How to Observe Structure

Perhaps you’re persuaded that structure is something you ought to observe in a Bible passage. And perhaps you believe in the value of observing structure. But you’re just not sure how to do it. Those who can outline a passage or an argument seem to you like wizards drawing on sinister secret arts unavailable to the general populace. How do they do it?

A preliminary step is to hold only loosely to what you learned in school about outlining. Remember, the Bible is ancient literature. And the ancients may not have thought about hierarchical outlines the way we do. They weren’t writing term papers, so they may not have been automatically thinking in a format such as:

I. First main point

A. First sub-point

B. Second sub-point

II. Second main point

And so on…

Different Genres

Often we must observe the genre before we can observe the structure.

Logical literature (epistles) will be driven primarily by the argument. Once you can trace the argument (premises, conclusions, illustrations, etc.), you will have a decent outline of the passage.

Poetry is often logical as well, so tracing the argument can help. But the poet typically signals his ideas by means of metaphors. If you notice when the chief metaphor shifts, you likely can identify literary units.

Narrative is driven primarily by plot, though setting and characters can also be used as structuring devices. The main things you want to look for, though, are opening setting, conflict, rising tension, climax, resolution, and new setting. Trace this arc, and you will grasp the structure of a narrative.

Macro-Structure

Now those tips will help you on a micro level, with isolated passages or episodes. That’s often the easy part. Greater difficulty lies in identifying the structure of an entire book, or a book’s major division. But we need to interpret the passage at hand in light of the larger persuasive structure, so we must be able to discover that larger structure within which we find our text.

How do we do that?

As I’ve done before, I will rely on David Dorsey, The Literary Structure of the Old Testament, for help. Dorsey has done clear and important work on this topic, which I am happy to present to you.

Primary Steps in Observing Literary Structure

Dorsey gives three main steps for grasping larger literary structures:

1. Identify the constituent units of a composition.
2. Analyze the arrangement of those units.
3. Consider what this structure communicates about the author’s intended meaning.

I find the first step to be the most challenging and to require the most work. And I often have to cycle through steps 1 and 2 a few times before the structure really pops, like one of those Magic Eye 3D pictures that you can’t unsee after you have seen it.

1. Identify Constituent Units

Dorsey give three sub-steps to help you identify literary units:

1. Beginning markers
2. End markers
3. Internal cohesion

Beginning markers are introductory phrases that signal a new section. For example, in my study of the tabernacle instructions in Exodus 25-31, I observed seven narrative statements: “Yahweh said to Moses…” The narrator uses these “markers” to structure God’s instructions into seven speeches. We see Genesis use a similar technique, dividing the book into ten sections that begin with: “These are the generations of…”

End markers are conclusive statements that signal the end of a section. For example, early in Mark’s gospel the narrator uses a general narrative summary statement to signal the end of his major sections (see Mark 3:7-12, 6:6b). The book of Psalms uses concluding doxologies to signal the ends of each of the book’s five major divisions (Ps 41:13, 72:18-20, 89:52, 106:48, 150:1-6). Job gives an end marker to signal a major shift from Job’s interactions with his 3 friends to Elihu’s interaction with Job (Job 31:40b).

Internal cohesion refers to the many techniques an author uses to signal that a passage hangs together as a single unit. Dorsey lists 14 techniques biblical authors use to create this cohesion, but his list can be boiled down to one thing: change. Changes in scene or setting, characters, topic, genre, pace of action, literary form, or grammatical forms (such as a shift from second person to third person pronouns) can all suggest the boundaries of a literary unit. As can inclusio or chiasm, keyword repetition, or recurring motif.

For example, Isaiah’s chapter divisions in English Bibles are notorious for screwing up the author’s structure. Isaiah 7:1-9:7 hangs together as one section, beginning with the promise of Immanuel and ending with the Mighty God being born among humanity as a child. Then Isaiah 9:8-10:4 is a single cohesive unit, containing four stanzas, each with an identical, repeated end marker: “For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still” (Is 9:12b, 9:17c, 9:21b, 10:4b). If you read just Isaiah chapter 7, then chapter 8, then chapter 9, then chapter 10 (assuming each chapter to be its own unit), you will miss Isaiah’s structure, and therefore his point.

2. Analyze the Arrangement of the Units

Once you can list, with reasonable confidence, the main units of a book, you can examine how the author has chosen to fit them together.

Sometimes he uses a linear arrangement, which is the most straightforward approach. The units have little to do with each other, except that one leads to the next. The outline looks like: A-B-C-D-E-F-G. I can’t prove this, but my hunch is that this is the least common arrangement in the Scriptures. For oral cultures, a linear arrangement is just too difficult to hear and remember. We see a linear arrangement in Proverbs 10-29, where the author wants us to stop and think after almost every verse.

Sometimes biblical authors use a parallel arrangement, which involves giving a sequence and then repeating it one or more times. The outline looks like A-B-C-D//A-B-C-D. We see this in the book of Judges, where the sequence laid out in Judges 2:11-19 repeats 7 times, before we get two closing epilogues (Judges 17-18 and 19-21) that match the book’s two prologues (Judges 1:1-2:5 and 2:6-3:6). Mark uses a parallel arrangement in Mark 6:30-8:26, where he takes his disciples through the same sequence of events (feed a multitude, cross the sea, dispute the Pharisees, discuss bread, heal someone’s malfunctioning senses) two times.

Sometimes biblical authors use a symmetric arrangement, which involves moving the action or argument forward to a hinge point, then unwinding the action or argument in reverse order. The outline looks like A-B-C-D-E-D-C-B-A. This arrangement is often called a chiasm, because the outline looks like one side of the Greek letter chi (an X). We see this in the Aramaic section of Daniel (Dan 2-7) which tells of:

a vision of 4 kingdoms (Dan 2),

a martyr/rescue story (Dan 3),

judgment on a king’s pride—restored (Dan 4),

judgment on a king’s pride—not restored (Dan 5),

a martyr/rescue story (Dan 6),

and a vision of 4 kingdoms (Dan 7).

Conclusion

I’m out of space for now and will have to return to the third main step in another post. That’s where all this work of observation starts to pay off, as we grapple with the interpretive question: “Why did the author arrange his material in this way?”

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