TIP of the day: The Hermeneutical Spiral's block diagrams with syntactic relationships

MJ. Smith
MJ. Smith MVP Posts: 53,407
edited November 20 in English Forum

So you're reading Osborne, Grant R. The Hermeneutical Spiral: A Comprehensive Introduction to Biblical Interpretation. Rev. and expanded, 2nd ed. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2006. and you want to try your hand a block diagrams with syntactic relationship tagging.

1. Block diagrams rearrange the Scripture text ... so you are probably going to use a Sentence Diagram document.

   You have a set of abbreviations for the syntactic relationships. You could have a layout that always required that Osborne's book be open to the appropriate location, wish the sentence tool had a style/abbreviation table capability or, as I do, hijack the highlighter tool to provide the relationship list.

   If you build many method-specific highlighters, visual filters etc., it is wise to maintain a note file that ties the highlighter back to the method that uses it ... at least until Faithlife allows us to include or attach notes to the highlighter palettes.

2. The styles in the palette are taken directly from Osborne's description. Note I can use these codes within the Bible text without reconfiguring the text.

3. For the workspace simply place the Sentence diagramer panel beside the Highlighter panel. A line with an arrow head, positioning of the text and adding abbreviations beside the lines give you the ability to create block diagrams matching Osborne's style.

Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."