It is hard to separate art from the context in which it is created. It’s hard to understand great insights and leaps of imagination if you can’t inhabit the world-view of the thinker who is making them. And that’s true for the books of the Bible as well.

I believe the lessons that Jesus teaches are timeless, but they are timeless, in large part, because they explain and illuminate things that are common to all human experience. Understanding the context in which the Gospel’s are written, where the writer’s choose specific things that Jesus said to pass along to the audience of their day can help us to understand some of the most challenging and confusing things that we find in them.

So with that I share this quote from Amy-Jill Levine. It’s something that I’m more and more convinced, if we keep it in mind, we can fully understand what Jesus meant and to whom he was speaking. It is fully in line with the idea that we hear said that “God has a preferential option for the poor”.