Communication 101: Basics for Bible Readers

I love to outline sermons that I hear in church to see if their is an organizational pattern of some kind to what they are saying.  Recently, I outlined a sermon as it was being preached that had some great individual pieces of content, but that had nearly no organization other than an opening and a closing.  It was hard to listen to from that standpoint both for me and others, but also everyone of us agreed there was valuable content.  It is too bad that the sermon did not have both together!   I want to say something about organization of speaking or writing on a basic level. 

Now when I say basic I mean something that even children shortly before age 13 can grasp.  I also mean something that all of them can grasp assuming there is not some form of disability associated with their learning.  Some of the words that I will use today will go beyond that level, but I want to reduce those ideas to a more basic level and I want to do it with a solid form of organization.  So I want to simplify content and also outline it. 

I recently ran across a fairly great book for exegesis.  What it boils down to is the rules for reading the Bible.  Usually exegesis does not get much press outside that arena.  I say fairly, because it belongs alongside some of the best books on exegesis.  I also want to clarify that when I call it great what I mean is that:

     1) it has great content
     2) it has practical use
     3) it has simplicity in comparison to its competitors, and
     4) it is comprehensive.

The only thing that is not as strong as these areas of strength is that of its own outline or organization.  It is somewhat like the sermon that I and others heard.  It too has great content, but it lacks organization. 

The name of the book is: A Handbook of New Testament Exegesis.  The authors are: Craig L. Blomberg (he is not among my Blomberg relatives for those concerned with bias) and Jennifer Foutz Markley.  I want to repeat that there is a great deal of good in this book. 

This is how they outlined their book:

     Acknowledgements   ix
     Introduction     xi
     Abbreviations     xix

     1. Textual Criticism     1
     2. Translation and Translations     37
     3.  Historical - Cultural Context     63
     4.  Literary Context     93
     5.  Word Studies     117
     6.  Grammar     143
     7.  Interpretive Problems     167
     8.  Outlining     195
     9.  Theology     219
     10. Application     239

     Summary     269
     Appendix: Checklist for Doing Biblical Exegesis     273
     Select Bibliography     277
     Scripture Index     285
     Subject Index     291

From the start they make an error in starting with textual criticism.  This is typical since many evangelical scholars consider themselves to be part of the grammatical-historical tradition of interpretation.  The key word is "historical".  Due to the battles over the bible and due to the historical critical tradition, history tends to get the front seat.  I disagree with that tendency, because it puts history in the wrong organizational position. 

To re-organize the book, I will use five universal classes of things to determine the best organization for the book.  Those five classifications are the following (notice the italics in the examples):

     Amounts (ex. the big kitty)
     Relationships (ex. mom and dad are here)
     Wholes (ex. the tail of the doggy is wagging)
     Actions (ex. run Spot run)
     Things (ex. the car is gone)

Let me give you some of the support for this system of classification.  Eugene Nida of the United Bible Societies, the Summer Institute of Linguistics and Wycliffe Bible translators have used these universal categories with slightly different names (Things, Events, Attributes, and Relations) and lacking one category (wholes) for a long time in the field as translators.  It has been field tested in many languages and  many cultures.  I have never seen one person who is skeptical of this method produce one language or one culture where it does not work.  It is universal unless there is an example of failure among the data available in translation.  This is the empirical proof for its universal use. 

There is also another source of support.  All of these are included a longer list of what are called semantic universals.  So if the l longer list is universal (it is more debatable), then certainly the shorter list is universal as well.  You can find that longer list in: Semantic and Lexical Universals: Theory and Empirical Findings.   That will have to suffice for the evidence at this point.

Let me now reorganize their list in two steps.  The first step is to classify each section according to its primary category and the second step is to then create a new outline.  I am also going to clarify each class a little further with what I call the ten universal questions in English. 

Here is step one (listed in order that they are found in the book under each classification):

     Amount [Am]  (How many?  How much?)
          1.  Translation and Translations  [R] of {Am}

     Relationship [R]  (Where?  When?)
          1.  Textual Criticism  [T] of [R]
          2.  Historical-Cultural Context [R] of [R]
          3.  Literary Context  [T] of [Ac] of [R]
          4.  Select Bibliography [Am] of [R]
          5.  Scripture Index [T] of [Am] of  [R]

     Whole [W]  (Who?  Whole?)
          1.  Acknowledgements  [W] of [R] 
          2.  Introduction [W] of [W]
          3.  Grammar [T] of [W]
          4.  Outlining [R] of [W]
          5.  Summary [Am] of [W]

     Action [Ac]  (How?  Why?)
          1.  Application  [R] of [Ac]
          2.  Appendix: Checklist for Doing Exegesis [Ac] of [Ac]

