Chapter 7: Step by step
1. Find the key to the text.
- After Peter declared Jesus to be the Messiah, Jesus gave him the keys to teaching by showing him all the places in scripture that spoke of the cross. If we had an index to them all, then anyone could interpret scripture. but we are not left ignorant. We know the story of Jesus now.
God created everything and immediately everything was separate from him; He is Holy, but he loved us. The world was desolate and without the Word of God. The Word taught by the path of the garden, and among the stones in the wilderness. The Word became flesh and he grew in knowledge and wisdom, beginning his teaching among the thorns, but his message was hidden in riddle, so they nailed him to the cross. Taking responsibility for our sin in ignorance, he died alone, but obtained his bride in his resurrection. There was an explosion of doctrine which he commanded that we preserve and teach.
2. Use synonyms to identify attributes of Christ.
Many words are synonyms, or mean approximately the same thing. When you reduce your vocabulary to words familiar to the story of Christ, correlating scripture becomes easier.
Consider these things: ascend, lift up, went up, climbed, raised. Choose one, and when you see the others think of your choice.
Patterns help define synonyms. When there are two things together, think that they are two sides to one thing. Milk and honey define blessings from God. Milk is 'spiritual' blessings. From the law we know that fat belongs to the Lord, and Milk is a fat product. Honey then would be blessings in the flesh. Now we can make sense of "Eat a little honey, but not so much you get sick" [1] We may enjoy the blessings in the flesh so long as we not sin in it.
When you see three things together, think of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Four things describe the four voices of God: Prophet, Judge, Priest and King.
3. Identify the boundary to the text. Sometimes the hidden story of Christ is sequential like {Christ} {Christ} {Christ}. And sometimes it is nested inside of other stories of Christ: {Christ {Christ {Christ}}} or {Chr {Christ} ist}. And always it is a combination of the two.
The the stories of Christ hidden in the account of Isaac and Jacob are nested and overlapping. Most others are easier to identify.
Before the key, you see desolation. After the key you see fruitfulness. There is a boundary defined when fruitfulness changes to desolation again. There is a boundary between the end where teaching is increasing and the next beginning in desolation.
4. Retell the story of Christ.
Since the literal text tells a hidden story of Christ, swap the names for titles or attributes of Christ . You are now outlining a parallel story of Christ hidden in he text. Use your familiar words for synonyms. I try to use NT text as synonyms.
5. Check your work against the rules. Appendix A.
