Another common problem when reading isolated verses or passages is that it’s easy to assume every line is speaking straight to us, right here and now. The Bible is for us, but it was not written to us. Part of the beauty of God’s written word is that it’s a tapestry of disparate words written by many different authors to many different people at many different times in many different places.
If we don’t slow down and ask a few questions, we can end up seriously confused and accidentally applying scripture to ourselves in a way it was never meant to. Sometimes the writer isn’t the one speaking (!) and sometimes the words quoted weren’t originally spoken to the people holding the book in their hands. Sometimes the author is using someone else’s words just to knock them down.
That’s why it’s helpful to pay attention to what is called the four parties of Scripture:
- Author – the person who actually wrote down the book or letter.
- Recipient – the person or group who first received that book or letter.
- Speaker – the person or group whose words are being quoted or dramatized inside the passage.
- Audience – the person or group who first heard those quoted words when they were originally spoken.
Often these roles overlap. But sometimes they don’t, and that’s where things get fascinating. If we blur them together, we can catastrophically put words in the wrong mouth or apply commands where they were never intended.
Let’s look at three examples where this distinction makes all the difference.
Case Study 1—James 2:18–21
“But someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works. Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!’ But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar?”
The Four Parties
Here’s how the four parties break down:
- Author: James, the half-brother of Jesus.
- Recipient: Jewish Christians scattered outside Israel.
- Speaker: A hypothetical opponent (interlocutor) James invents or preempts to voice a wrong idea.
- Audience: James himself, since the opponent is “talking back” to him.
If we neglect this setup, we might assume James is the one saying “Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works” as a true theological statement. This misattribution is detrimental because it’s led many earnest Christians to look to their good works as a touchstone to determine if their faith is “genuine.” But in reality, James is putting those words in someone else’s mouth so he can dismantle the argument!
Why it Matters
Collapsing these roles would make James look like he’s teaching salvation by works, works as a necessary demonstration of “true” faith, or that demons believe in Jesus Christ—huge problems, and flat contradictions of other teaching in the New Testament. When we recognize the “speaker” as an imaginary challenger, we see James’s actual point: faith in God alone is not enough to justify ourselves in the eyes of other human beings; practical righteousness has to follow.
Case Study 2—Matthew 5:17–19
“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
The Four Parties
This passage is often offered as evidence that Christians today are still obligated to keep the Mosaic Law. But let’s break it down:
- Author: Matthew, writing his Gospel.
- Recipient: First-century disciples of Jesus—many of them Jewish, wrestling with what Jesus’s teaching means now that He’s risen.
- Speaker: Jesus Himself.
- Audience: Jews still living under the Mosaic Law, during His earthly ministry before the cross.
If we skip these distinctions, we might read Jesus’s words as a direct command for church-age believers to keep Torah in order to be righteous. That misstep has cultivated entire theological systems that bind Christians to an expectation never meant for them.
Why it Matters
Jesus wasn’t announcing that His followers must obey the Law to be saved. Neither was he presenting a kingdom truism that extends across dispensational lines. He was declaring to His Jewish audience in the time when God called them to keep the Law of Moses, to do so in order to fulfill that mission. Jesus was declaring that He was not against Moses, but rather the One who would fulfill the Law’s deepest purpose. Matthew records this so that his later Christian audience (the recipients) could understand how Jesus completed what the Law pointed toward.
For us today, the application isn’t “Go back under Torah,” but “Recognize and trust Jesus as the One who brings the Law to its goal.”
Case Study 3—1 Corinthians 14:34–35
“Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church. Oh? Did the word of God come originally from you? Or was it you only that it reached? If anyone thinks themselves to be a prophet or spiritual, let them acknowledge that the things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord.”
The Four Parties
- Author: Paul, writing 1 Corinthians.
- Recipient: The Corinthian church (men and women gathered in house-church meetings).
- Speaker (in vv. 34–35): A Corinthian position Paul is likely quoting from their prior letter (or echoing as a known slogan) in order to refute.
- Audience: The Corinthian assembly—especially its women—whom certain parties wanted to silence.
If we fail to see the shift from Paul’s words to a quotation from the errant Corinthians, then we treat these lines as a theological mandate for church order that silences women and contradicts the same letter’s call for mutual participation (11:5; 14:26–31).
Why it Matters
If we distinguish the parties, the section reads as Paul’s correction, not his command. The result preserves Paul’s actual aim: Spirit-gifted, orderly participation by the whole church (both men and women), not a blanket gag rule!
In Biblical Interpretation
Think of it like overhearing part of a phone conversation. If you don’t know who’s talking, who they’re talking to, or why, you’ll probably misinterpret the message. The Bible is God’s Word for us, but it was also God’s Word to them—to real people in real situations, sometimes quoting even earlier words spoken in different circumstances.
Learning to track the author, recipient, speaker, and audience helps us avoid sloppy reading and sharpens our application. Sometimes what feels like a direct command to us is really a description of what happened then. Sometimes what looks like a contradiction is actually a clever back-and-forth between two voices in the text.
When we honor these distinctions, we hear Scripture the way God intended: first in its original setting, and then in faithful application today.
