Sample Analysis: Prose
Prose: Concepts and Connections
I have suggested that “prose” is one of the three major types of language that we find in the Scriptures. Prose is the “language of logic,” speaking to the mind, with clear ideas that are connected to one another in direct and logical ways. It seeks to make a point, persuading through airtight arguments and achieving understanding by breaking ideas down into their essential parts and/or developing them through faceted application.
Outlining a biblical text that comes to us in prose, then, is a matter of identifying major ideas and discerning their relationships to one another, as well as discovering all the ways these ideas are described, dissected, and developed in the text. I suggested three steps to outlining such a text in a way that will make its structure clear and help us to communicate its logic effectively to our hearers.
Let’s take a familiar passage, Matthew 28:18-20, as an example to develop a sample outline of this type of a text:
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (ESV)
STEP ONE: Begin with major statements, commands, or questions.
For the purpose simplicity, we will focus on the words of Jesus, beginning after the setup phrase, “And Jesus came and said to them.”
After careful examination of this text, we find that it consists of three major clauses. Two of them declare a fact (indicative mood). Jesus says, “All authority has been given unto me” and he says “I am with you always.” Between these two indicatives appears a command (imperative). Jesus says, “Make disciples.” You might think that “go” is a command, since most translations present it as such, but upon careful examination we find that it is actually a participle, a word the modifies or explains the command to “make disciples.” So in our first phase of analyzing this text, we can begin with these three major clauses – two statements and one command:
All authority has been given to me.
Make disciples of all nations.
I am with you always.
STEP TWO: Identify conjunctions joining these major statements.
Now that we have the major clauses of the text, we want to look at the connections between them. We find some important conjunctions – words that show up to join two clauses and/or to show the relationship between them. Between “All authority is given to me” and “Make disciples,” we find the word “therefore,” which indicates that Jesus’ authority is the foundation, the impulse, the reason for making disciples. Between “Make disciples” and “I am with you,” we find the words “and behold,” which seem to point towards something that will accompany obedience to the command.
At this point, we have an outline that looks something like this:
All authority is given to me.
Therefore
Make disciples of all nations.
And behold
I am with you.
STEP THREE: Fill in the “modifiers” that describe actions, ideas, persons, objects within the major phrases.
Now let’s fill the outline in with all the additional information that we find in the text to modify, expand, or explain these major clauses. For example, we are given two spheres where all authority is given to Jesus: “in heaven” and “on earth.” Likewise, three participial phrases explain how we are to make disciples: “going…,” “baptizing …,” and “teaching …” And the promise of Jesus to be with us is shown to be both temporally and geographically unlimited: “always” and “to the ends of the earth.”
Ultimately, we can fill in our outline to look something like this:
All authority is given to me.
in heaven
and
on earth
Therefore,
Go (going, as you go)
Make disciples of all nations
Baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you.
And behold
I am with you.
Always
Even to the ends of the earth.
Outlining these three verses in this way gives us a clear visual picture of the intricacies of the text. We have found three major clauses and have come to understand how they relate to one another, and how each of them is expanded in specific ways with the modifying words and phrases connected to them.
There may be much more that we can learn about this passage from further study of the meanings of the words, the context, the cultural and historical setting, etc. And we could even get more detailed in our outline by breaking down some of the clauses even more (e.g. baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit). But based on this “grammatical/syntactical outline” alone, we can make an accurate map of the logic of the passage. Here are some provisional exegetical conclusions that easily emerge:
Central Idea of the Text: Jesus’ command to make disciples.
Summary Statement of the Text: The resurrected Jesus commanded his followers to make disciples of all nations.
Major Emphases of the Text:
· The compelling reason to make disciples was fact that Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth.
· The method Jesus gave for making disciples was threefold:
o They were to make disciples as they were going.
o They were to make disciples by baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
o They were to make disciples by teaching them to observe all that Jesus had taught them.
· The promise Jesus gave was that as they fulfilled this task, he would be with them at all times and in all places.
With these conclusions in hand, we have a basic structure for the text that will help to prepare a sermon that communicates the logic of the text accurately to our hearers.
