Note Taking - Reprise

I posted an audio-visual file on Saturday regarding some note taking ideas. I hated it. So I deleted it and decided that I will stick with writing for now. If I try a video again I will find a way to record my face while I am talking. My hypothesis is that my face might distract you from the boring drone of my voice. But that is an experiment for another day. For now let us focus on the experiment of organizing Genesis. (Note: you can click on the images to make them larger.)

What you are currently looking at is my attempt to make some sense of Genesis. As you will notice, I have divided my observations into three different categories to help make as many internal connections as possible. Each of these green squares opens up to reveal different categories. I will share two of the most fruitful ones with you.

"These are the generations"... proved to be a very interesting way to make connections in the book of Genesis. It divides the book into nice chunks and gives me easy landmarks to recognize and organize the book.

Looking at common words in Genesis is not so much a way to structure the book into large chunks as it is a way of making connections throughout the book. Looking for key words is an excellent way to connect one story with another as a way of committing the stories to memory. For example, in my notes, you will notice that the yellow bubbles record God's blessings to people, places, or things whereas the purple records people blessing other people (the red one is a curious use of the word for blessing that I will not go into here). One link that I had never made before is the blessing of God given to Laban's household and Potiphar's--the Egyptian's--household. What connects these two things is that, in both cases, God blesses the households because of his relationship with Jacob or Joseph respectively. Now, whenever I think of the Laban story I will think of Joseph in Potiphar's house and vice versa; it is an excellent way to commit things to memory!

These are just a few examples of how you might go about taking notes. However, do not feel pressure to make them so detailed. In this read through, you should just be making some rudimentary connections.

Here is the one thing that I want you to do: after you finish Genesis tomorrow, complete this sentence, "I think Genesis is about...". I want you to give a hypothesis of what you think Genesis is about and here is why. When you approach a book with an idea of what it is trying to communicate, it changes the way you read; it gives you a strategy. My hope is that, after we have completed one cycle, we can all take someone's hypothesis that we find intriguing and use it as a tool to read Genesis the next time through, noting weaknesses and strengths as we go. Having this kind thing to focus on will really help you when you start to get into the last half of Exodus and Leviticus, trust me.

So after tomorrow, respond to this post with your hypotheses and we will see what happens.