Lesson 1 | Coordinate Relationships
What We’ve Learned
Understanding the difference between coordinate and subordinate relationships is something we do in our communication all the time. It is necessary for any communication. Even children who tell stories naturally distinguish between the moving forward of a storyline (coordinate) and the domino effect of one idea causing or resulting from another (subordinate). In all collaboration, the distinction between a list of goals (coordinate) and the means of attaining them (subordinate) is made intuitively. And now that we have pointed out these categories, you will begin to identify them everywhere.
But it is most important to see them in God's Word. So let's start looking for them there!
What We Now Know
- God uses reason to communicate in the Bible
- God explicitly commands us to reason with him
- The Bible uses reasons even when persuading us not to reason
- There are two categories of logical relationship: Coordinate and Subordinate
- Coordinate relationships make independent points
- Subordinate relationships support each other in various ways
- There are three coordinate relationships:
- Series — each statement makes its own point
- Progression — each statement is a further step toward a climax
- Alternative — each statement expresses a different possibility arising from a situation
- On Biblearc, coordinate relationships are represented by the color green
What We Don’t Know Yet
We have not yet learned any subordinate relationships, and the Bible is much more than a list of coordinate statements; it is a structural masterpiece. In the next lesson, we will begin learning how the architecture of Scripture interconnects with supports.