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Five Things to Observe

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You sit down with your Bible, and you’re ready to study it. You pray and open the page to the right spot. Then…what? You see lots of ink and paper. You’ve heard these verses before.

You’d like to go deeper, and you don’t want to let familiarity get in the way. But what exactly can you do? What should you begin to observe?

Derek Bridges (2006), Creative Commons

Derek Bridges (2006), Creative Commons

Here are some ideas to get you started:

  1. WORDS: Pay attention to the words. Count up how many times different words are repeated. Notice how different things are described or labeled.
  2. GRAMMAR: Identify the subject, verb, and object of a sentence. What are the main verbs? Who is doing what, and where and how are they doing it?
  3. STRUCTURE: How does the passage fit together? Break it into paragraphs. Pay attention to transitions.
  4. GENRE: Is this poetry or prose? A letter or a narrative? Who is the author? Who is the original audience?
  5. MOOD: What tone of “voice” is the author writing with? Does the passage inspire action, invoke emotion, or challenge assumptions?

Here’s an exercise for you to consider. Let’s just take one verse: John 3:16.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (ESV).

Use the five categories above to help you get started, and try to write 50 observations on that one verse.

Mention one of your observations in the comments below, and let’s see how many we can come up with!

How’d You Do That? (7/16/12)

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In yesterday’s post, we fleshed out Solomon’s first purpose for writing Proverbs.  In so doing, we examined an important component of biblical poetry: parallelism.

We saw the importance of observing Genre here and here.  Now that we’ve noticed that we’re dealing with poetry, we can appreciate the implications.

English poetry and Hebrew poetry have some similarities and some differences.  Knowing them up front enables us to read the Bible rightly.

Similarities
  1. Uses lots of imagery
  2. Attempts to evoke feelings
Differences
  1. English poetry is (often) driven by meter and rhyme
  2. Hebrew poetry is primarily driven by parallelism

English poetry sounds…poetic.  It has a bounce, a rhythm.  For example:

When beggars die, there are no comets seen;
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes. (Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, II.2.30)

Hebrew poetry generally doesn’t have the “bounce.”

To know wisdom and instruction,
To understand words of insight (Prov 1:2, ESV).

Bible translators often format the text differently to signal poetry (lots of white space, parallel lines indented together, etc.).  Because of the lack of meter and rhyme, however, translators often disagree whether certain Bible passages are prose or poetry.  Just look at the book of Ecclesiastes in a few different versions, and you’ll see that there is little consensus on whether some sections are prose or poetry.

What’s the point?

When you read poetry in the Bible, remember not to isolate individual lines.  Instead, we ought to read parallel lines together, for it’s in their parallelism that we get the poet’s intentions.  Also, expect lots of figurative and emotive language.  The poet wants to communicate a point, but he wants to do so beautifully.

How’d You Do That? (6/8/12)

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In our last Proverbs post, I looked at what sort of genre proverbs are.  Let me give those comments a context.

When we come to learning how to study the Bible, one of the first steps is to observe the text carefully.  But what should we observe?  I generally consider five categories:

  1. Words
  2. Grammar
  3. Structure
  4. Mood
  5. Genre

You can observe the words themselves, considering repetition, tenses, number (singular or plural), etc.

You can observe the grammar, considering issues such as sentence structure (subjects, verbs, objects, etc.), pronouns, or prepositional phrases.

You can observe the structure, considering things like comparison, contrast, section divisions, or the shape of the text.

You can observe mood, identifying how the author communicated: excited, angry, patient, personal, etc.

Finally, you can observe the genre.  Primarily, you’ll want to notice whether you’re reading prose or poetry.  If I write of red roses, it’s important that you understand the genre.  On the one hand you might find just what you need in a pinch.  On the other hand, you could create too many giggles.  Don’t mix up genres!

In the case of Proverbs, I discussed the wisdom genre of proverbs.  We should not read proverbs like laws, or even like prophecies.  Proverbs are intended to address many fine details of life.  As we go through the text, we’ll see how this fact plays out.  But by way of introduction, I wanted to draw attention to the significance of genre.

Roses are red,

Violets are blue,

I observed Proverbs’ genre,

Now you can, too!

Proverbs: Genre

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Proverbs 1:1: “The proverbs of Solomon…”

This first phrase of Proverbs is the title for the entire book.  Note first that the goal of the author is not to provide black and white “laws” to govern all behavior.  He does not aim to form a comprehensive code of “prophecies” or “ethics” by which we can measure our progress in obedience.  Rather, he writes “proverbs.”  As Derek Kidner puts it, “there are details of character small enough to escape the mesh of the law and the broadsides of the prophets, and yet decisive in personal dealings.”[1]  In other words, while God’s law addresses the foundational principles undergirding all godly virtue, and while the prophecies shock people into returning from their sin back to these core moral principles, the proverbs address issues like “what should I do when I wake up tomorrow morning?”

Dictionary.com defines a proverb as “a short popular saying, usually of unknown and ancient origin, that expresses effectively some commonplace truth or useful thought.”  That’s how native English speakers use the word “proverb,” and most translators find it adequate to represent the original Hebrew term.

What’s the point?  Simply that the compiler of Proverbs reveals commonplace truths in short, memorable sayings.  He’s describing principles of everyday living.  He wants us to know the Lord in the messy and disorganized details of life.

Photo Credit: “gas pump” Copyright 2009 by Korina Skiada, used under a Creative Commons Attribution license.

Proverbs help address questions such as: should you buy a house or continue renting?  When is your child old enough to become romantically involved with someone?  When your friend sins, should you confront him or cover it over in love?  Should you take that new job offer?  How soon should you pay off your debt? Which octane gasoline should you put in your tank?  What could you say to your non-Christian neighbor that would be both bold and winsome?

Biblical proverbs are high-mileage statements with suped-up verbal turbines.  They contain nuggets of truth crafted attractively and concisely to provoke consideration.  They arise from the daily experience of those who, like Solomon, live life with their eyes open.

[1] Proverbs: An Introduction & Commentary (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1964), p.13.