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Feed Yourself Lesson Ten

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Key Words And Phrases

Review the last week’s lesson and make sure you understand the material. This week’ lesson assumes that the previous lesson was completed.

"Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." John 5:39

Last week we began our Book Survey. You should have a lot of information filled in your Bible Survey Primary Information Chart and you should have the chapter numbers and your titles filled in on the Bible Survey Outline Form. If not, finish that up before continuing on.

In this lesson we will look at finding Key Words and Phrases and discovering the Key Verse. Key Words and Phrases are words and phrases that are repeated often throughout the chapter and/or book. This is also where you develop your colour and/or symbol marking system.

This may sound complicated or frightening [if you have been out of school for awhile], but it really isn't. You are training yourself - with my help - for your own benefit. Actually, this can be a lot of fun. So relax and enjoy the process. As the saying goes, once you are on the top of the mountain, that's it. The trick to enjoying life is to enjoy the climb. When it comes to Bible Study all of us will always be climbing, so enjoy the climb.

Last week we found what we thought was the theme of the book, the exercises this week will confirm that choice or we may decide that we need to change our theme selection. No big deal. If we need to change our idea of the theme, simply write the new theme on the Primary Information Chart.

What are Key Words and Phrases? Key Words and Phrases are important words that are often repeated in a chapter or book. They answer the questions: Who, What, When, Where, Why, or How.

How often does a word or phrase need to be repeated before it is considered "key?" The answer to that depends on the book and subject. As you read through the book simply note which words and phrases keep popping up.

How we do find our Key Words and Phrases?

1. Read through the entire book. Keep an eye out for often repeated words or phrases and their synonyms [different words which mean basically the same thing].

2. Choose a colour or colours from the pencil crayons we suggested you get in Lesson One to mark your Key Words. You can uses colours or symbols or a combination of both. For example, if the word "love" is a key word you could mark it in one of the following ways:

A. Colour over the entire word lightly so as not to blot out the word [my preferred method],

B. Underline the word in your colour,

C. Put brackets around the word in your colour, or

D. Draw a heart over the word with a pen or your coloured pencil. Symbols, if used, should be used sparingly as they can easily become overwhelming and cluttered.

3. As you read through the book again mark every time the word/phrase or a synonym appears. For example, if you are doing a Book Survey on Philippians and decide that "rejoice" is a key word which you want to mark in blue, mark all references to rejoice, joy, cheer, etc.

4. Mark as many different key words/phrases as you see in your reading. Some chapters of a book may only have one or two, others may have many. Then write them down on the Primary Information Chart under Often Repeated Words or Phrases.

To be consistent you should use the same colour or symbol in every book of the Bible in which you mark that word. For example, if you are doing a Book Survey of 1 John and decide that "love" is a key word to be marked in green, then later you do a Book Survey of Philippians and decide "love" is also a key word there, then mark it there in green as well. Don't use green for any other word. The more colours you have at your disposal the better! You may want to do an index on the inside cover of your Bible of the colours and words they represent.

Look over your key words/phrases, is one dominate? Look for one Key Word or Phrase that seems to stand out and expresses what the chapter or book is about. Write that down on the Primary Information Chart as the Key Word or Phrase. Does that line up with your theme? If not, do you need to adjust your theme or key word to bring unity? Again, relax and have fun. The destiny of the free world does not depend on your decision.

The last thing we want to look at this week is the Key Verse. The Key Verse is the verse which states the purpose of the book, it agrees with the theme and the Key Word/Phrase. It can actually be anywhere in the book, although the beginning of the book is the best place to look. Sometimes it is stated plainly as in John 20:31 [Read] [near the end of the book!] where John plainly tells us why he wrote his gospel. Other times, we look for the verse which best fits the theme and key words of the book. For example, Revelation 1:7 [Read] is usually considered the Key Verse of Revelation because it summarizes what the book of Revelation is about. Write your Key Verse on the Primary Information Chart and then write what you believe the purpose of the book is, i.e. from looking at the Key Verse, why did the author write the book?

Print the sample from Philippians. Use a colour printer if possible.

WEEK TEN PROJECT

1. Continue with the Book you choose last week [Ephesians, James, or 1 John].

Day One: Do your first reading, looking for key words/phrases.

Days Two-Six: Go through your book marking as many key words/phrases as you find. Use different colours for different words [but the same colour for synonyms].

I have provided the books of Ephesians, James and 1 John in the KJV in case you would like to practice on one of them before marking your Bible. Ultimately, of course, you want to mark your key words in your Bible. Record your Key Words/Phrases on your Primary Information Chart.

Day Seven: Decide on your primary Key Word/Phrase, your Key Verse and the Purpose of the book. Recorded them on your Primary Information Chart. You may want to mark your key verse in your Bible with a special symbol - perhaps a key?

3. Continue with your daily reading program.

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Reference Works Used In This Course:

Bible Study Methods by Mrs. Shirley Davis

The International Inductive Study Bible by Harvest House Publishers

Effective Bible Study by Howard F. Vos, Zondervan

How To Understand Your Bible by T. Norton Sterrett, IVP

How To Study Your Bible by Kay Arthur, Harvest House

Independent Bible Study by Irving L. Jensen, Moody

How To Study The Bible For Yourself by Tim LaHaye, Harvest House

Return to Feed Yourself Lessons.

Please note: We no longer have the commenting feature [maybe again in the future]. Joshua Institute students who have questions or comments on their courses can use the contact button and mention the course name and lesson number in the email. Thank you. Glenn

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