Reading The Bible Like Sherlock

In 8th grade this week we are finishing up our second Sherlock Holmes story. A few weeks ago we read The Hound of Baskerville and tomorrow we will finish The Sign of Four. I came across this article from The Gospel Coalition (which if you don't read you should-they are excellent!) and couldn't wait to incorporate it into today's class.


Image result for sherlock holmes clipart

You can find the full article at the link above, but it basically gives the reader ten tips (which include quotes from Holmes) about how to dive into scripture and observe like Sherlock. Below is an example (tip # 2):

2. The kind of looking that solves mysteries.
Holmes: “You have frequently seen the steps which lead up from the hall to this room.”
Watson: “Hundreds of times.”
Holmes: “Then how many are there?”
Watson: “How many? I don’t know!”
Holmes: “Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, because I have both seen and observed.”
There is a difference between reading a Bible verse and observing it. Observation is a way of collecting details contained in a passage. As you read and reread the verses, pull the words into your brain where you can think about them and figure them out.
This habit will shed light on how you understand the text, even if the passage is as familiar as the stairs in your house.

As a class, we read through each tip and discussed them briefly. Then I handed them a printout of Luke 14 and had them focus on verse 26: 
"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple." 
They had to work with their table partner and try to "solve the mystery" presented in verse 26. What is Jesus really saying in this verse? They were tasked with using the ten tips from the article to help uncover the mystery. 
We spent the last few minutes of class discussing what they uncovered. They looked at the rest of the passage (tip #7) and even considered the rest of the Bible. What else does Jesus say about this issue (tip #5)? We discussed Matthew 6:24 and how it relates to this topic. Some of them noticed that certain words (like disciple) are mentioned multiple times and therefore must be important. 
I had them turn in their papers at the end of class and below are a few of their responses:
"If we put others before Christ or in the place of Christ, we cannot follow Him. We need to value God more than our families. We need to value God more than our life. If we want to give our life to Christ we must put Him first."
"God is just saying that he wants you to give everything up and only live for Him. I feel this way because God says this in other parts of the Bible. He also encourages us to drop everything and follow Him."

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"The Pearl" - A lesson on parables

Image
We recently began reading The Pearl , by John Steinbeck in 8th grade English. For those who haven't read it (I hadn't before last week), The Pearl is a a short story (novella) that is also a parable. As the gospels are full of parables, I thought this would be an excellent opportunity for deeper biblical integration. While biblical integration is something I try to do to some extent in every class, the kind of biblical integration that encompasses an entire class period can only be done ever so often. Today was one of those days. I began by breaking the students into groups of three and then had each group select one of the following three parables from Matthew: Parable of the Sower - Matthew 13:1-9 Parable of the Weeds - Matthew 13: 24-30 Parable of the Talents - Matthew 25: 14-30 Yesterday in class, we discussed the definition of a parable as well as some of the key characteristics that all parables have. Today, with that information fresh in their minds, eac...
Read more

How do you do it all virtually?

Image
I work at a classical Christian school. We tend to stray from a any significant use of technology in the classroom.  Our students are not allowed to have their phones in school.  Last month, our parent teacher association hosted an event for parents to better understand the negative effects of screen time on adolescents.  We're big on discussion, Socratic circles, and relationship building. Today we started teaching online because the governor closed all the schools in Virginia through the end of the school year. We took last week off to prepare and plan. We had 8 days to go from a school that intentionally does not embrace technology to a school that is teaching 100% through distance learning.  What. An. Adjustment.  So how do you maintain a classical model while teaching virtually? Here are some suggestions...but I'd love to do hear your thoughts as this is incredibly new for me.  Diversify the assignments: We know that stud...
Read more

Interviewing, Esther, Moses, and Argument

Image
One of our goals this year for our dialectic grades (7th-9th) is to incorporate the "art of argument" into the classroom. While the students take a logic class during this time, we want them to articulate, defend, and persuade outside of that course as well. So what does this look like outside of a formal logic course?   In personal finance this week, the class is learning about interviewing and resume writing. The essential question for the day is: " What is the purpose of an interview?" As I initially thought about how to biblically integrate this lesson, I did a google search of "interviews and the Bible". As you can imagine, I didn't' come up with much. Mostly, there were links to Bible verses that might encourage you before heading into an interview...not exactly what I was going for.   But then I thought about how often God "hired" a particular individual for an important job. What is that, if not an interview? That got me thin...
Read more