When I was in high school, we dissected rabbits to study their internal organs. When I was in medical school, we dissected cadavers to learn human anatomy. To study the components of a biblical passage, we will need to break it apart. The composition (writing) of a passage is the putting together of different elements to create the passage. The De-composition refers to the breakdown of the passage into its main parts. This would allow us to study its parts better and to understand more fully the structure or relationships that hold it together.
For a great resource on Bible study, consider my book, Inductive Bible Study.
The word composition is derived from the Latin com, which means “together; with; joint; jointly” and pōnere, which means “to put.” Therefore, to compose means to put together or to join with. A composition brings (or puts) things together; places them in relation to other things to form relationships and connections that result in a complete work of art. In this case, it is a book. However, all production of works of art follows the same laws. In the composition of a book, for example, words are put in relation to other words to create sentences; sentences are put in relation to other sentences to create paragraphs; paragraphs are put in relation to other paragraphs to create segments; segments are put in relation to other segments to create sections; sections are put in relation to other sections to form divisions; divisions are placed in relation to other divisions to create an entire book. Therefore, composing is placing things in relationships with similar things to produce something of a higher order and then placing those things in relation to others of its kind to create even higher orders of complexities that lead eventually to the creation of a composition. Composing is creating relations. Thinking of a composition, then, brings to the mind “the fact or reality” of the totality and unity of relationships created while thinking of the word structure refers to “the specific ways things relate to one another in a given passage or book. The issue of structure involves, then, the question of how things within a literary unit relate to one another, how they are arranged.”[i]
Imagine that you have been asked to study an unfamiliar machine. To do so, you get out your toolbox and break it down into its constituent parts. After spending some time studying each part, you reassemble the machine. If you do that, you will have an understanding of the machine that is much deeper than you would ordinarily attain by simply studying the exterior of the machine. You will understand how it was built. Such an understanding will help you better appreciate how it is intended to be used. The way a machine is designed determines how it will be used. Form determines function. Imagine again that you go on a hike and find an animal standing on all four legs. It looks heavy and does not have any wings. You will immediately know that it couldn’t fly. It’s not a bird.
On the other hand, a little later, you find a small agile creature with a long beak and wings with feathers. You will immediately know that it can fly. It has to be some kind of bird. How it is built determines how it will function. Again, form determines function. In other words, structure determines function.[ii] To put it in yet another way, structure determines purpose.
Why does the structure or form of creatures determine their function? They are created intentionally and designed on purpose by an intelligent designer who works in them and through them to communicate his purpose for making them. Written works don’t arise spontaneously. Like a watch, they are crafted by an intelligent designer. They don’t evolve through random changes or mutations from the minds of the writers. Like any form of art or creation, all good literature is a cohesive, purposeful work created by a rational person and follows the laws of logic, the laws of grammar, and the laws of literary structure. That is not only true of literature but all art forms and all created works.
It is also not limited to some cultures. These rules cut across all cultures and across all times. Human communication follows certain logical rules. It is what Moses Stuart would call a law of our “rational, intelligent, communicative nature.”[iii] Henry O. Taylor writes, “Art is not spontaneous, but carefully intended; it is a mutual fitting of form and content into an efficient unison created by the artist’s intellect.”[iv]
Writing is an art form, and Taylor’s observation holds very true to literary works as well. Writers may not be aware that they follow these rules in their literary work. Nevertheless, they are them. How can they do so? Because the acquisition of these rules of logic, grammatical, and literary structure is part of their genetic makeup and the cultural and educational formation that every communicative person goes through. Both nature (genes) and nurture (environments) prepare us to communicate following these rules or laws.[v] In fact, that is the only reliable way that communication can happen. We follow these rules unconsciously all the time. And, the fact that we follow them unconsciously doesn’t make the work that we produce any less conformed to the rules than if we were consciously aware of it. Unconscious does not mean unintelligent.
[i] David R. Bauer and Robert A. Traina, Inductive Bible Study: A Comprehensive Guide to the Practice of Hermeneutics (Ada: Baker Academic, 2011), 65.
[ii] Structure determines function is a well-known biological principle. It is also expressed as “form follows function” or “form determines function” and is also used in modernist architecture and industrial design in the 20th century. The principle is that the shape of a building or object should be primarily based upon its intended function or purpose.
[iii] D. R. Dungan, Hermeneutics: A Textbook (Delight, AK: Gospel Light Publishing, 1950), chapter iv, https://webfiles.acu.edu/departments/Library/HR/restmov_nov11/www.mun.ca/rels/restmov/texts/ddungan/hatb/HATB04.HTM.
[iv] Henry O. Taylor, The Medieval Mind: A History of the Development of Thought and Emotion in the Middle Ages, Vol. 1 (London: MacMillan and Co., Limited, 1911), chapter 1, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/43880/43880-h/43880-h.htm. This quote has been paraphrased to make it easy to read by today’s readers.
[v] Research has shown that over 90% of the decisions we make are done using our unconscious mind. The unconscious mind has been trained to follow these laws in communication.
