Biblical Interpretation Week 2

Introduction - What do you expect to eat?

To get more from the text than we initially understand, we must look closer at the text. We need to be able to see the details. Before we ask the question, “What does the text mean?” We need to ask, “What does the text say?”

We want to see all the things, not just the deep things. We start small and move to the bigger picture. (While keeping greater context in focus).

Sentences

Repetition of Words

Look for words and phrases that repeat.

1 John 2:15–17 CSB

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s possessions—is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does the will of God remains forever.

Contrasts

Look for ideas, individuals, and/or items that are contrasted with each other. Look for differences.

Proverbs 15:1 CSB

A gentle answer turns away anger, but a harsh word stirs up wrath.

Comparisons

Look for ideas, individuals, and/or items that are compared with each other. Look also for similarities.

Proverbs 25:26 CSB

A righteous person who yields to the wicked is like a muddied spring or a polluted well.

Lists

Anytime the text mentions more than two items, identify them as a list.

Galatians 5:22–23 CSB

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.

Cause and Effect

Look for cause-and-effect relationships

Psalm 13:6 CSB

I will sing to the Lord because he has treated me generously.

Figures of Speech

Identify expressions that convey an image, using words in a sense other than the normal literal sense.

Psalm 18:2 CSB

The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock where I seek refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

Conjunctions

Notice terms that join units, like “and,” “but,” “for.” Note what they are connecting.

Romans 6:23 CSB

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Verbs - Where all the action is

Not whether a verb is past, present, future; active (subject does the action) or passive (subject acted upon); and the like.

Colossians 3:1 CSB

So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Pronouns

Identify the antecedent (to whom or what the pronoun refers) for each pronoun.

Ephesians 1:3 CSB

Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ.

Paragraphs

General and Specific

General statements followed by specifics, or specifics summarized by general.

Galatians 5:16–23 CSB

I say, then, walk by the Spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I am warning you about these things—as I warned you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.

Questions and Answers

Note if the text is built on a question-and-answer format.

Mark 2:1-3:6 there are 5 questions and answers

Questions:

1. “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (2:7)

2. “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” (2:16)

3. “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?” (2:18)

4. “Why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” (2:24)

5. “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” (3:4)

Answers:

1. “But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, “I tell you, get up, take up your mat and go home.” (2:10)

2. “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (2:17b)

3. “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them?” (2:19)

4. “Have you never read what David did…? The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” (2:25, 28)

5. Jesus asks this question and the answer is clear but the Pharisees will not answer.

Dialogue

Note if the text includes dialogue. Identify who is speaking and to whom.

This previous passage is a part of an ongoing dialogue between Jesus and the Pharisees.

Purpose/Result Statements

“In order that” of “So that”

John 3:16 CSB

For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

Means (By Which Something Is Accomplished)

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.

Psalm 119:9 CSB

How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping your word.

Conditional Clauses

“If….then” framework.

2 Corinthians 5:17 CSB

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!

The Actions/Roles of People and the Actions/Roles of God

Identify the roles that the text ascribes to people and to God.

Ephesians 5:1–2 CSB

Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children, and walk in love, as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.

Emotional Terms

Does the passage use terms that have emotional energy, like kinship (“father,” “son”) or words like “pleading”?

Galatians 4:12–16 (CSB)

I beg you, brothers and sisters: Become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You have not wronged me;

you know that previously I preached the gospel to you because of a weakness of the flesh.

You did not despise or reject me though my physical condition was a trial for you. On the contrary, you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus himself.

Where, then, is your blessing? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me.

So then, have I become your enemy because I told you the truth?

Tone

What is the tone of the passage: happy, sad, encouraging, and so on?

Matthew 23:33 CSB

“Snakes! Brood of vipers! How can you escape being condemned to hell?

Discourses

Connections between Paragraphs and Episodes

How does the passage connect to the one that precedes it and the one that follows it?

Story Shifts: Major Breaks and Pivots

Is the passage being used as a key to understanding a dramatic shift in the story?

Interchange

Does the passage shift back and forth between two scenes or characters?

Chiasm

Does that passage have any chiastic arrangements, such as a-b-c-d-c’-b-a’?

Psalm 76:1 CSB

God is known in Judah; his name is great in Israel.

God is renowned

in Judah

in Israel

his name is great.

Genesis 11:1-9.

The whole world

had one language

Shinar and settled there

Come let us make bricks

Come let us build

a city with a tower

But the LORD came down

to see the city and the tower

the people were building

Come let us go down and confuse their language

Babel — because there

the Lord confused the language

The whole world.

Inclusio

Does the passage open and close with similar statements or events? Joshua 3-6 are book ended with stories about individuals. Rahab was faithful and rewarded. Achan disobeyed and was destroyed.