BIBLE STUDY – HEADLINING CHAPTERS          © by W.J. Allen 4/2008

I’m always looking for new ways to have a more thorough grasp of the Bible, in my studies. Here’s a trick I picked up in Seminary that I’ve found very helpful, particularly with smaller books.

The idea is to create a “headline” for each chapter – a short, pithy statement of one or a few words that will help you remember the essential elements of that chapter. I’ve found this process drives me to read the chapter more carefully and to think carefully about what it says.

Here’s an example, using the book of Jonah:

Chapter 1 – Jonah Fled

Chapter 2 – Jonah Flung

Chapter 3 – Jonah Preaches

Chapter 4 – Jonah Pouts

See how those simple terms can tell you essentially the book of Jonah, or at least help you to remember the essential details. Here’s another example:

Habakkuk:

Chapter 1 – Listen up, God!

Chapter 2 – Shut up, Habakkuk!

Chapter 3 – Oh, I see, God.

You can make your own headings; there’s nothing sacred about these. But, read through those 2 books and see if you can think through them better with such headings in mind.

To give you a benchmark, I’m going to include my headings for some of the New Testament Epistles. From this, you can see what I’m trying to accomplish with these, I hope. Here are a couple of examples (I’ve done this for all the Epistles, and for some of the lengthy Old Testament prophets; and, I keep working on this for other books.) You can download my Headings for Epistles by going to the Resources Tab and looking for “Headlines for the Epistles”.

James:

Chapter 1 – True Faith Strengthens Properly

Chapter 2 – True Faith Shows Itself Properly

Chapter 3 – True Faith Speaks Properly

Chapter 4 – True Faith Sees Properly

Chapter 5 – True Faith Straightens Properly

Hebrews:

1 – A Better Messenger                          8 –  A Better Covenant

2 – A Better Man                                   9 –  A Better Sacrifice

3 – A Better Messiah                             10 – Final Sacrifice

4 – A Better Rest                                   11 – Faith Displayed

5 – A Better Priest                                 12 – Faith Disciplined

6 – A Better Refuge                                13 – Faith Developed

7 – A Better Priesthood

Try it for yourself; I think you’ll find it helpful, sharpening, and fun.