GRASPING GODS WORD

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• GRASPING GODS WORD
• A Hands-On Approach to Reading, Interpreting, and
  Appling the Bible
• (Winter-Spring 2004)
• Powerpoint Presentation Prepared by
• Rev. Joseph C. Parker, Jr., Esq., D. Min.
• Senior Pastor

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How To Read The Bible Discourses You
see, but you do not observe. (Sherlock Holmes)

•  
• DISCOURSE units of connected text that are
  longer than paragraphs
• PARAGRAPHS
• Observe in the letters
• Look for connections
• Look for repeated words
• Look for repeated themes
• EPISODES
• Observe in the narratives
• Episode loosely connected story or scene
• Look at time sequence of each episode
• Look at the surrounding episodes
• Look for some connection between episode

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How To Read The Bible Discourses

•  
• DISCOURSE units of connected text that are
  longer than paragraphs
• STORY SHIFTS
• Observe in the narratives letters
• Look for the new turn in the story
• Look for a major break
• Look for shift from doctrine to practice
• PIVOT EPISODES
• Observe in the narratives
• Look for a shift in the direction of the story
  it will pivot on that episode and take new turn
• Look for a change in the verbs

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How To Read The Bible Discourses

•  
• INTERCHANGE
• a literary device, used primarily in narrative,
  that involves contrasting or comparing two
  stories at the same time as part of the overall
  story development.
• Usually the narrative will move back and forth
  from one story to the other, often to show
  contrast.
• Look for interchange between two different
  stories. Next look for some purpose in the
  interchange.

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How To Read The Bible Discourses

• CHIASM
• A chiasm is a literary pattern that biblical
  writers made use of, that consists of two or more
  parallel lines structured about a central theme.
  It served to focus the readers attention on the
  core of the authors message.
• It comes from the Greek word chi which is
  symbolized X. It is best explained as a way of
  writing something forward, then backwards.
  Another to think of a chiasm is like ascending
  and descending a ladder.

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How To Read The Bible Discourses

• CHIASM
• It is one of the most frequently occurring
  patterns in both Testaments and its detection and
  proper analysis open new and significant avenues
  toward understanding the authors message.
• In chiastically arranged narratives, the movement
  toward the center in the narratives first half
  is reversed on the other side of the center,
  which makes the central unit a natural position
  for the storys turning point.

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How To Read The Bible Discourses

• CHIASM
• The uniqueness of chiasmus, as distinct from
  other forms of parallelism, lies in its focus
  upon a pivotal theme or center, about which the
  other propositions of the literary unit are
  developed. It therefore presupposes a center, a
  crossing point, illustrated by the letter chi
  (X).
• Chiasmus accentuates the main idea or theme the
  writer is concerned to convey to his readers. It
  serves, therefore, as an indispensable key for
  determining the literal sense of a scriptural
  passage.

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How To Read The Bible Discourses

• CHIASM
• The chiasmus was a way of speaking and thinking,
  common in the ancient world, in which ideas were
  arranged in a symmetrical pattern. Sometimes it
  involved, probably as an aid to memory, the
  pairing of thoughts in the following manner
•  
• A First idea
• B Second idea
• B An idea similar to the second idea
• A An idea similar to the first idea

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How To Read The Bible Discourses

• CHIASM
• It should be restricted to units of at least
  three lines, arranged about a pivot or conceptual
  center, such as
• A B A,
• A B C B A,
• A B C C B A, etc.

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How To Read The Bible Discourses

• CHIASM
• n      How do you detect chiastic patterns?
• Put the verse on a sheet of paper you can mark
  up.
• Try to detach yourself from the divisions in the
  printed text, paying as little attention as
  possible to paragraphs or verse and chapter
  numbers.
• Look for units of text several lines at most
  that begin and end with similar terms or themes
  (AA). When you find such correspondences, mark
  them off from the rest of the unit with brackets
  

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How To Read The Bible Discourses

• CHIASM
• n      How do you detect chiastic patterns?
  (Continued)
• Read the passage through several times to sense
  its narrative flow, before attempting to discover
  other parallel elements in it. .
• Move from the extremities toward the center try
  to identify the presence and limits of B B,
  then C C, etc.
• Look for a logical center of meaning one or two
  lines () that seem to summarize the theme of the
  passage as read from the outside in. Set it
  off with brackets.

