CAPS Phase 1: Hermeneutics Notes, Session 6 1

Tracing an Argument in the Epistles

Instructor: Doug Smith
March 20, 2008
Fellowship Chapel, Bristol, VA

Here are some additional tips to make use of the “Tracing Guide” by
Dr. Brian Vickers and the chapter on “The Nature of the Bible and How
to Study It” by Dr. Jim Hamilton.

1. Pray. Ask the Lord to open your eyes to see Him in His Word.

2. Choose a literal translation. The New American Standard is

probably the best choice for its accurate rendering of
prepositions. (Other options: ESV, NKJV)

3. Choose a passage. Try to find a unit in the length of a paragraph.

Start with shorter units while learning tracing.

4. Divide the verses into propositions.

5. Read the passage and highlight key words that will serve as
indicators of the relationships between propositions.

6. Find the relationships within each verse itself first. Then find
relationships with neighboring verses. Then begin to link to
other verses/relationships in the text.

7. Use your findings to structure the passage (outline it).

8. Summarize the argument of the passage.

9. Now you are ready to do further study (observing

repeated/contrasted words and concepts, looking up meanings of
individual words, noting the verbs, relating the passage to the
rest of the book and the whole Bible, finding application, etc.).

• CAUTION: When you do these further studies, keep in mind the proper
usage of your study tools.
• Dictionaries and lexicons give the range of meaning of a word. Avoid
illegitimate totality transfer, where you assign all the possible meanings of
a word to one particular usage of it. Usually a word is only conveying one of
those meanings in a single usage! A concordance (especially Young’s
Analytical Concordance or the Englishman’s Hebrew-English or Greek-English
Concordance) will help you see how the word is used elsewhere in the same
paragraph, book, testament, and whole Bible so you can make an educated
choice as to which meaning it is actually conveying in the passage under
study.
CAPS Phase 1: Hermeneutics Notes, Session 6 2
Tracing an Argument in the Epistles
• Watch out for the etymological fallacy. Finding a word’s history or original
meaning (when it was first coined) does not mean that the word still means
the same thing. Also, beware adding up the sum of compound words to
discern the meaning. Imagine the disaster if you tried to explain “butterfly”
based on its two parts: “an airborne dairy product.”1 Ridiculous as this
sounds, sometimes a preacher’s “insights” into a word in the original
language can be just as ludicrous.
• The usage of the word, not its roots, is primary in determining its meaning.
(However, the history/roots of a word may be helpful for understanding rare
words or names, although we want to be careful of being too dogmatic when
the meaning is hypothetical.2)

Use the space to the left of the Scripture to “trace the argument” with a diagram.

Philippians 3:17-4:1 NASB 1995 Update

Chapter 3

17a Brethren, join in following my example,

17b and observe those who walk according to the

pattern you have in us.

18 For many walk, of whom I often told you, and

now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies
of the cross of Christ,

19a whose end is destruction,

19b whose god is their appetite,

19c and whose glory is in their shame,

19d who set their minds on earthly things.

20a For our citizenship is in heaven,

20b from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior,

the Lord Jesus Christ,

21a who will transform the body of our humble

state into conformity with the body of His glory,

21b by the exertion of the power that He has even

to subject all things to Himself.

Chapter 4
1
See D. A. Carson’s discussion of the “root fallacy” in Exegetical Fallacies 2nd Ed.
(Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1996), 28-33.
2
Robert H. Stein, A Basic Guide to Interpreting the Bible: Playing by the Rules (Grand
Rapids, MI: Baker, 1994), 172-173.
CAPS Phase 1: Hermeneutics Notes, Session 6 3
Tracing an Argument in the Epistles

1 Therefore, my beloved brethren whom I long to

see, my joy and crown, in this way stand firm in the
Lord, my beloved.

In the space below, you can draw curves over the proposition numbers that
help you visualize the tracing diagram, turned on its side. This is called
“arcing.”

__________________________________________________________
| 3:17a | 17b | 18 | 19a | 19b | 19c | 19d | 20a | 20b | 21a | 21b | 4:1 |
For digging deeper:

For more on “arcing,” see John Piper, Biblical Exegesis:

Discovering the Meaning of Scriptural Texts (Minneapolis, MN:
Desiring God Ministries, 1999), 48pp. booklet with chart.
Order from www.desiringGod.org at
<http://www.desiringgod.org/Store/Booklets/ByTopic/54/85_Biblical_E
xegesis/> or download for free at
<http://www.desiringgod.org/media/pdf/booklets/BTBX.pdf>
(booklet only; chart not included in online version).

For more on “arcing” and “tracing,” see Thomas R. Schreiner,

Interpreting the Pauline Epistles (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker,
1990), 77-126. These two chapters are available online for
free from links at his faculty webpage
<http://www.sbts.edu/Academics/Faculty/Theology/Thomas_Sch
reiner.aspx>:

• "Diagramming and Conducting a Grammatical Analysis," in

Interpreting the Pauline Epistles (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1990), 77-96.
Non-exclusive, one-time permission is granted to use this chapter,
excluding any permission of a third source. The permission applies to
this usage only. Baker Academic, a division of Baker Publishing Group,
copyright 1990.
<http://www.sbts.edu/docs/tschreiner/book_IPE_chapter5.pdf>

• "Tracing the Argument," in Interpreting the Pauline Epistles (Grand

Rapids: Baker, 1990), 97-126. Non-exclusive, one-time permission is
granted to use this chapter, excluding any permission of a third source.
The permission applies to this usage only. Baker Academic, a division of
Baker Publishing Group, copyright 1990.
CAPS Phase 1: Hermeneutics Notes, Session 6 4
Tracing an Argument in the Epistles
<http://www.sbts.edu/docs/tschreiner/book_IPE_chapter6.pdf>