Sermon Tone Analysis

Structure & Parallelism

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Last week we discussed the value of looking at Scripture in view of the author’s intent and its context- seeing the value of reading larger passages rather than isolated verses.

Today we’re going to discuss two more important interpretive tools, structure and parallelism, which are both designed to help you break up larger sections of scripture to help you better understanding their meaning.

Let’s start with structure.

I. Structure

Building on last week’s idea of context, we want to ask ourselves two questions when we’re trying to understand the structure of a passage:

Has the author divided his material into sections?

How do those sections fit together?

That first question is key.

Not all portions of Scripture have an overarching structure to them.

But when a book appears put together in a particular pattern or order, it’s important that we understand what that structure is.

That way we can see more clearly what the author is trying to do at each point in the book.

Now, Structure can be at the book level or at a lower level.

An example of structure at a book level, would be the book of Daniel.

We’ll flip from the outside of the book in so you can see what he’s doing.

Start in chapter 1.

The book starts out with the nation going into exile.

Now flip back to chapter 9. Now, seventy years have passed and it’s time for the nation to return from exile.

Back to chapter 2. It’s a dream by Nebuchadnezzar about four different kingdoms.

Chapters 7-8.

Dreams by Daniel of four different kingdoms.

Chapter 3: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego face certain death because they refuse to worship the king—and God rescues them!

Chapter 6: Daniel faces certain death because he refuses to pray to the king—and God rescues him!

Chapter 4: Nebuchadnezzar is warned by God and then judged.

Chapter 5: Belshazzar is warned by God and then judged.

And right in the middle, between chapters 4 and 5, is the most astounding statement in the book.

Nebuchadnezzar, who had conquered God’s people and brought them into exile, confesses this in 4:34-35:

34I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever,

for his dominion is an everlasting dominion,

and his kingdom endures from generation to generation;

35 all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,

and he does according to his will among the host of heaven

and among the inhabitants of the earth;

and none can stay his hand

or say to him, “What have you done?”

Isn’t that amazing!

Even the man who destroyed the temple is now bowing his knee to the greater King.

So, do you think you could appreciate Daniel if you didn’t see this structure?

Of course.

But clearly Daniel assembled his material in a particular pattern.

And we can better understand his purpose for the book if we also note the structure.

For structure at a lower level in a text, turn to .

Look how Isaiah opens verse 3? “A voice cries: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord.”

Then in verse 6: “A voice says, ‘Cry!’ and I said, ‘What shall I cry?” Then in verse 9: “lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news.”

Three different voices.

Three different sections.

If you’re studying , you should treat each section introduced by a different “voice” as a distinct piece.

And then figure out how these three pieces fit together into the context of .

It’s not as if you’re in sin if you don’t.

But the repeated use of that word should clue you in that Isaiah is intending you to read this chapter with a particular structure in mind.

And sometimes, not seeing structure can leave you missing the point.

Let’s take as an example.

“Love is patient, love is kind …” How many of you have heard it read at a wedding?

[show of hands] It’s a fine wedding passage.

But it’s actually not primarily about that kind of love.

When you read through 1 Corinthians, you see that Paul’s divided the letter based on the topics the Corinthians asked him about.

And the key phrase that divides these sections is “Now concerning…” For example, 12:1 says “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed.”

That’s the text that introduces this section, that runs from chapter 12 to 14.

So these words about love are actually right in the middle of a discussion about spiritual gifts in the church.

Now that changes how we read this a bit, doesn’t it?

Finding Structure

OK.

So how do I figure out the structure of a passage?

Look down in your handout and you’ll see a few tips for doing this.

1. Look for repeated words (like in or 1 Corinthians) or repeated themes (like in Daniel).

Example: turn with me in your bibles to John chapter 1 verses 19-51.

Most likely your bibles have correctly divided the sections.

What phrase does John use to indicate he is starting a new section?

A: He uses the phrase, “the next day” to begin a new section at verses 29, 35, and 43.

How does this repeated phrase help you understand ?

Repetition like this is the clearest clue that there’s something structural going on in a text.

2. In narratives, look for scene changes.

Pretend you’re a movie director or a playwright and ask yourself, “did the action just switch scenes here?”

“If not, why did the author move me on to something different?”

We’ll get to an example of this in a few minutes.

3.

In dialogues, you can often divide the text up based on who is speaking.

For example, in Job it matters hugely if it’s Job speaking, God speaking, or one of Job’s friends.

4. In some places the structure that’s used is the structure of a legal argument.

Malachi is a good example of this, as is Paul’s letter to the Romans.

Open your bibles to the beginning of Romans.

In and 2, Paul establishes that everyone is under God’s wrath because of their sin, for Gentiles in Chapter 1 and Jews in Chapter 2 before he begins his argument about the free gift of salvation in Christ for those who believe in chapter 3.

So if you see a logical progression of thought, like in Romans, it may well be the structure of a progressive argument—and you would do well to trace out that argument.

Incidentally, you’ll find that the paragraphs, chapter divisions, and verse divisions in your bibles are generally helpful.

But sometimes they’re not.

Keep in mind that they’re not inspired by God.

Often, it can be useful to print out the section of Scripture you need from a site like www.biblegateway.com

so you can read it without verse, paragraph, or chapter divisions.

Using Structure

Once you’ve broken out your passage into subsections, whether based on scenes, or arguments, or themes, or repeated phrases, it’s useful to then give each section a summary title.

This forces you to think about what the main point of each subsection is and write it down.

Don’t feel like you have to be wed to your first thought; you can always change it later.

After you’ve summarized in a few sentences what each section is about, the next step is to see how each part fits together.

As we said before, in a letter, the sections might be arguments that build on each another, or in the case of a narrative, the sections might contrast or complement one another.

Along the way, you might find that you’ve started to outline your section of Scripture.

Often, it can be useful to go ahead and finish the outline.

Outlining a chapter or even an entire book can be a great way to follow a flow of thought and see how structure reveals meaning.

Another thing that can help is to memorize a passage of Scripture.

When you memorize it, you’re more likely to notice patterns of theme and word recurrence that give evidence of structure—at least at the chapter level.

And you’re more likely to see how the author uses Structure to accomplish his purpose.

Seeing how the author has structured what he’s saying will help us see the big idea of the whole passage.