Education Week & Beyond

My friend has been posting her notes on the RS e-mail but I don't feel quite brave enough for that. Instead I'll post some of my most interesting notes here every so often; sending them out into the void :o)

One of my favorite instructors is Jerry Wilson (CES Logan Institute). I attend everything he does. This year I especially enjoyed his series on Getting the Most Out of Your Study of the Scriptures. A few highlights from The Language of the Scriptures Points us to the Principles and Precepts class:


1)He suggested looking up Quotations in the Bible Dictionary (p.756-759) and using a color for marking these in your scriptures. You then can clearly see how frequently people in the scriptures are quoting from other prophets/scriptures.

2) Use a new color for all of the Hebrew/JST's/Greek/IE that are listed in the footnotes. So you would go through the scriptures from page one, scanning the footnotes for these explanations of the meaning of words and underline them in the footnote and circle the superscript letter up in the verse. This is a huge undertaking and one of the most worthwhile things you could do to give clarity to your reading the scriptures. (Use a very fine pen/colored pencil so you don't cover the superscript letter in the verse- isn't that what those little letters are called?)
For example:Look at Moses 4:22 'thy husband shall rule over thee'. Look at the cross-reference Matthew 2:6(d) rule=tend, protect, nurture.
Isn't that a more interesting way to think about someone 'ruling' over other people in their stewardship? Spencer W. Kimball said that "words are sacred ships designed to carry cargoes of meaning". This activity really brings home that idea.
A follow-up to this activity would be to then plug in and cross-reference your new understanding of that word/verse to other verses you can think of where that word is also used (such as 'rule').


3)Be aware of key words/phrases which will probably be followed by
principles/truths/laws. For example:
I say unto you; and thus we see; I will show unto you;nevertheless (often followed by a mercy phrase); therefore; wherefore; inasmuch; if...then (sometimes it is an implied if/then, not the actual words "if...then"

Hope this inspires someone in their scripture study. Even if you feel you can't read a chapter or certain amount of time each day, you can always do a few pages of #2 activity.