How to Break a Bible Passage Into Its Components
Approaching a new passage of Scripture is daunting. There are many details, cross-references, and truths packed into each paragraph of the Bible. How can you proceed? You must break the Bible passage into its components.
This tool will help you extract and organize the details, background, and context of a passage of Scripture.
Personal Bible study can be overwhelming if you don’t have an idea of what you are even looking for in a Bible passage. In my job, I use this tool to help make sure I don’t miss any information. It also works wonders in Bible study or sermon preparation.
The tool is known as “the 5 Ws, H, & SW” (of the Seven Ws). They are 7 simple categories which help you understand what the Bible passage is saying.
For those of you who didn’t want to read this long article or who want to have a visual reminder, I have attached a graphic below. It gives the 5 Ws, H, & SW along with the corresponding questions. Print it out on a 5 x 7 sheet of paper and stick it in your Bible for easy reference.
In the following sections, I will go through each of the seven categories.
Bible Passage Components: The 5 Ws, H, & SW
Who
When breaking a Bible passage into its component parts, you first start with the subject. For those of you who are a bit rusty on your grammar, this simply means you find out the speaker of the passage, the audience, and the characters contained in the passage.
The speaker
The speaker of the passage is usually easy to identify. For example, if you are reading an epistle by Paul, he is the speaker.
Sometimes, you only know who the speaker is in general terms. For example, in the Psalms, certain Psalms don’t have an author called out. In that case, simply say the speaker of the passage is “the Psalmist”.
Why is knowing the speaker important? One of the most important parts of Bible study is understanding the author’s intent. That is simply why the author wrote the book or the passage you are studying.
Identifying the speaker in the passage is the first step to understanding the purpose of the book.
If you don’t know where to start, identifying who is the speaker of the passage is a good first step in your Bible study.
The audience
Once you know who the speaker is, an obvious next step is determining who the speaker is communicating to. This is the audience. A lot is made in Bible study books about “the original audience.” I think you can easily get too focused on the historical and geographical details of the audience if you aren’t careful.
List who the audience of the book is and then list characteristics of that audience you find in the passage or the book as a whole.
For example, if I was reading the book of Galatians, the audience is clearly the Church in Galatia. However, that does not tell me very much and is therefore not very helpful in understanding the passage.
If I were to do a quick survey of Galatians, however, I could start understanding characteristics of the Church. They are listening to false teaching. In turn, they are getting tempted to add the works of the law back into the Gospel message.
Why is the audience important to know? If you don’t know the original audience and their characteristics, application either becomes difficult, impossible, or straight up wrong.
Spending time on filling out the characteristics of the original audience will help you understand the purpose of the passage and how it applies to your life.
To do this, oftentimes you will need to skim through the book and start listing out any verses that discuss something about the original audience. Again, don’t get too caught up in extracting every historical or geographical tidbit about the original audience. You oftentimes will get so stuck in the details that you never end up getting to the actual Bible passage.
The characters
The passage won’t always have this component. But when you are studying narrative (like many of the Old Testament books & the Gospels) or parables or even much of Wisdom Literature (Proverbs, Song of Songs), listing out the main characters of a passage is important.
(In fact, I have elsewhere argued that you can organize a sermon around the main characters in the passage. To hear me apply this, listen to my recent sermon on Numbers 14. Or you can read my series of posts based on that sermon.)
You deal with the characters in a passage very similar to what you already did with the audience. Simply extract the characters and then list their characteristics.
For example, if I was do extract the “characters” from the parable of the sower in Mark 4, I first list out the four different types of soil and the sower.
Next, I would write the characteristics of each of those types of soil and then the characteristics of the sower. Don’t make up characteristics for their own sake. Just write down what the passage says.
Think of your favorite movie. You could not only name the main characters, you could also describe them. Do the same for the Bible passage you are studying.
Why is this important? Oftentimes seeing the characteristics of the main characters in a passage helps you understand what the author/speaker is trying to highlight.
In our example of the parable of the sower, listing the characteristics of the soils helps you see that only the final type of soil (the good soil that grows a plant that bears fruit) is emphasized as good.
Once you have the speaker, the audience, and the characters of the passage pulled out, you can move on to the next category. Don’t rush the “who”, though.
A good grasp of who is in the passage will keep you from misinterpreting and misapplying the passage later on.
What
The next step in breaking a Bible passage into its components is to extract what is happening in the passage. The three pieces of information I like to get from this step are what is said, what is done, and what is felt.
