-
Why is it important to do macro-observation of a Bible book before doing micro-observation?
-
You do a macro observation first so that you understand who wrote the book who it was written to and it gives you a complete background of the book
-
This step is needed for proper interpretation of the micro study.
-
It is important to do macro-observation before doing micro-observation because the specific details need a context to support their proper interpretation. Paying attention to who the author is and his relationship to his intended audience, helps us to make sense of word choice, tone and structure, as these would be elected to serve the intended audience’s capacity to understand. Paying attention the themes being addressed in the whole book protects us from isolated and incomplete interpretations because it encourages us to ask, “How does this passage help the author convey the overall theme of the book?” It supports us in placing the Bible’s intentions at the center, instead of exalting our own. Paying attention to how the book is structured helps us to track the trajectory of the author’s intentional path to conveying his central meaning to his intended audience. Paying attention to where the book was written helps to provide insight on the author’s frame of mind and the symbols and images that would have resonated with him at the time of writing and why. It also provides insight about the symbols and images that would have made sense to his audience as well. Paying attention to when gives us an understanding of where in the history of God’s people the account was written, which provides a window to the unique socio-historical pressures of the time and therefore the choices made in language and format and even the necessity for the work. Finally, paying attention to why the book was written helps us to let the Bible speak for itself. It invites us to prioritize God’s intention in penning His truth through the writer and making it available to us-a protection from our own fleshly tendencies to have God fashioned in our own image.
-
I absolutely love your response to this question. It truly helped me to better understand the necessity of ALL of this information.
-
-
It’s a matter of avoiding the problem of not being able to “see the forest for the trees”. The interesting nature of the specifics of a book may prevent us from seeing where and how the specifics fit into the whole. The result is we can’t be sure of either the meanings of a book’s verses, paragraphs, and chapters or the meaning of the book as a whole.
-
The detail and progression of observations are different and have different aspects to each.