Of course context is "everything". But sometimes there are parts of context that we don't necessarily consider in our interpretation/exegesis. Or, at least, there are parts that I don't necessarily notice or consider right off. But first, a short (and true!) story.

I was happily typing away an email to Amy earlier today. In the course of the email, I suggested that it might be fun to go to Port Townsend on a Saturday. Port Townsend is over on the Olympic Peninsula and, unless you want to drive a whole lot (see route map), it involves a ferry ride from from Keystone (by Fort Casey State Park) to Port Townsend. It's about a half hour ride. If you're interested, you can check the Port Townsend Ferry webcam to see what the traffic is like or if the ferry is at the dock.

There are other things that you just know if you've been to Port Townsend before. You know that the ferry can be crowded, so it is better to park your car at Keystone and pay the passenger rate for the ferry ride. This is known as the "walk on" fare. You know this is no big deal because the Port Townsend ferry dock is right downtown; easily walk-able. You know that if you decide to drive over, you need to get to the ferry landing early because you'll have to wait in line for at least one sailing (especially on a weekend). And you also know that it will be expensive.

So, you've got that? Good. Here's what I typed to Amy that conveyed most of this:

Park on the Whidbey side, walk across on the ferry.

That's it. Right after I wrote this, I realized that there was a lot packed into that little sentence, and that exegetes in later centuries would be mystified when they looked at it. But Amy understood exactly what I was communicating. Crazy, huh?

Here are some ambiguities you run into if you don't consider all of the relevant information listed above:

1. Is 'Park' a noun or a verb? There is a park on the Whidbey side. But there is also a parking lot (or, 'car park' for non-North-American readers).
2. How does one "walk across" on the ferry?

So you have some more context, here's the whole paragraph that the above sentence occurred in, complete with slang and everything!

Whaddya think about going to Port Townsend some Saturday (in September, of course)? Park on the Whidbey side, walk across on the ferry. Browse the shops, have some lunch. Browse some more, then come back? If the ferry schedule is conducive and we play our cards right, we could even invite ourselves over to my folks' house for dinner on the way back home ... **

So you have a little more help. You know now that "Park" is likely a verb, unless you'd deduced that already based on the structure of the sentence:

Park
    on the Whidbey side
Walk across
    on the ferry

But if you had no knowledge of the payment system of the Washington state ferry system or the language that locals use to describe it, would you be able to figure out what it means to "walk across on the ferry"?

One aspect of context is doing the background work and background reading so that you can, first of all, spot stuff like this when it occurs in text you are exegeting or interpreting. This doesn't get talked about much because it requires one to be pro-active. To have read up on these sorts of things before they approach the text, so that the reading can be somewhat informed.

Having some domain-specific knowledge, you also need to have resources — books, web sites, Bible software, or people you know — to determine what is really going on. Sometimes it is pretty simple. Other times, you have to do a lot of work.

I'm still curious as to whether folks generations removed would be able to determine what "walk across on the ferry" means.

** Note to Mom & Dad: Hey, how 'bout Amy and I come over for dinner some Saturday in late September? :)