Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction and Step 1: Observation

Learning Objectives

After this section, you should be able to:

• Summarize the four steps of Bible study

• List the core questions to ask at the observation step

Introduction

When we come to read a passage, there are four steps that are a part of Bible study.

They can be done in any order—it’s really pretty interactive—although I would say that observation tends to come first (in other words, seeing what’s there before you start to think about it).

Still, the sequence is observation, interpretation, application, and correlation.

Just an overview, the ways these work are:

Step 1: Observation

Observation is simply seeing what’s there—just observing what’s going on in the text, paying careful attention to the way in which one comes into a paragraph or into a sentence, the way one goes out of it.

What’s around it?

What are the circumstances that are informing the wording of the text?—that kind of thing.

Observation asks basic questions about who, what, when, where, and how.

We’ll talk more about that in just a second.

Step 2: Interpretation

Interpretation is actually sitting down and sorting through what the text actually means.

Sometimes when you read a passage, you realize, “Well, I could understand this in one way—or, if I take these words in another way, I can understand it in a completely different way.”

And a text, generally speaking, unless there’s intended double entendre, isn’t trying to do or say two things at once.

It’s trying to say something very, very specific.

Part of interpretation is actually sorting out which reading or understanding is more likely than the other.

The students who go to seminary, who learn courses in exegesis, learn how to make judgments about these choices that people face in interpretation.

And if you have access to a commentary, like you would on Logos software, you would find that the discussions about the word perhaps meaning one thing or another, and how that impacts the meaning as a whole, is a major feature of what commentators often discuss.

All of this is a part of interpretation.

Introduction and Step 1: Observation

Learning Objectives

After this section, you should be able to:

• Summarize the four steps of Bible study

• List the core questions to ask at the observation step

Introduction

When we come to read a passage, there are four steps that are a part of Bible study.

They can be done in any order—it’s really pretty interactive—although I would say that observation tends to come first (in other words, seeing what’s there before you start to think about it).

Still, the sequence is observation, interpretation, application, and correlation.

Just an overview, the ways these work are:

Step 1: Observation

Observation is simply seeing what’s there—just observing what’s going on in the text, paying careful attention to the way in which one comes into a paragraph or into a sentence, the way one goes out of it.

What’s around it?

What are the circumstances that are informing the wording of the text?—that kind of thing.

Observation asks basic questions about who, what, when, where, and how.

We’ll talk more about that in just a second.

Step 2: Interpretation

Interpretation is actually sitting down and sorting through what the text actually means.

Sometimes when you read a passage, you realize, “Well, I could understand this in one way—or, if I take these words in another way, I can understand it in a completely different way.”

And a text, generally speaking, unless there’s intended double entendre, isn’t trying to do or say two things at once.

It’s trying to say something very, very specific.

Part of interpretation is actually sorting out which reading or understanding is more likely than the other.

The students who go to seminary, who learn courses in exegesis, learn how to make judgments about these choices that people face in interpretation.

And if you have access to a commentary, like you would on Logos software, you would find that the discussions about the word perhaps meaning one thing or another, and how that impacts the meaning as a whole, is a major feature of what commentators often discuss.

All of this is a part of interpretation.

Step 1: Observation

Observation is simply seeing what’s there—just observing what’s going on in the text, paying careful attention to the way in which one comes into a paragraph or into a sentence, the way one goes out of it.

What’s around it?

What are the circumstances that are informing the wording of the text?—that kind of thing.

Observation asks basic questions about who, what, when, where, and how.

We’ll talk more about that in just a second.

Step 2: Interpretation

Interpretation is actually sitting down and sorting through what the text actually means.

Sometimes when you read a passage, you realize, “Well, I could understand this in one way—or, if I take these words in another way, I can understand it in a completely different way.”

And a text, generally speaking, unless there’s intended double entendre, isn’t trying to do or say two things at once.

It’s trying to say something very, very specific.

Part of interpretation is actually sorting out which reading or understanding is more likely than the other.

The students who go to seminary, who learn courses in exegesis, learn how to make judgments about these choices that people face in interpretation.

And if you have access to a commentary, like you would on Logos software, you would find that the discussions about the word perhaps meaning one thing or another, and how that impacts the meaning as a whole, is a major feature of what commentators often discuss.

All of this is a part of interpretation.

Observation is simply seeing what’s there.

Observation is simply seeing what’s there—just observing what’s going on in the text, paying careful attention to the way in which one comes into a paragraph or into a sentence, the way one goes out of it.

What’s around it?

What are the circumstances that are informing the wording of the text?—that kind of thing.

Observation asks basic questions about who, what, when, where, and how.

We’ll talk more about that in just a second.

Jost observing what’s going on in the text paying attention to the way in which one comes into a paragraph or into a sentence the was on goes out of it.

What’s around it?

What’s the circumstances that are informing the wording of the text?

Observation ask basic questions about who, what, when, where and how.

Interpretation is actually sitting down and sorting through what the text actually means.

Sometimes when you read a passage, you realize, “Well, I could understand this in one way—or, if I take these words in another way, I can understand it in a completely different way.”

And a text, generally speaking, unless there’s intended double entendre, isn’t trying to do or say two things at once.

It’s trying to say something very, very specific.

Part of interpretation is actually sorting out which reading or understanding is more likely than the other.

The students who go to seminary, who learn courses in exegesis, learn how to make judgments about these choices that people face in interpretation.

And if you have access to a commentary, like you would on Logos software, you would find that the discussions about the word perhaps meaning one thing or another, and how that impacts the meaning as a whole, is a major feature of what commentators often discuss.

All of this is a part of interpretation.

]Bock, D. L. (2014).

BI100 Learn to Study the Bible.

Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.