as Joseph transcribed it and printed it. Try that. And take a look at the word “marvelous” — it seems to mean something other than how we use it today. I also recommend the Book of Mormon written as a journal because that’s how it was written. One of my favorite editions is A New Approach to Studying the Book of Mormon, which has verses within the reading, but you ignore them. Instead, it has the speaker of the text in the margins.
I always cringe a little when I read an article or post or book that has a lot of interpretation and then uses scripture to support the idea. Yea, I hate that when I do it! But I understand when writing a post, it would be too much to ask my readers to read the whole text that I m referencing, so I try to give it context — where and when and how and why — of that particular quote. Plus, I’m always willing to change my interpretation, or my perspective — because over the years I have definitely evolved in my thinking. Still am.
Posted originally 2020, updated 2022
