How to study your Bible (Part 3 of 5). Observation

       Hopefully you had an opportunity yesterday to look at determining the context of a passage.  My notes are at the bottom if you want to see how I answered some of the questions regarding context.  Today we are going to be looking at the O in COMA- Observation!  What is it?  Just that, observation.  It is observing the text closely, reading through it multiple times, and making observations.  Here are the questions to ask and answer in observation.  Some of these questions have been taken from the book, "One to One Bible Reading" by David Helm.

1.)  Are there any major subsections or breaks in the text?

2.)  What is the main point or points?

3.)  What surprises are there?

4.)  What are the key words?  What words or ideas are repeated?

5.)  What stuck out to you?

6.)  What questions do you have based on the text?  

Observation is simply reading the text through multiple times noting and writing down what you see and what questions you have of the text.  So go ahead and spend time practicing observation on our text 1 Peter 1:1-12.

Would love for you to share your observations below in the comments.  I will share mine on Friday (skipping posting on thanksgiving)!



Notes from determining the context
 Our passage of study was 1 Peter 1:1-12.  Here is a brief look at what I discovered in working towards determining the context and answering the questions.

1.)  What sort of writing is this?  (Letter, narrative, poem, etc).
This writing is a letter.

2.)  Who is the human author?
The human author is Peter, the disciple of Jesus.

3.)  Who was it written to?  Where do they live?  What is their culture like, etc
This letter was written to "elect exiles" of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.  All of these providences were under Roman rule at the time.  Most likely 1 Peter was written around 62-63 AD during the reign of Nero and just prior to major persecution breaking out against Believers.

4.)  What are the circumstances of those it was written to?
They were referred to as elect exiles, so it seems that they felt out of place where they lived: Possibly because they were fleeing from the possibility or persecution, or simply because of their faith in Jesus Christ made they feel out of place, exiled, amongst a culture that rejected Christ.  There also seems to be multiple verses throughout the book that suggest they were under some form of persecution as Peter regularly references what to do in the midst of persecution
(1:6-7, 2:12, 18-24, 3:8-17, 4:12-19)

5.)  What has happened so far? 
As the first chapter in this book nothing has proceeded it.  In the context of the whole Bible it comes after the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.