Study Hack: When a Biblical Author Repeats Himself
The biblical authors demonstrate a literary brilliance that is often difficult for us to appreciate. Their intentionality with specific words, and the way that they carefully design certain sentences and stories is mind-blowing.
But… in order to experience the Bible as the well-crafted masterpiece that it is, we have to learn how to recognize the unique literary styles and techniques that the biblical authors are using.
One of those techniques that I want to quickly point out today is the way that they use repeated words, phrases and patterns.
Learning how to recognize the intentional use of repetition will add more depth to our understanding of what the biblical author is trying to tell us.
So, this would be my advice to get us started. If you’re reading through the Bible, and you notice a word or phrase that you feel like you’ve heard before… take note of it. And if you feel like this word or phrase is being used in the story intentionally… dig deeper.
Here’s what I mean.
When you come across something that sounds familiar, stop and take a few minutes to do these 3 things…
Look up where this repeated word or phrase first appeared.
Read how that word or phrase was first used in its original context.
Then trace how that word or phrase is used after that in other stories throughout the Bible.
This is something that can be done pretty quickly on most Bible apps (I like this one). You can search a particular word, and then get a list of all the places where that word appears in the Bible.
Now, the beauty of this is that we can spend a lifetime exploring and discussing the repeated words, phrases and patterns that are interwoven throughout the Bible. But for now, let me give you a quick example of what this actually looks like.
A couple of weeks ago, I was reading through the book of Genesis. And when I got to the beginning of chapter six, I read this mysterious passage…
The sons of God SAW that the daughters of men were GOOD, and they TOOK wives for themselves, whomever they chose. (Genesis 6:1-2)
Now, this is a difficult passage that has sparked a good bit of debate among people much smarter than me. But I’m not interested in that right now. I just want you to notice three key words that got my attention.
SAW
GOOD
TOOK
When I read these particular words and the way that they are used here in this story, I recognize that it all sounds very familiar.
Where have I heard this before?
Well, when I stop and look up where these words and this pattern first appear, I end up having to go back to Genesis 3 where I read this…
When the woman SAW that the tree was GOOD for food… she TOOK from its fruit and ate. (Genesis 3:6)
Now, isn’t that interesting?
Reading this passage again in Genesis 3 helps me better understand what I am reading in Genesis 6.
You see, even if I was a little confused about the details of what was going on in Genesis 6 with the sons of God and the daughters of men, I could see that this was clearly a bad thing. But not only was it just a bad thing, I could now begin to see that this story in Genesis 6 was some kind of “fall” or failure in the created order that was repeating the original failure in the Garden.
Why would I see it that way?
Because the biblical author is intentionally describing this story in Genesis 6 with the same language that is used in Genesis 3 to describe “the fall”.
Now, that may not seem like a big deal to you.
So let’s press into this a little further.
If we keep reading in the book of Genesis, we will eventually get to chapter sixteen where we read about a particular incident involving Abraham, Sarah and their slave named Hagar.
As the story goes, God had promised Abraham and his wife Sarah that they would have a child. However, they were old and up to this point unable to have any children so Sarah came up with a plan. That plan is described in Genesis 16 where we read this…
Abram’s wife Sarai TOOK Hagar the Egyptian, her maid, and GAVE HER TO HER HUSBAND Abram as his wife. (Genesis 16:3)
Sound familiar?
Where else have we heard this particular language?
You guessed it.
If we go back to Genesis 3, we read this…
The woman saw that the tree was good for food… she TOOK from its fruit and ate; and she GAVE ALSO TO HER HUSBAND with her, and he ate. (Genesis 3:6)
You see, we might know intuitively that what Abraham and Sarah did to Hagar was awful, but by intentionally using the language of “the fall” in Genesis 3, the author of Genesis wants us to also view this story of Hagar as a repeat of the “fall” — another act of God’s special human representatives rebelling against him.
The point here is that this kind of repetition of the “fall” language begins to set us up to look out for more situations in the Bible like this — situations where humans see something they like, determine it to be good in their own eyes, and then take it for themselves (check out the David and Bathsheba story in 2 Samuel 11:2-4!).
Again, there’s so much more we could say about this literary technique. But for now, my hope is that this gets our attention to start looking out for repeated words or patterns as we read through the Bible. And the more familiar that we get with the stories in the Bible, the better we will get at recognizing these patterns.
(Tip: Get very familiar with the stories and language in the book of Genesis. You will start to recognize that “Genesis language” is repeatedly used all throughout the Bible.)
I hope this is helpful… and kind of exciting.
It’s definitely an important skill for studying the Bible.
So again, when you come across repeated words or phrases in the Bible:
Look up where this repeated word or phrase first appeared.
Read how that word or phrase was first used in its original context.
Then trace how that word or phrase is used after that in other stories throughout the Bible.
The more that we do this the better we will get at it. And the better that we get at this, the more we will begin to experience the Bible as the literary masterpiece that it is!
