2. Using the 9 items to consider when reading sentences as listed in chapter 3 of
Grasping God's Word (i.e., repetition of words, contrasts, comparisons, lists, cause and
effect, figures of speech, conjunctions, verbs, pronouns), list as many observations as you
can find in Acts 1:8. You may list these by noting what category the item falls under (e.g.,
"contrasts") and then offering an example of that item. For example, an observation
would be to note that the sentence starts off with the conjunction "but," which connects
the sentence to the one above it in a contrasting matter. This item could be listed under
both "conjunctions" and "contrasts." We will follow the basic instructions for this
assignment as given on page 64 of your text. Do not offer an interpretation or an
application of the text. At this point I want you to list as many of the 9 items as you can
find. How do you think this exercise helps you to understand the text better? What did
you discover that you did not already notice about this passage?
Let us start with the verse that needs to be observed according to Duvall’s 9 things to
look in the sentence.1 Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you:
and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all of Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of
the earth.”2 The first step in making observations about a sentence is to see if there are any
repetition of words. In this verse the word “you” is repeated 3 times. The second step is to look
for any contrasts, and in this verse is one contrasting statement, it starts will the word “But” to
show the disciples would only get the power, when the Holy Spirit came upon them. Third is
comparisons, which there are no comparisons in this verse. Fourth, Duvall asks us to look for
any lists in the verse, in Acts 1:8 there is a list “in Jerusalem, and in all of Judea, and in all of
Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” There is a cause and effect in this verse, the cause is “you
will receive power”, effect “when the Holy Spirit comes.” Another cause and effect is “when the
1 Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays Grasping God’s Word (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan,2014),54
2 Unless otherwise stated, all Bible references are from the New International Version (Colorado Springs:
Biblica, 2011), accessed March 30, 2016, http://www.biblica.com/.
Holy Spirit comes”, “you will be my witnesses.” There are no figures of speeches in this verse,
as a figure of speech are expressions that convey and image.3 Conjunctions are terms that joins
units together, this verse has a lot.4 For example, “But” is a conjunction that is connecting the
past sentence with this new one. “And” is another conjunction that connects when the Holy Spirit
comes in you “and” you will be my witnesses. The “and” is connecting the two sentences
together in order to show the cause and effect. The conjunction “and” also connects all the place
that the reader will become a witness to, Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria. Next, we must find the
verbs in this verse, the first verb in this verse is “will receive”. This verb is future tense as it had
not happened yet, it is also a passive verb. “Will be” is another future, passive verb. “Comes” is
the last verb in this verse and it is an active future tense verb. The last observation that Duvall
asks us to make is to look for any pronouns. There are 4 pronouns in this specific verse, they are
the word “you” which shows that this verse is an antecedent for the reader. The last pronoun is
“my” which shows a possessive antecedent for witnesses.
This exercise helped me in looking more closely at the details of the verse, how every
word just flows and connects to the next one. I never had read a verse like that before, usually I
read fast to just get the quick meaning of what God through the author was trying to tell or teach
me, but now I am seeing that I was missing huge parts of wisdom from God by doing this. As our
authors stated , “God wants to have a deeper and more mature conversations with you, but if you
are tied to superficial and surface readings of the Bible or if you always assume that you have
already seen and understood all there is, then your relationship with God will tend to stay at the
same level”5 It is helping me to slow down and really connect with the passage or verse, to grow
more maturely in my studying of Scripture. I had not noticed before the cause and effect of the
3 Ibid,. 58
4 Ibid,. 59
5 Ibid,. 52