     Thing [T] (What?  Which?)
          1.  Abbreviations  [Am] of [T]
          2.  Word Studies [T] of [T]
          3.  Interpretive Problems  [Am] of [R] of [T] of [T]
          4.  Theology  [R] of [W] of [T] of [T]

Now you might argue that this is not simple!  That is absolutely correct.  If there is more than one (the simplest), then the argument can be made that these words are not simple.  I warned earlier about this issue.  Sometimes to make things simple, you also have to expose actual complexity.  Bot writers of this book assume that what they are saying is quite simple.  We can all see that is not quite true though I do not question their motives.  What is simple still is the primary or core classes that each one of these complex words can be simplified into by using the basic classes of meaning from Eugene A. Nida and other translators. 

The way that I have classified each category is where the basics can be discussed.  You and I may disagree on some of these classifications, but at least we now have a simple way to discuss the issues.  We also have our basic ideas fully out in the open.  We cannot hide behind unnecessary complexity any more.  I now have revealed to you what I am thinking at the most basic and universal level.   The work of discussion now will be easier than it was before, without denying any complexity where it honestly exists.  Try this, you will like it!  It does take time to acquire this skill, but it is not difficult after a little practice. 

Here is step two (my re-organization of the book):

     Whole
          Acknowledgments  (Who?)
          Introduction  (Whole?)
         
     Amount
          Translations  (How many?)
          Translation   (How much?)
          Clear and Meaningful (How many?)  (How much?)

     Relationship
         Literary Context  (Where?) [internal] (When?) 
         Historical-cultural Context (Where?)  [external] (When?)
         Textual Criticism (Where?)  (When?) (Which?)
   
     Whole
         Grammar (Who?)  (Whole?)
         Outlining (Who?)  (Whole?)  (Where?)  (When?)

     Action
          The Motive Behind Exegesis  (Why?)
         Checklist for Doing Exegesis  (How?)
          Application from Text to Today   (How?)  (Why?)  (Where?)  (When?)

     Thing
         Interpretive Problems (What?)  (Which?)  (How many?)  (How much?)
         Word Studies (What?)  (Which?)
         Theology (What?)  (Which?)  (Where?)  (When?)  (Whole?)

     Whole
     Summary (Who?) (Whole?)  (How many?)  (How much?)

     Select Bibliography  (Where?)  (When?)  (How many?)  (How much?)
     Scripture Index  (Where?)  (When?)  (How much?)
     Subject Index  (What?)  (Which?)  (Where?)
     Abbreviations (What?)  (Which?)  (How much?)
    
    
In this section, you will notice that I used questions to help classify things rather than the class labels themselves.  I did this to test which method of classification is more effective.  I think a combination of both together words the best, especially since the questions break out the two major aspects of each class.  I also have yet one other way to test where a word should be classified, but that is dealt with elsewhere (ex. Culture and Revolution, etc.).

I did split a title into both "Translations" and "Translation" to answer both questions individually.  I also added a chapter on motivation for exegesis since I think motive is always critical to providing an incentive for "why" anyone should use exegesis over another method. 

I should make one other note.  I do think there is an awareness in their book of the contribution of linguistics and semantics (a sub-set of linguistics), but I also think it could use a little additional discussion of the modern study of languages and its terminology.  That would demonstrate more the contributions of people like Nida, Black, Silva, Barr, and others.   I would have to read with a closer eye on this issue to give a better evaluation of this topic.  I plan on adding this book to my library, so maybe I will have more time to evaluate this then,

So back to the issue of basics.  Their book is much simpler than many that I have examined.  It is also highly practical.  But I think simplicity gets overused.  There are 4 personality types for the Myer-Briggs approach to personality differences.  That is pretty basic.  But it is also a bit more complicated, when you produce 16 types by taking into consideration combinations of these 4 basics.  It can also go beyond just 16 types to even more complexity, since personality can vary widely beyond just 16.  Just look at how many different temperaments there are in the world!  The same holds true here. 

The 5 basic classes of definition or meaning are basic.  But that does not mean that no words refer to a combination of more than one of these.  That is where things can get more and more complex as needed to fit with reality.  Just look at the complexity of technology in the 21st Century and the technical terminology that has developed with it.  I'm for simplicity where it applies and for complexity where it applies.  We can use more simplicity, when it comes to reading and studying the Bible or any book.  The book A Handbook of New Testament Exegesis moves exegesis in that direction.  We need to keep working on simplicity and organization so that there is both great content and great organization.  Both will make the reading more enjoyable!


Sincerely,

Jon