Repeated Words and Phrases.

One of the best classes I ever had was one on how to study the Bible.  First and foremost, nothing beats reading the text all the way through.  Over and over.  (Which is easy to do if you are studying Philemon.)  As one of my teachers was fond of saying, “Read the Bible.  You’ll be amazed at what you learn if you’ll just read the Bible.”  He’s right.

Anyway, another key is looking for repeated words and phrases throughout the particular book you are studying.  This opened up a whole new world for me.  Now it’s something  I automatically do when I’m looking at a text.  Repeated words and phrases reveal a theme oftentimes.  Something the Holy Spirit is trying to underscore for our benefit.  Being on guard for repeated words and phrases, as we read our Bibles, can be very illuminating.  Revealing.  Let me give you an example.

When I searched for repeated words and phrases throughout the five chapters of First Peter the truth of what I encountered  astounded me. 

The most repeated word was along the lines of “suffering.”  If I remember correctly it’s in the 13-15 range in number of times mentioned.  Obviously our response to suffering has a lot to do with the message of First Peter.  Some even say it’s the theme of the book.

One of my favorite phrases from Peter is “at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”  It’s mentioned 4-5 times.  That phrase denotes an element of time.  Indeed, in my view First Peter presents the Christian world view/perspective on the element of time.  How a believer views time is central to their capacity to endure suffering.  However…

As I read First Peter over and over and over I noticed something else.  It’s the most obvious thing.  Yet, simple.  Maybe that’s why no one ever pointed it out to me, either in the classroom, the pulpit or any commentary I ever read.  As I told you the most repeated word in Peter is a form of the word “suffering.”  At least that’s the repeated word which gets the most attention.  From preachers, professors, Bible class teachers,  commentators and Craig.  It is not the most repeated word.

That honor belongs to the following  – Jesus – Christ – Lord – or some form (the pronouns Him/His etc.)  If you read First Peter all the way through you will encounter “suffering, suffers, etc” about fifteen times.  You will encounter the name of Jesus Christ at least forty-five times.

What…or WHO is the theme of First Peter?

And that’s not all – try counting the name of Jesus in the other epistles too.  You might need a calculator for some of them.

The name of Jesus dwarves all other repeated words and phrases put together.

We do tend to complicate things don’t we?

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