Lesson 2 | The Context of Cfs
Lesson Objectives
Anyone who has learned a second language as an adult knows how frustrating it can be to begin reading actual books. On the one hand, it is exciting to be at such a point where you can even attempt such a thing. You have worked really hard to get to where you are, can carry on conversations, and now see another great opportunity for improvement before you: reading.
You also have easy access to a dictionary to look up words you do not know. Great! Or is it?
This is where the difficulty sets in. While a dictionary can most certainly keep you from getting lost, it can also be the place you get lost, if there are too many words to look up. When that is the case, the task is exhausting and makes it almost impossible to follow the storyline of the book—or at least to enjoy it. So a wise language learner will choose to make do with guessing at many of the words he does not know and only look up those words that seem to be the most important. Sure, his understanding will not be perfect—that will take more time. But, more importantly, he will not get stuck.
So too, we can get lost trying to understand all a passage’s cross-references perfectly and forget what passage we are even studying! A better way is to make discerning choices when to explore a cross-reference at length, and when to not get side-tracked, knowing that your biblical understanding will improve over time.
Objectives
- To reinforce how to work with the different types of cross-references
- To understand when you should look more into the context of a particular cross-reference
- To learn how best to consider a cross-reference’s context
How to Check the Context of a Cross-Reference…Without Losing Your Place
This is really easy. First, click the expand icon that you find at the end of the cross-reference to view it within its chapter.
Most of the time, that will be sufficient. Return to examine other cross-references connected to the same dot by clicking the back arrow, or click off the cross-reference box to dismiss it.
If you need to look beyond the chapter that the cross-reference is found in, that is also easy. Simply click the launch icon in the upper right corner of the cross-reference box to open it within a reading panel. (To keep your main passage in a reading panel, make sure you have at least one additional reading panel open by clicking the “Add Column” button.)
