Things to observe when studying God's Word
1.
Repetition of words—Look
for words and phrases that repeat.
2.
Contrasts—Look for
ideas, individuals, and/or items that are contrasted with each other. Look for
differences.
3.
Comparisons—Look for
ideas, individuals, and/or items that are compared with each other. Look also
for similarities.
4.
Lists—Anytime the
text mentions more than two items, identify them as a list.
5.
Cause and effect—Look
for cause-and-effect relationships.
6.
Figures of speech—Identify
expressions that convey an image, using words in a sense other than the normal
literal sense.
7.
Conjunctions—Notice
terms that join units, like and, but, for. Note what they are connecting.
8.
Verbs—Note whether a
verb is past, present, or future; active or passive; and the like.
9.
Pronouns—Identify
the antecedent for each pronoun.
10.
General to specific and
specific to general—Find the general statements that are followed by
specific examples or applications of the general. Also, find specific statements
that are summarized by a general one.
11.
Questions and answers—Note
if the text is built on a question-and-answer format.
12.
Dialogue—Note if the
text includes dialogue. Identify who is speaking and to whom.
13.
Purpose/result
statements—These are a more specific type of “means,” often telling why.
Purpose and result are similar and sometimes indistinguishable. In a purpose
statement, you usually can insert the phrase “in order that.” In a result
clause, you usually can insert the phrase “so that.”
14.
Means—Note if a
sentence indicates that something was done by means of someone/something
(answers “How?”). Usually you can insert the phrase “by means of” into the sentence.
15.
Conditional clauses—A
clause can present the condition by which some action or consequence will
result. Often such statements use an “if … then” framework (although in English
the “then” is often left out).
16.
Actions/roles of people—Identify
actions or roles that the text ascribes to people or encourages people to
do/be.
17.
Actions/roles of God—Identify
actions or roles that the text ascribes to God.
18.
Emotional terms—Does
the passage use terms that contain emotional energy, like kinship words (“father,”
“son”) or words like “pleading”?
19.
Tone—What is the
overall tone of the passage: happy, sad, encouraging, and so on?
20.
Connections between
paragraphs and episodes—How does the passage connect to the one that
precedes it and the one that follows it?
21.
Story shifts and pivots—Is
the passage being used as a key to understanding a dramatic shift in the story?
22.
Interchange—Does the
passage shift back and forth between two scenes or characters?
23.
Chiasm—Does the
passage have any chiastic arrangements, such as a-b-c-d-c′-b′-a′?
24. Inclusio—Does the passage open and close with similar statements or events?
J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays, Grasping God’s Word:
A Hands-On Approach to Reading, Interpreting, and Applying the Bible, Fourth
Edition (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 2020), 95–97.
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