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How To Read The Bible Discourses

• How do you detect chiastic patterns? (Continued)
• Test the center by moving outward from it in an
  effort to detect and determine the limits of
  11.
• Re-read the entire passage to verify the
  parallels (read A then A, then B and B, etc.),
  and set them off from one another with
  parentheses ().
• On a large sheet of lined paper write out the
  passage according to its parallel structure
  (using letters or numbers, and indenting as we
  have done), in order to visualize its form.
• Read the passage aloud several times as you have
  written it, in order to hear its concentric flow

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How To Read The Bible Discourses

• WHAT DO YOU SEE?
•  
•  
• Text (1 John 411-12)
•  
• Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to
  love one another. No one has seen God at any
  time if we love one another, God abides in us,
  and His love is perfected in us.
•  

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How To Read The Bible Discourses

• WHAT DO YOU SEE?
•  
•  Text (1 John 411-12)
•  
• Marking this as suggested gives the following
•  
• Beloved, if God so loved us, (we also ought to
  love one another.) No one has seen God at any
  time (if we love one another,) God abides in
  us, and His love is perfected in us

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How To Read The Bible Discourses

• WHAT DO YOU SEE?
•  
•  Text (1 John 411-12)
• Writing it out according to its parallelism gives
  this
•  
• A Beloved, if God so loved us,
• B we also ought to love one another.
• C No one has seen God at any time
• B if we love one another,
• A God abides in us, and His love is perfected
  in us

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How To Read The Bible Discourses

• WHAT DO YOU SEE?
•  
•  Text (1 John 411-12)
• Analyze its concentric flow as follows
•  
• A?A God loved us ?
• Gods love is perfected in us.
• B?B We ought to love one another (the ethical
  imperative) ?
• If we love one another (the necessary
  condition)
• C We know God only through his love for us in
  Christ (410)

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How To Read The Bible Sentences

•   WHAT DO YOU SEE?
• Text (1 John 411-12)
• The central focus (C) links this passage with
  49-10. We have never seen God, yet we know God
  sent his Son to give his life as a sacrifice,
  that through our faith in him we might receive
  eternal life. The passage 411-12 expresses the
  idea that our faith must issue in love if we are
  truly to possess that life, that is, if God is to
  abide in us and perfect his life within us.

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How To Read The Bible Sentences

• WHAT DO YOU SEE?
• Nehemiah 1-2
• a Nehemiah hears report of the problem (11-3)
• n      Topics trouble, disgrace, gates burned
  with fire, walls broken down
• b Nehemiah sits down/mourns some days
  (14-11)
• c Nehemiahs request to king to let him
  go to Jerusalem (21-5)
• d TURNING POINT request granted!
  (26)
• c Nehemiahs request to king to give
  him letters for governors (27-10)
• b Nehemiah arises, goes to Jerusalem, and
  remains there three days (211-16)
• a Nehemiah gives own report of the problem
  responses from Jews and enemies (217-20)
• Topics trouble, disgrace, gates burned
  with fire, walls broken down

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How To Read The Bible Sentences

• WHAT DO YOU SEE?
• Mark 521-43 61
• A (21) Jesus returns to Jewish territory
• B (22-24a) Jesus is asked to heal a child
  by the laying on of hands.
• C (35) Some come from the
  rulers house your daughter is dead.
• D (36) Do not fear, only
  believe.
• C (37-40) They come to the
  rulers house the child is not dead but
  sleeping.
• B (41-43) Jesus takes the child by the
  hand and heals her.
• A (61) Jesus returns to his own country.