The Shared Knowledge of the Early Church

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In their book, Introducing the New Testament, Achtemeier, Green and Thompson state that, “…only a small portion of the meaning of any utterance is represented by the words used, whether spoken or written.”  This is because when we communicate with others we utilise a certain amount of pre-knowledge: things that we already know. And we are able to have the conversation with others because they also share at least enough of that pre-knowledge to be able to enter into a discussion with us.

In fact, conversations often revolve around pre-knowlege. When we start a discussion with someone we often start by checking what we both know (e.g. “Did you know that the Chiefs are playing the 49’ers in the Super Bowl?”). Then we move on to telling each other the bits of pre-knowledge one of us has that the other doesn’t and so we learn new knowledge from the other person (e.g. “I hadn’t heard that the Chiefs have got no injuries going into the game”).  In this way our shared knowledge grows and usually as a result of this we grow closer to the other person. As the conversation moves on and we begin to interact more confidently and open up more to each other we start to voice our conclusions about the meaning of the knowledge and give our opinions on the topic as the discussion moves on (e.g. “The Chiefs will have a battle on their hands to beat the 49’ers, but there is a chance they could do it if…”). Conversations are then a fairly complex way of interacting, but imagine how complex they would be if we did not have any shared pre-knowledge!

As a result of our pre-knowledge we are able to speak using terms that others around us understand, it is often the result of a shared history. For example, when we speak of the current President of the United States, we speak at the time they are in office and knowing who they are, hence we use simplified terms of reference like, “The President is in Israel”. At the time of writing this that statement means: The President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, is in Israel.

When we speak of a past president though we have to give more contextual information, in order for listeners to be able to work out which president we are talking about, because there have been 53 presidents of the US to date! Hence, the names of presidents are linked closely to the dates they hold office (e.g. we can speak of the Jeffersonian era). This is because, in order for the audience to know which past president a speaker is referring to they have to give enough context for the listener to place that president. The easiest way to do this is either to name them or give the year in question. The second option though assumes that the listener has a good grasp of US history!

This combination of pre-knowledge and shared knowledge that we refer to today (almost subconsciously) in our conversations and interactions with others would have been mirrored in the early Christian community. Each group of believers had a shared knowledge specific to their time, situation and place in history. When the New Testament authors wrote they were writing to an audience they knew something about, and so they made certain assumptions about how their information would be received and understood. And, importantly for us today, they left out information, not because it wasn’t important, but simply because, they did not feel they needed to repeat it for their intended audience.

The pre-knowledge of the early church likely holds many keys to the interpretation of the scripture, and if we could place ourselves in the shoes of the intended first recipients of these writings we would probably be surprised at the changes that take place to our perception of the meaning and implementation of scripture in people’s lives.

There are a number of things we can learn from this realisation but here I want to mention two briefly in closing.

Firstly, the realisation that we do not have all the pre-knowledge and shared understanding that the early believers have must surely bring a certain level of humility to us, particularly regarding our opinions on Scripture and its interpretation today. This is perhaps especially so as it relates to the lives of others… Scripture is the authority, but we are not. Our teaching of Scripture has to allow room for individual believers to interact with the written Word, and receive instruction in it through the leading of the Spirit of Christ directly. Where we differ in our interpretation we should allow a level of grace, if nothing else because we do not have a full and clear understanding ourselves, and nor will we, till we walk upon those glorious heavenly shores in the presence of our Lord and Saviour.

Secondly, accepting the fact of our lack of full knowledge around the interpretation of scripture pushes us to discover more about the early church, its experiences, its viewpoints and its own interpretations of scripture. Digging deeper into the historical context of the Scriptures allows us to understand the text better, by allowing us to get a better understanding of the author’s intentions and in so doing it allows us to see a clearer image of Christ in the text. By extension it makes us better Bible teachers, evangelists, and representatives of Christ on earth.

It is because we do not have the pre-knowledge that the Bible authors and their audiences had that we need to be prepared to spend time learning about and understanding the historical context of the Bible’s various passages. Doing this will allow us to understand the Word of God more accurately and as a result apply its teachings to our lives more effectively.

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References:

Achtemeier, Paul J., Green, Joel B. & Thompson, Marianne Meye. Introducing the New Testament: It’s Literature and Theology. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 2001.

Barr, James. The Semantics of Biblical Language. London, UK: SCM Press, 1983.

Green, Joel B, ed., Hearing the New Testament: Strategies for Interpretation. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 2010.

Wegner, Paul D. The Journey From Texts To Translations: The Origin And Development Of The Bible. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 1999.