What is said-the pieces of the passage
This simply means you list out the key points, arguments, or speeches in the passage. The bible passage components you extract in this section will depend on the type of Biblical literature you are studying.
But in general, read through the passage and reduce what is said into a few main points. Oftentimes, to do this well, you will have to outline a passage. I will go through outlining in a later post.
For example, when I was studying for my post on Psalm 1, I broke up what is said into a couple sections. The first section is a contrast between listening to the unrighteous and listening to God’s word. The second section gives metaphors to picture the righteous and the unrighteous. And the last section gives both groups’ final destiny.
Listing out what is said will help you see the main points of the passage.
For Paul, you might spend time mapping out his arguments. For a Psalm, you might focus on the repetition and metaphors used. Metaphors also show up throughout Scripture and are important, but sometimes difficult to interpret. I designed a whole separate worksheet to help you understand biblical metaphors.
Regardless, make sure you either list out or summarize everything in the passage. If you leave you information, you may come to wrong interpretive conclusions.
Often it is what information you leave out that has the biggest effect on your Bible study. Don’t leave important details unexamined.
What is done-the flow of the passage
As before, how you answer this question depends on the type of Bible passage you are studying. If you are examining a narrative text, simply list out the key parts of the plot.
For example, when I was studying Numbers 14, I looked at the important plot points: Israel reacts in fear, Jacob & Caleb call them to repentance, God pronounces judgment, Moses mediates, etc.
If you are going through a Psalm or an epistle, this question helps you think through the flow of the passage. What are the steps of the argument? What does the author do with the components?
Look at the movement of the passage. How does it flow and progress?
Why is this important? If you only know the pieces of the passage and not how they fit together, you will often struggle to find the author’s main point. Seeing what is done in the passage enables you to see better the point the author is making.
What is felt-the emotion of the passage
This is often overlooked. Tone is crucial to understanding the passage. Is the author worshipful or angry? Reflective or direct? This question is not about what you feel about the passage, it is examining the tone of the words in the passage itself.
Answer this can be difficult or easy depending on the passage. Sometimes, the author specifically calls out emotion or uses words that strongly suggest a particular emotion. Other times, you must think a little deeper to get to what emotions exist in the text.
Look for any emotionally charged words in the passage. Is this passage painting a positive or negative picture?
You might ask why this step is important. I would argue you cannot accurately apply a text without understanding the emotion it is conveying. You don’t want to walk away happy when studying a passage meant to make you fear.
The emotion of the text should guide your emotions when you leave the text.
Again, it isn’t about asking what you personally feel about the text. That is conforming the text to your emotions.
But, when you understand the tone of the passage, you can subject your own feelings to the text.
Where
The “where” of the text can take many forms. Think of it as understanding the context of whatever passage you are studying. The three questions to ask are where is this passage taking place geographically, where is this passage in the argument, and where is this passage in the book as a whole.
Geographically
I don’t think I need to say much in this section. This is simply placing the passage in the physical world. Where is this taking place? Where are the main characters when this letter or poem or prophecy was written?
For example, if you are studying a passage and Israel is in Babylon, you are in a very different part of Israel’s history than if they were in Egypt.
Don’t write this section off as meaningless detail. Oftentimes, the geography of the passage gives you insight you might not expect. For example, the joyful nature of the letter to the Philippians becomes more astounding when you realize Paul was in jail when writing it.
The geographical context of a passage helps you picture the passage as something tangible. These were real people, real historical events. Not just abstractions on a page.
It is important not to spend all your time answering this question. But understanding where the main characters are is certainly helpful.
In the argument
This mainly applies to discourses and the epistles. Simply look at your passage or verse and try to understand what it adds to the overall argument.
Previously you looked at the flow of the passage itself. For this step, you are simply looking at the flow from a little higher vantage point.
Is your passage the conclusion of an argument? An application of a truth previously presented? An assumption which is a foundation of what follows?
Not every passage has the same or an equal role. Finding where it occurs will help you discern its importance.
Why is this important? You want to emphasize what the text emphasizes. If the passage at hand is giving a reason for hoping in Christ, you don’t want to treat it like a command. If your passage is the conclusion of an extended argument, you want to emphasize it and see how it follows from what came before.
In the book as a whole
This simply moves the vantage point even higher. In order to answer this question, you need to have some insight into the structure of the book you are studying.
