Lesson 10 | Long Passages
Arcing and other Bible study methods
As this course moves toward a close and you now have the skill of Arcing in your personal Bible study toolbox, let's think how this discipline compares to and complements other Bible study methods available on Biblearc.
Markup
This simple approach to studying the Bible is all about asking questions of the text, making observations via highlights and underlines, and reading the Bible with purpose. It is a great complement to Arcing as it trains us to read the scriptures slowly and with a keen eye. The functionality of adding styled underlines and highlights to the text is available in the Look-up module.
Stay tuned for a future Path Course that will teach this method.
Phrasing
While Arcing forces us to understand how each proposition is logically connected in a passage of scripture, Phrasing zooms us in one level further as we examine how each phrase works grammatically in a sentence. This method can be a fine complement to Arcing by increasing our precision in understanding the grammar of the text. Phrasing also works well at capturing the syntactical flow of thought in Biblical Hebrew.
Our first Phrasing Path Course can be used by anyone who knows English. We have another Phrasing Path Course planned which will serve as a medium for studying intermediate Biblical Hebrew.
Bracketing
Bracketing is an alternative form of Arcing in which the connections between the propositions are visualized with brackets instead of arcs. Thus, in one way they are the same thing with just a difference graphical representation. Yet each method does possess its own strength. Arcing’s strength is to most clearly display how groups of propositions relate to one another. Bracketing’s strength is to most clearly display the main point of the passage via the longest horizontal line.
Someone who has learned Arcing should be able to switch to use Bracketing without further instruction. Still, we offer a Path Course in Bracketing which works through the first chapter of Philippians—for those who would like to further solidify their grasp of both methods.
Note: Bracketing uses the same “Discourse” module. You can switch any arc into a bracket or vice-versa via the options you find when clicking the verse reference at the top of the module.
Diagramming
While Phrasing works extremely well for studying the grammar of Biblical Hebrew, Diagramming is a great fit for working through the Greek New Testament. And whereas Arcing deals with propositions in a passage and Phrasing deals with phrases within a sentence, diagramming gets you the most precision as it forces you to make sense of every single Greek word. Thus, Diagramming is an excellent complement to Arcing and every other Bible study method, for those who have at least an intermediate level grasp of Greek. Our beginning Greek course teaches and uses the Diagramming module.
In addition, our Grammar course teaches diagramming in English. This is useful as a preparatory course for those wanting to study the original languages, as well as an auxiliary course for those simply feeling a need for strong English grammar for their Bible study.
