The whole and the sum of its parts

Envision the front cover of a magazine with a picture of a cheerful woman striking a pose with her dog – the headline reads “Rachel Ray finds inspiration in cooking her family and her dog”. As it is, the headline comes across as rather sinister; but a punctuated version – “Rachel Ray finds inspiration in cooking, her family, and her dog” clears the air. Phew!

No gainsaying, syntax and punctuations do matter.

In attempting to read just about any material, there are both internal and external factors that inform how a reader engages the art of reading.

One of such external factors that applies to the Bible is the splitting up into chapter and verse. The Bible in its original form was without these breaks, and it is helpful to acknowledge these divisions, helpful as they are, as human interventions.

Whole or Piecemeal?

I suppose that authors of Bible books would expect readers to read through their writings as a whole, and not particularly through the lenses of chapter and verse divisions found in our contemporary bibles. If markers or placeholders are to be used as reading guides, then those would be the inherent structures that the original authors would have incorporated into their writings.

It is far too easy to build theologies and worldviews around cherry-picked verses that tend to support what we believe, without considering the larger context of what the author might be getting at. “I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me” of Phil.4:13, for example, can easily be applied to the reader accomplishing all things. However, a different conclusion will most likely be reached when the larger context is considered, as the verse seems to be Paul’s secret to contentment, at least on the basis of the preceding two verses.

Fitting the jig-saw

Chapter and verse divisions are helpful to the extent to which we have gained some understanding of the central theme of any given book. That is to say, a reading/ studying framework should be differentiated from a referencing framework. Keeping in mind the analogy of a jigsaw puzzle, it is easier placing a piece when the big picture is in view. The same principle holds true in our interaction with the Bible; good familiarity with the text is aided by carefully considering chunks of biblical texts, such that external biases that distort our views are reduced. In other words, knowledge of the whole feeds knowledge of its parts.

As a call to action, if you’re not doing so already, would you set yourself a challenge to read a particular section or even book of the Bible as a whole, rather than in a piecemeal manner?

Thanks for reading!

Sike Osinuga