The past two weeks, we have been studying the first two of the “Six W’s of Reading the Bible” … I place that in quotes only because that’s what I scribbled across the top of my lesson notes. This is really nothing special and exactly what you would expect: who, what, when, where, why, how (whatfor). (We say “whatfor” because “Six W’s” sounds cooler than “Five W’s and an H!”)
This little series is based largely on an adult class that Doug Henson is teaching on Sunday mornings. I have mentioned more than once that it would be good for all of us to go through that class at least once; until then, we’ll pick up the cliff notes in our own class.
Who is the question we ask when we need to know the players in a passage. Who is speaking? Who is the recipient of the writing? Who is listening in the story? Who is in the story? At this time, we also look for anything that is special about the actors. Is he a “man after God’s own heart?” Is someone mentioned as having a checkered past? Does anyone remind us of ourselves or someone we know? What is their background, their motivation, their purpose in the story?
What is where we pull out the greatest volume of information. Consider the narrative: what is happening? How are the actions described: quickly, without hesitation, carefully? With every one of these six questions, take notes; always have pen and paper handy. Next to your description of each person, take note what they were up to. This will help you see the who and the what side by side, so you miss nothing.
Of course, at first you will have to think about each question one at a time – just like when you are reading a math word problem or a short story. It doesn’t take long before you start to identify the important parts and recognize elements that may be important later. But the key is practice!
