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The Problems and Pitfalls of Proof-Texting

Why is it wrong to proof-text when making an argument? 

Proof-texting is when someone simply quotes a verse from the Bible, out of context, to make a point. This can be in a book, a conversation, an essay, or a sermon, to give some examples. I just did a quick read of some other blogs on this topic, and none of them wowed me, so I thought I'd write my own. Then I had an even better idea: why not get you to tell me why proof-texting is problematic? In other words, I want to crowd-source the problem, and get lots of input.

Since it is my suggestion, and I already did some research, let me get the ball rolling. Proof-texting is problematic because:

  • It ignores the original context of the verse. There are actually two types of context:
    1. The literary context of the verse, that is, the verse is situated in a passage (that might be making an entirely different point) of Scripture that has a certain genre. For instance, the book of Acts is narrative, which means it is descriptive of what happened then, and not necessarily an example to follow now. Rather, it shows how the Holy Spirit led the apostles to go to the Gentiles, etc. etc.
    2. The historical and cultural context of that verse - it was revealed to an author of Scripture who was speaking into a particular historical and cultural context, which we often ignore, to our peril. For instance, the books to the Corinthians were written to 1st-century believers living near a sea port in a Greek town that was a) quite rich b) full of worship to the god Apollos and the goddess Aphrodite, the goddess of love.
Right then, over to you. What other reasons might proof-texting be problematic?

Please reply below, rather than on Facebook or whatever, so all the comments are available to all. That might require you to login to Google, but that's pretty straightforward, I think.

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