Monday, March 24, 2008

Arc, Trace and Diagram! The Bones of Exegesis!

Gazing at Glory: Arcing and Tracing

Thanks to Doug Smith there is now an assembly of some really great articles on arcing and tracing. This is one of the most important tools in the exegete's toolbox.

When I was in seminary, our preferred method was labelled, "diagrammatical analysis." I still use that method, although it has been tweaked through the years by the arcing idea... and, of course, the emphasis on broader context and literary genre that men like Carson model so well.

Anyway, in case you missed it over the weekend, Challies linked to this page and I have downloaded all the articles. If you are an aspiring or well-seasoned student of the Word, I commend each of them to you!

[Hit Thanks: Mr. Tim Challies]

1 comment:

  1. Hey Paul,

    Thanks for a most helpful link. The first time I heard of arcing it was Piper referencing men who denounced the use of arcing as a crutch. He said something characteristically witty like: "I need a crutch!"

    In any case, it piqued my interest, but I didn't find any materials on it beyond Piper's sermon. This 32-pager is quite intense!

    One of the reasons I am drawn to arcing is the implications it has for group studies. I have been blessed with the opportunity to lead a small group study for some of the Christian students at TrentU. My main focus was to develop skills which everyone could use to study scripture and most of our time spent together has been working through 1 Timothy proposition by proposition. However, I struggle with the style of the meeting (and group studies in general) because it can lean toward opinions being batted around versus proclamation of what is in the text. With arcing (or things like it) everyone can follow along and see where connections are being made.

    I was wondering what your thoughts were on this issue... However, this seems to be balooning quite quickly; perhaps I will throw an email at you. Thanks for reading!

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