Dive In: Provenance

We’ve spent several weeks discussing the design of a book of the Bible. There many elements of design and we’ve only scratched the surface there. But we need to look at the second leg of our stool for balance.

There are three aspects to a careful reading of a biblical text:

• Design
• Provenance
• Idea

We will begin our discussion of provenance today.

Provenance means, simply, the origins or beginning of something. Ultimately it is from Latin provenire, from pro-, "forth" + venire, "to come."

As we look at a biblical text, we must ask its origin. It’s tempting to look at the story in the text and assume that was when the author did his work.

However, take a look at Ruth 4:7

"Now this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging: to confirm a transaction, the one took off a sandal and gave it to the other; this was the manner of attesting in Israel."

The author added this explanation because his reader did not know the custom being described in the text. That alerts us immediately that the narrative was written many years after the events actually occurred.

There are many other examples like this in the Bible, enough for us to know that many times a history was written years after the actual events.

We know, for example, that Ruth was probably written after David was king of Israel. Many scholars suspect that Ruth was written, in part, as comment on David’s reign. Did God want David to be king? Ruth answers that question with a triumphant yes!

The idea then becomes that the true kings of Israel come from David’s line. From the barrenness of Naomi and Ruth, God brought forth new life that became the future of Israel. The book endorses David’s rule and also opens the door to Christ’s reign someday, although the original reader probably would not have recognized that aspect like we do today.

When the text was written is important to the ideas it expresses.

So, as we begin our study of a text, we must ask:

Who was the author?

Who was the audience?

When was the work written?

What were some of the cultural and historic backstories for the text?

Tomorrow we’re going to apply those questions to the book of John. John’s ideas begin to spring to life as we examine these questions.

Next Tuesday, we’ll look at provenance further by examining a painting, The Graham Children, done by William Hogarth in 1742. If you get a chance, take a look at the painting and see what you observe in it. I think we’ll find next week that studying design alone won’t spring the meaning like studying the provenance.

(Thank Dr. Frank Ames, my Old Testament professor, for presenting these concepts so profoundly.)

This week, begin asking the questions of provenance, especially when. It’s vital to your understanding of the text.