For example, I have been teaching 2 Corinthians in my Church’s Sunday School. There are essentially three larger sections in 2 Corinthians: Paul describes the ministry of reconciliation, exhorts the Church to participate in sending money to the Jerusalem Church, and defends his apostleship.
When I study any given individual passage in 2 Corinthians, I always think through which section of the book my passage is in. Depending on where it occurs, my passage’s tone and purpose is vastly different.
In the high level break down of the book, where does your passage occur? This might be a good time to get a commentary which has outlines of the book.
Again, don’t get stuck in the details. You don’t need to understand every single part of the book you are studying. But if you broke the book down into 2-6 categories, which one would your passage fit into?
When
This section only contains two questions to answer: When was this written? and When does it occur in redemptive history? The former is connecting your passage to time, the latter is understanding it within the canon of Scripture.
When in time
Answering this question can take many forms. For example, if you are studying a Pauline epistle, you can ask what year Paul wrote this or when in Paul’s ministry he wrote the epistle.
As when you understood where geographically a passage occurs, finding out the time in which a passage occurs gives further context. The temptation here is to go into far too much detail.
Remember, you are a faithful student of God’s word. Not a historian.
That said, the time in which a passage occurs sometimes is included by the author. Therefore, it must have some relevance to your study.
The Bible took place in time, even though it is timeless truth.
I think there are two dangerous extremes you can go to: treat the Bible as if it is purely a historical book or treating it as if it is merely abstract truth without any real history.
So don’t fall into either of these. Understand when in time your passage occurs, but don’t let that be the most important thing you take away from the text.
When in redemptive history
Of all the Bible passage components, this is one of the most important ones and yet one of the most difficult ones to extract. Answering this question gets easier and easier the more time you spend in Scripture. The more familiar you are with it.
When your passage occurs in redemptive history will majorly affect your interpretation. An easy example is whether your passage occurs in the Old Testament or the New Testament. Is the author looking forward to the coming of the Messiah, or looking back on Jesus’ death and resurrection?
The Bible tells one complete story of God’s glorious redemption in Christ. Where is your passage in this story?
Has the law been given yet? Is Israel in exile? Has Pentecost occurred? I would argue you need to have some idea of where your passage occurs in redemptive history to have any hope of proper interpretation.
I would recommend getting a good Biblical Theology book or commentary that focuses on the whole Bible for answering this question.
If you can’t answer this question immediately, don’t worry! It takes a lifetime of study and reflection to learn how the complexities of Scripture fit together.
The key is with each new passage to ask this question so you learn a little bit more about the Bible as a whole even as you focus on an individual section.
Why
The “why” of a passage builds on the bible passage components you found in the “what” section. The order is important. Don’t try to figure out why the passage says what it says until you understand its main points in context.
Why is this said?
The Bible is not a book in want of purpose. Sometimes understanding the purpose of a passage takes time, but it is always there. You should look at the context of the passage before you ask why something is said. Oftentimes, the context will help you see its significance.
Why something is said often depends on where the passage is in context, in the flow of the book, and where it occurs in redemptive history.
Oftentimes, if you answered the what, where, and when questions, you can answer why something is said fairly easily. It is important to note sometimes the author tells you explicitly why he says something. Other times, you must deduce it.
Keep in mind every time you leave what is explicitly said in the passage you are making an interpretation. Make sure your interpretation is based on other Scripture and does not contradict other Scripture.
This is the foundational principle that the Bible is self-interpreting and internally consistent. Now, in practice, this can be very difficult to see, especially for some texts. But do not rush to answering why a text says what it says. Be patient.
Why is this done?
Like the discussion above, if you have done your work answering the where and the when questions, you can often easily interpret the purpose of an event.
Sometimes, however, the author tells you why something is done. For example, Jesus does many miracles in the gospel of John. But John doesn’t leave us to ask why Jesus did them: John calls these miracles “signs.” Their purpose was testifying to Jesus’ deity.
But things can also be done because of sin, jealousy, or wrong choices. If you were to ask why Saul tried to kill David, you would likely get one of these negative answers.
Why is this felt?
“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” This sentence evokes a peaceful, confident emotion. Why does the Psalmist feel this way? That is the type of question you should answer at this point.
Again, don’t close your Bible and reflect to yourself in order to answer this question. Scripture is self-interpreting. Go ask the rest of the Bible or the rest of the passage why something is felt.
The “why’s” of the Bible are best answered by the Bible itself.
