Bible Bridges: Part 19 "Seeing Themes in Scripture"

It may surprise some people, but in the late 1980s I attended college as a music major. Originally I started as a saxophone major, and later at Moody Bible Institute in the early 1990s I switched to music composition. Music has ever been a significant component in my life. For as long as I can remember, harmony and rhythm have saturated my soul. Even now I still retain a love for music of a large variety. From classical, jazz, classic rock, folk, and everything in between, music penetrates deeply.

As a developing musician, the thing that helped me often was discovering the pattern in music. Those who play by ear can often pick up on those patterns with little effort. That is the key to playing by ear: one notes the melodic themes, discerns the rhythmic patterns, divines the chordal structure, and to those with little musical training such people seem to have a magical ability.

There is really nothing magical about it. Accomplished musicians have tirelessly practiced; they were trained, whether formally or autodidactically. Great musicians did not just wake up one morning as a virtuoso. Countless hours and sacrifice all contribute to produce a true artist.

Alas, great expositors of the Bible have refined their craft. This entire Bible Bridges series has been an attempt to unpack some of those attributes that unlock the treasures of Scripture. As a mentioned in Part 18 of this series, certainly a good amount of the Bible can be grasped without great skill. The Protestant Reformation has affirmed this doctrine of the perspicuity/clarity of Scripture. Yet I cannot stress any more strongly that, just like the great musicians that reach unparalleled musical expression, Bible study can yield so much more than we often allow in our spare time. It takes real effort. It takes devotion. It takes a sacrifice of other things in life to extract by sheer hard work some of the amazing themes of the Bible.

Remarkably, the techniques that great musicians perfect are also employed by amateurs and beginners. The notes are the same. We all use hands and fingers; mouths and breathe. Professionals just do it faster and with exceptional tone and touch. One of those techniques is to find repetition of key motifs. Let's consider a passage that struck me this week (it happens to be from the sermon at church this last week).

Luke 18:31–34 (New American Standard Bible 1995 Update) 

31 Then He took the twelve aside and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things which are written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished. 

32 “For He will be handed over to the Gentiles, and will be mocked and mistreated and spit upon, 

33 and after they have scourged Him, they will kill Him; and the third day He will rise again.” 

34 But the disciples understood none of these things, and the meaning of this statement was hidden from them, and they did not comprehend the things that were said. 

There are many things that can be drawn out from this text. This is another prediction by Christ of his impending passion and resurrection. Now, let's add more context:

Luke 18:35–43 

35 As Jesus was approaching Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the road begging. 

36 Now hearing a crowd going by, he began to inquire what this was. 

37 They told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. 

38 And he called out, saying, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 

39 Those who led the way were sternly telling him to be quiet; but he kept crying out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 

40 And Jesus stopped and commanded that he be brought to Him; and when he came near, He questioned him, 

41 “What do you want Me to do for you?” And he said, “Lord, I want to regain my sight!” 

42 And Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has made you well.” 

43 Immediately he regained his sight and began following Him, glorifying God; and when all the people saw it, they gave praise to God. 

Luke seems to simply highlight how a person who was blind (not apparently from birth, but rather sometime in the course of his life, as verse 41 puts it he is seeking to "regain his sight"). Again, there are many things you might observe. Now, one more additional section (again, remember chapter and verse divisions were not in the original writings):

Luke 19:1–10 

1 He entered Jericho and was passing through. 

2 And there was a man called by the name of Zaccheus; he was a chief tax collector and he was rich. 

3 Zaccheus was trying to see who Jesus was, and was unable because of the crowd, for he was small in stature. 

4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree in order to see Him, for He was about to pass through that way. 

5 When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, “Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” 

6 And he hurried and came down and received Him gladly. 

7 When they saw it, they all began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” 

8 Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.” 

9 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. 

10 “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” 

Here we have a familiar passage. What child having grown up in Sunday School doesn't recall this story? It's certainly a vivid account, and certainly portrays a profound turn-around in this person that would have been considered a scoundrel by his peers.

Question: what might tie together these 3 sections? Think about it for a minute before you read on. Don't skip the process of doing your own work here...

Tentative Answer: The Gift of Sight! 

"Now Jared...I do see the blind man getting sight...but how can this be the answer?"

Okay, here's what I see:

• Verse 31 has a bold word: Behold. Newer translations render this as "look". While that may be somewhat illuminating, actually I think the word behold has greater strength. In contemporary English, we might import a combative attitude, such as: "look, dude...you're in my way!" Behold actually has roots in Hebrew. In fact, if you searched the entire NASB you would find in the Old and New Testaments that word in English shows up 1,233 times in 1, 177 verses (see below). It is an important word that invites the reader to pay closer attention.

 הִנֵּה (hinnēh) behold, lo, see. (ASV and RSV “if.”) An interjection demanding attention, “look!” ’’see!" It occurs over a thousand times. (Carl Philip Weber, “510 הֵן,” ed. R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer Jr., and Bruce K. Waltke, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (Chicago: Moody Press, 1999), 220.

