Arcing

Bible study this past week was rather relaxed. We did not really dig into a specific topic, rather we discussed the importance of comprehending Scripture. Personally, I find it quite easy to gloss over text and not retain anything. This seems to be especially true in early morning quiet times when I am still half-asleep. Obviously, this does us no good. We need a systematic way of reading Scripture to extract the meaning.

I shared one such method on Tuesday, Bible arcing. This method breaks text down into propositions, or phrases. A proposition is defined as a complete thought; a subject and verb are present. One common way of identifying propositions is to pay careful attention to the punctuation. Commas, semicolons, and periods give clues as to where ideas end and begin.

Once a passage is broken down into separate propositions, one must figure out how the propositions are related to one another. There are several logical ways propositions can be related: grounds, idea & explanation, comparison, action & purpose, etc. It takes practice to get accustomed to identifying such relationships; however, once one becomes proficient in doing so, it becomes much easier to comprehend text.

Here is an example of someone doing an arc of John 3:16-17. Don't worry if it seems confusing, this arc uses several different logical relationships. If it seems interesting, I suggest you check out the website. They have an online tutorial to walk you through the process of arcing.

I realize this might seem tedious to some. Picking apart grammar might seem too nit-picky. However, when one comes across difficult or complex passages, having a methodical way of interpreting Scripture will most certainly be beneficial.

I desire that you would be equipped to dig into Scripture. If arcing does not work for you, that is fine. Just know that it is imperative to find something. It's not worth wasting countless quiet times simply giving Scripture a cursory overview rather than deeply engaging with it.