Ask a Bible college Student

[SteelCurtain]

When I refer to context, I mean don't read one verse and base your entire belief system on it. This is true no matter what you read. If you only hear half the thought, you will inevitably come to a wrong conclusion. Even in elementary school, when you don't know the meaning of a word, teachers tell you to look for "context clues." Scripture interprets scripture. Also, in history, if you only look at a small snapshot of an event, its really hard to understand the importance or overall impact. Its when you look at the big picture that things start to make sense. 

But you do realize that when you move on from the blatant impossibilities and objective falsehoods, as Cato noted, in the first half of the first book of the Bible, you are just hand waving, right?

I mean that is the boilerplate non-response. You have just shifted the onus away from those wrong or odious verses.

For example, please explain the context where this verse can be explained:

28 “If a man meets a virgin who is not betrothed, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are found, 29 then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has violated her. He may not divorce her all his days.

I have read the surrounding text. (I have read the entire Bible.) This verse says that if a man rapes a woman, she must marry him. Her father should be paid (bride price). But loophole---only if someone catches him. Please give me an example where context makes this okay.