Training · Grasping God's Word
How to read discourses
Observation at the level of whole sections: how paragraphs and episodes connect and turn.
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In Bible study, what is a discourse?
A unit larger than a paragraph — a series of paragraphs in a letter, or a series of episodes in a story, that work together.
A paragraph means what it means partly because of where it sits in the larger argument or story. This level of observation asks how the paragraphs connect, not just what each one says.
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What should you look for when observing a series of paragraphs or episodes?
Connections between paragraphs or episodes, shifts or pivots in the story, and interchange between two storylines.
Connections can be repeated words, repeated themes, or connecting words at the start of a paragraph. They show you the thread that runs through a section.
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What is a pivot in a biblical story?
A turning point where the direction of the story changes.
2 Samuel 11, David and Bathsheba, is the clearest example. Before it, David's reign is a string of successes. After it, the story is mostly trouble in his own family and kingdom. Seeing the pivot shows you what the narrator thinks that sin cost.
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What is interchange in a biblical story?
Moving back and forth between two stories to compare or contrast them.
Luke 1-2 alternates between John the Baptist and Jesus: two announcements, two births, two responses. The alternation is how Luke shows that John matters and that Jesus is greater.
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How does 1 Samuel 1-3 use interchange?
It alternates between the boy Samuel, growing in favour with God, and Eli's sons, abusing the priesthood.
The narrator does not need to state that God is replacing one line with another. Putting the two side by side, over and over, says it for him.
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How do you trace the connections between paragraphs in a letter?
Look at how each paragraph begins, note repeated words and themes that carry over, summarise each paragraph in a sentence, and then state how each one relates to the one before.
Opening words like "therefore", "now concerning", and "finally" are often the hinges of a letter. Once you can say how each paragraph connects, you can see the whole argument, and each part makes more sense.
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What does it mean to observe a story at the level of the whole book?
Asking how the episodes fit together — what repeats, where the story turns, and which characters are set side by side — rather than reading each episode on its own.
A single story from Judges or 1 Samuel reads differently once you notice how it fits the pattern of the stories around it. The narrator shaped the whole, not just the parts.