Most interpretive mistakes come from trying to understand a particular passage without the looking at it in light of other Scripture. The emotion of the text is important. Therefore understanding the purpose of that emotion is also important.
God has given you all you need to study the Bible inside the Bible.
And that includes emotions contained in the text.
How
Previously, we have focused on merely collecting and interpreting Bible passage components. Now, we let the text examine our own hearts. You meditate on the text and asking yourself how should you think, how should you feel, and how should you act if this passage is true.
How are you to think?
The Bible corrects wrong thinking. It corrects wrong thinking about God, about Jesus, about yourself, about others, about the world we live in.
So, a simple question to ask at this point is how does this passage correct, inform, or disrupt your thinking? Once you have broken down the bible passage components, organized them, and understood there purpose, you don’t stop there.
Ask yourself, “if this passage is true, what thoughts do I have which contradict that truth?”
Oftentimes, you and I conform Scripture to our thoughts, not the other way around. This first “how” question gives you time to examine what you think about God, yourself, and the world.
If what you think contradicts the truth, replace your thoughts with God’s thoughts.
How are you to feel?
I once read an excellent little article on “Six Short Rules for Young Believers.” It is a very helpful read, but one quote in particular bears mentioning here:
“Never believe what you feel, if it contradicts God’s Word. Ask yourself, Can what I feel be true, if God’s Word is true? and if both cannot be true, believe God, and make your own heart the liar. (Rom. 3:4; 1 John 5:10, 11).“
It doesn’t get much more practical than that. You spent much time figuring out the emotions contained in the text you are studying. Now, turn it on yourself: do you feel the same?
Do you hate your sin? Do you feel the same love for the Lord as this passage? It is easy to treat our own feelings as sovereign, as the measure of our reality.
Feelings come and go. God’s word stands forever.
That is one reason for my series called “Happy?” You and I so often let our feelings define our reality. But if you look at God’s word, understand it, and let your feelings be rooted in truth, your life will transform.
How are you to act?
The Bible isn’t merely concerned with behavior modification. But it is concerned with faith-based obedience.
Are there imperatives you should follow? Are there examples to emulate? When you break down a Bible passage into its components, you often see clearly what action you should do.
If you rush to application on the other hand, oftentimes you focus too much on surface level behavior modification.
Let your actions be faith-driven and scripture-informed. Don’t stop at mere external obedience. “Without faith it is impossible to please God” and “whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.”
Your Bible study should have a definite impact on your life. So often, we study and nothing about us actually changes. As James said, you need to be a doer of the word, not merely a hearer.
The mark of a good Bible study is it leaves a mark on your life.
I mentioned when discussing my sermon mediation booklet that one of my favorite quotes is “men grow tired of hearing the word only after they have grown tired of putting it into practice.”
The same is true of Bible study.
If your life isn’t being transformed by the word of God, don’t be surprised if your study becomes boring or unfruitful.
Breaking a bible passage into its components isn’t enough. It must change you once you understand it.
So What
The last section focused more on personal transformation. The “so what” of a passage is thinking through the implications the passage has on your life in different spheres. These are three questions which are worthy of prayer and meditation. Only you can answer them.
What are the implications for your family?
You might be single, a husband, a wife, a mother, a father, or a child. How does this text touch upon your roles within the family?
Keep in mind not every text deals directly with family. Most don’t. That is why I call these “implications”.
An implication is simply saying “if this is true, what further thing follows.”
In this case, what does the truths of your passage call you to within the context of your family?
What are the implications for your work?
Most of us, myself included, spend most of our day most of the week working a 9 to 5 secular job.
Therefore, it is crucial you let scripture transform where you spend most of your time: at work.
Don’t think that the Bible doesn’t address your work or how you work or where you work. There are often many implications for your 9 to 5 which follow from a truth of Scripture.
As you go throughout your work day, meditate on a truth from your Bible study. You will be surprised at how often it informs what you do, think, and feel as you work.
What are the implications for your corporate worship?
Finally, think through the implications of how this passage helps you and equips you for service in the Church. Your local Church should be a fundamental part of your life.
Oftentimes, the Bible speaks most directly and constantly to this point. How you worship God corporately and interact with fellow believers is incredibly important to the Lord. There are great blessings in belonging to God and His people.
Don’t leave your study until you think through how the text changes your interaction with your local Church.
If you want further questions to apply your text, use the application questions Puritan preachers used. They are incredibly effective and helpful to fully understand the effect a text should have on your life.
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