Sitz im Leben: I have seen you use the term Sitz im Leben in some articles and books. What does this term mean?
Sitz im Leben is a German term that in theological studies is used in reference for Situation in Life. What it refers to, more than anything else, is the historical and cultural time and place of Biblical and modern events. In Scriptural studies, each one of us has to consider the Situation in Life of the events that are occurring. We cannot simply read the Bible as though it was written yesterday directly to us. While the Scriptures were written for us, they were written over a 1,300-1,500-year period from after the Israelites Exodus from Egypt to the exile of John on the island of Patmos. Divorcing the Scriptures from their original historical setting is very dangerous, and can lead to many inaccurate interpretations. A good Bible student always tries to interpret what the Word meant for its original audience firstbefore then asking what a text means for us living today in the Twenty-First Century. In Messianic Bible studies, where we are trying to return to the First Century theolog
