So if you looked at 2 Timothy 1 as I suggested yesterday you will have seen some of the structural markers on the list. As I have worked through this over the past few years I have learned that Traina’s list is not exhaustive. Further I have begun to see implied structure. Some of that is here in 2 Timothy 1.
I am going to focus on 2 Timothy 1:1 – 14 during this series. I have marked the structural markers I saw in the picture. Compare them to what you saw, or if you have not done so yet. Read through the text looking at the sheet and see what you find there.
The first marker I saw was “by”. This is instrumentation. Paul was an apostle of Christ not by his choice, not by the choice of the other apostles, not by the choice of the Church, rather by the will of God. The means by which Paul was made an apostle was the will of God. If you look at the list of questions associated with instrumentation you will see:
Instrumentation
In this case the end was Paul’s apostleship. The means was the Will of God. What questions does that raise for you?
It raises several for me. For instance:
Typically we breeze by these opening words to get to the good stuff. There is some good stuff right here.
Structure helps us observe it. It slows us down.
Posts in this series:
The Influence of Structure
The first marker I saw was “by”. This is instrumentation. Paul was an apostle of Christ not by his choice, not by the choice of the other apostles, not by the choice of the Church, rather by the will of God. The means by which Paul was made an apostle was the will of God. If you look at the list of questions associated with instrumentation you will see:
Instrumentation
- What is meant by the end or purpose, and what is meant by the means?
- How does the means serve as an instrument(s) for realizing the end?
- Why does the author use this instrumental relationship?
- What are its full implications?
- If you look at the definition of Instrumentation, you will see:
In this case the end was Paul’s apostleship. The means was the Will of God. What questions does that raise for you?
It raises several for me. For instance:
- Did Paul get a vote in this matter?
- What does this tell us about the actions of the other apostles in choosing Matthias?
- How did this means empower Paul’s ministry?
Typically we breeze by these opening words to get to the good stuff. There is some good stuff right here.
Structure helps us observe it. It slows us down.
Posts in this series:
The Influence of Structure
I used the table and tabs and markers to analyse the chapter. Yet I missed instrumentation in verse 1 since I used Russian Synodal Translation which has no 'by' or 'through' but rather uses instrumental case (творительный падеж) to indicate that a noun is the instrument or means by or with which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action. This is a worth the effort finding!
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