• Verses 32-33 Jesus shares again the dramatic destiny that awaits at Jerusalem.
• Verse 34 we notice the disciples fail to comprehend what Jesus said. Here we have a failure to perceive; they do not see.
• Verses 35-43a we have a blind man who desires to see. He does recognize Jesus as the Son of David. This is the first time Luke reports that particular title for Jesus in his Gospel. This blind beggar sees in a way the disciples do not. He pursues Christ expecting to regain his sight, and Jesus replies that his faith (in God) has made him well.
• Verse 43b the people who saw also praised God.
• In chapter 19 in verse 3 we have Zaccheus who wishes to see Jesus, but cannot. Yet in verse 4 he also does an extraordinary act of climbing a tree (something no dignified person would do).
• Now notice in 19:8, we see the word behold once again, but this time it's Zaccheus who wishes to demonstrate his clear sight of Christ in a changed heart.

I submit that these three paragraphs can be tied together by the theme of divine vision. For the disciples, they lacked the vision at that time to see Jesus' mission. For the blind man, his faith in God through Christ restored his sight. And the people all praised God. Then Zaccheus desired to see Jesus, and his faith in action did far more than he expected. There was some temporary blindness in all the subjects, and Christ is the source of illumination.

Clearly, I have not unpacked all that there is here. That is the point! There is really so much that can be discovered with some effort. I really hope that this sparks curiosity in you to spend real time in the Word of God. Turn off the TV and other things that blind you to the surpassing value of God's Word to you, my dear friends.

Until next time, God go with you!
Jared

Bible Bridges: Part 15 "Verb Priority"

When I was young, I really appreciated comic books. I still enjoy thoughtful strips, since they move the action forward quickly and I can easily grasp the meaning. As a youngster I was drawn to the funny pages in the morning paper. My favorite remains Peanuts. I admit that often I feel like Charlie Brown, though I aspire to the theological confidence of Linus. Anyway, I wasn't much of an avid reader, but comic books captured my attention since it was usually easy to understand the author's intent even if the message itself was somewhat sophisticated. That's the beauty of a picture! Concepts and ideas just jump out at the reader.

Sometimes I think it's a shame that the Bible wasn't written in comic book form. Then we would likely have fewer disagreements about what it says, though we might still struggle to obey. However, whether we realize it or not, it is written with visual and active language. It is up to the astute Bible student to carefully observe the textual markers.

Think about when you read Scripture, how there are certain words that stand out as important to a particular passage. The key is to make sure we are taking note of those words the author wishes us to notice more closely. That can take a lot of effort, since we are separated by time, language, and culture. 

Traditional inductive Bible study approaches are certainly helpful:

The three main steps of inductive study [1]:

• Observation – What the text actually says.
• Interpretation – What the text meant to those to whom it was originally written.
• Application – How do we respond to the timeless truths of the text today?

I certainly encourage using this methodology. However, it’s a little trickier than what the simple steps above suppose. As Possin puts it:

“Inductive study is an approach to the Bible that helps the student build their conclusions from observations of the text.” In other words – observation first, conclusions second. Sounds simple, but there are complications. [Ibid]

He goes on to talk about those complications. I appreciate his honesty, and it's helpful for all of us to realize that most people struggle to get to the real point of the biblical passage. 

To get to the point of today's installment, there is a comic book efficiency available to us in our Bible study methods by looking at verbs. Dr. Julius Wong-Loi Sing said in a hermeneutics lecture, you could make endless observations and still not really grasp the main thrust of the passage. Dr. “J” (as he is affectionately known at Moody Theological Seminary) introduced in that lecture a most important concept that I shall attempt to briefly unpack here: VERB PRIORITY.

The way Dr. J put it, if you recognize the placement of verbals (the parts of speech called verb and participles that denote action), you are on your way to understanding all the other words in a proper relationship. In other words, in a complicated Bible passage where you might not really get what is being said, look for the key verb forms and then see if you can put it together. This is really what is meant by the inductive approach of observing "what the text says". 

In the passage of 1 Peter 1:1-9, I have configured Logos Bible Software to use a visual filter to color verbs in shades of orange (brighter orange is active voice; dark orange is passive voice):

This passage is an excellent example of why searching the verbs is so helpful. There are so many other words (nouns, adjectives, etc.) that might make it really hard to get what is the key message. In verse 3, the main verb form is "born again." You can see that visually in comparison to all the other words above. Since Logos is filtering from the Greek, there is another verb in verse 3: the word "living" is technically a verb.

It is clear from the context that God has done this rebirthing work in us in relation to the resurrection of Christ, and the implications are woven in verses 4-5. Additional supporting data is provided in verses 6-9 on why it seems odd that things are difficult now, since the living hope would seem to make suffering a thing of the past. Instead, Peter is providing a framework for us to understand that our suffering and trials now have a purpose, namely to demonstrate our faith is real (1:7). 

Notice that the Bible editor put a heading starting at verse 3: "A New Birth to a Living Hope". They realized that those verbs (new birth and living hope) are the key to this section. So the more you can identify verbs in a Bible passage, the more confidence you can have in getting to the main theme and message the author wishes you to receive. Thus, the method of verb priority can accelerate your observation process. It will serve much like a comic strip in four panes, and quickly get you to the main point. Moreover, by practicing this method you can gain confidence in your interpretations.

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[1] http://blog.olivetree.com/2013/09/20/what-is-inductive-bible-study/