In high school I was a grammar nerd; I REALLY enjoyed English class. I even remember what an indirect object is! Because I was (and still am) a visually oriented learner, I especially liked diagramming sentences because the diagram was a good analysis that helped me see and understand the relationships the words in a sentence had with each other.
Verse analysis is not as involved as sentence diagramming
The same type of analysis can help us in our Bible study through what I call a verse analysis. The verse analysis is not as in-depth as the sentence diagram, but useful nonetheless to help us see the relationship of the words in the verse to one another.
I believe that not only did God inspire EVERY word of the Bible, but He also inspired EACH word is. Words matter and their relationship to one another in a given passage reveal the truth that God wants us to know about Him, His precepts, and His purposes for us.
At the end of this blog, I have included a video tutorial demonstrating how I do a verse analysis, and I invite you to watch it and let me know if it is helpful to you.
A Working Example
Let’s consider as an example Proverbs 3:5
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.
My first step is to isolate the main verbs in a passage. Once I’ve isolated those verbs, I study their context and meanings. I use many of the tools I mentioned in the “Tools Blog” to help with this task.
The first main verb we meet is “TRUST.” We can learn from our tools that some synonyms for trust include depend, believe, and rely.
Then as we analyze the verse we see that one places TRUST in someone, we place our trust IN THE LORD. And that trust should not be half-hearted, but we are to trust with ALL of our heart.
When we analyze heart, we see that it refers to the “real us,” the inner self including our feelings, thoughts and actions.
Making Applications
Once we have analyzed a verse, we can make some applications by asking ourselves some questions raised by the verse:
What tempts me to trust it more than I trust God?
How can my feelings reveal that I am not trusting God?
Do my thoughts encourage me to depend on God?
How can my actions show that I trust God?
Planning for Further Analysis
Plan to spend some time with a verse of Scripture and analyze it grammatically. Notice how the words and phrases relate to each other and provide meaning. Look of the main verbs and ask yourself who is doing it, why, how, where, and other interrogatives such as those.
Also, let me encourage you to watch the Tutorial that I mentioned above which includes all of Proverbs 3:5-6. If you have any questions or suggestions, hit the comment tab above and leave a comment.
Verse Analysis Tutorial from Jim Duggan on Vimeo.