Part 5 | Literal... According to who? You're Not the Bible's Original Audience

Hermeneutics: Why Context Matters (and How to Stop Taking Verses Out of Context) In today’s Coffee with Hales episode, I’m continuing my hermeneutics series by focusing on why context matters when interpreting and applying the Bible. I talk through different kinds of context—historical, cultural, author/audience, paragraph-level, and even grammatical—and why chapter and verse breaks aren’t divinely inspired. I use Galatians 3:28, Jeremiah 29:11, and Philippians 4:13 as examples of how verses get ripped out of context and reshaped to say what we want. I also unpack what it really means to “take the Bible literally” by considering genre, metaphors, and idioms, and I share how these principles can challenge our theology (including end times and the free will/predestination debate). I close by encouraging you to evaluate theological disagreements by examining the hermeneutics behind them.