Indenting as an Aid for Bible Study

Below is our completion of this study method applied to the first sentence of Romans. We are fighting room here, it may help to maximize your browser to full size, and the scroll bars may help as well.


[from] Paul,
a servant
of Christ Jesus,
called
to be an apostle,
set apart
for the gospel
of God
which
he[God] promised
beforehand
through his[God's] prophets
in the holy Scriptures,
concerning his[God's] Son,
who [the Son]
was
descended
from David
according to the flesh
and
was
declared
to be
the Son-of-God-in-power
according to the Spirit
of holiness
by his resurrection
from the dead,
Jesus Christ
our Lord,
through whom
we have received
grace
and
apostleship
to bring about
the obedience
of faith
for the sake of his name
among all the nations,
including you
who
are
called
to belong to Jesus Christ,

To all those
in Rome
who are
loved
by God
and

called
to be saints:

Grace
to you
and

peace
from
God
our Father
and
the Lord Jesus Christ.

Some Final Helps

Using this technique, it is useful to think about how we are organizing these minimal-word phrases. Base phrases are at the left, and details are added as we proceed to the right. One of the great things about this, is that we can isolate loaded sentences into simpler sentences and slowly add more and more details until we build back up to the original sentence. If a sentence becomes overwhelmingly complex, our outline provides an excellent means of finding the core of the sentence. We can find simpler sentences by tracing a single path from the left to some particular location to the right.

Here’s an example, where I am trying to get the main point of this first sentence:

{From} Paul, set apart for the gospel concerning his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

To see how this sentence was formed, look at our diagram, and trace the path from the base phrase, Paul, to the end right-most detail of our Lord. We followed this one path, and skipped everything else:

Paul,
set apart
for the gospel
concerning
his[God's] Son,
Jesus Christ
our Lord.

Another path we could trace would form this sentence:

{From} Paul, set apart for the gospel concerning his Son, Jesus Christ through whom we have received apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name.

These sentences are easier to understand, and forming these sentences can help us identify the main points of the sentence. Then we can see how the main points are supported by adding back the details, until we build back up to the completed sentence. Going through this exercise helps keep scriptures in context, helps us follow the flow-of-thought of the passage, and therefore develops a richer understanding. If you have any comments regarding this article, I would love to hear from you.