Favorite Bible Chapters and the Inverse Square Law.
There are various derived laws from the algebraic inverse square law. I'm thinking of Price's Square Root Law and the Pareto Principle. They are EMPIRICAL principles--explaining, after the fact of watching closely, rather than PREDICTIVE laws--which would predict with precision the outcome of an experiment. Which is close enough for an after the fact explanation or making a general plan and trying your best to do something.
A similar law is the Bell Curve. Which says, in my folksy explanation, that most events or things we can measure will fall within a stone's throw from what almost everyone does. Dilly Dilly, for most, not the few®. (I do not drink, well, almost never--both to support my recovering friends and for my own good future. Yes, "Jesus drank wine, He and his disciples,"..."But he never hid the whiskey in the toilet!"--Cormac McCarthy, The Sunset Limited.)
They are universal--apply to everything. I have 9 grandchildren, and 50% of the time I spend with my grandchildren are with three in particular. How interesting.
Your Bible. If you are a regular but not systematic Bible reader, a few sections will be read much more than the rest. And that's ok.
We also have the example of lectionaries picking the favorites, and catechisms which select some themes as most important. So what to think? Here's my thought experiment.
The Bible has 1189 chapters.
20% (1189), about 238 The Pareto idea is that 238 chapters do 80% of the work.
Sq rt (1189), about 34 The Price Law idea is 34 chapters do 50% of the work.
A. The first draft, toward narrowing down the scriptures to that Sweet Spot selection.
MATTHEW 5, 6, 7, 27, 28 5
LUKE 1, 2, 24 3
JOHN 1, 3, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 7
ACTS 1, 2, 9 3
ROMANS 1 - 12. 12
1 CORINTHIANS 3, 7, 11-15 7
PHILIPPIANS 2 1
1 THESSALONIANS 4 1
1 TIM, 2 TIM, TITUS 3
HEBREWS 1-13 13
JAMES 1-5 5
REV 1-3, 19-22 6
subtot: 66 chapters
GENESIS 1-15 15
EXODUS 3 -20 17
JOB 1-42 42
PSALMS 1-150 150
PROVERBS 1-31 31
ISAIAH 6, 14, 35, 53 4
JEREMIAH 31 1
LAMENTATIONS 1-5 5
ZECHARIAH 14 1
MALACHI 3, 4 2
TOTAL: 334 too many (28%)
B. Next draft: Matt 5-7, John 1, 10, 14-17; Romans 1-12, Hebrews 1-13, [34 so far], James 1-5 Rev 1-3, 19-22; Genesis 1-8, Exodus 20, Isaiah 53, Zechariah 14, Malachi 3,4 which is 58 chapters, which is about [3* (sq rt 1189)] Plus all the Psalms and Proverbs 181 chapters added. Three times too large for the Price Square Root Law and it leaves out Ps and Pr.
C. Third draft: Added back Ps 22 (Suffering Servant), Ps 23 (heard in every Christian funeral I’ve ever attended), and Proverbs 31 (a devotional favorite, spoken to women but the mirror image of the rest of Proverbs directed to men).
Matt 5-7 3
John 1, 10, 14-17 5
Romans 1-8 8
James 1-5 5
Genesis 1-8 8
Exodus 20, 1
Isaiah 53 1
Psalm 22, 23 2
Proverbs 31 1 TOTAL: 34
The number works, but the selection doesn’t. Go to Fourth Draft.
D. Fourth draft: One friend mentioned that the three greatest events in history are not here: the Incarnation, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection. Also the revelation of God to Abraham. So I added back Luke 1 (Incarnation), Matthew 27 and 28 (the Crucifixion and Resurrection) and Genesis 11-20 (the story of Abraham).
Matthew 5-7, 27-28 5
Luke 1 1
John 1, 10, 14-17 5
Romans 1-8 8
James 1-5 5
Genesis 1-8, 11-20 18
Exodus 20 1
Isaiah 53 1
Psalm 22, 23 2
Proverbs 31 1
TOTAL: 47
The square of 47 is about twice the square of 34. But only 12 more chapters. I call it as a win.
But see below, "Why the short list is not enough."
A CONTRAST TO THE SELECT FEW CHAPTERS APPROACH.
It's all inspired, even the genealogies and strange visions. I'm not going to dispute with God about this.
For my personal Bible reading plan:
One chapter each day:
Genesis - Deuteronomy 27 weeks cycle
Joshua - Job 42 weeks cycle
Old Testament after Proverbs 33 weeks cycle
Gospels 13 weeks cycle
New Testament after Gospels 25 weeks cycle
And... Thanks Billy Graham for the tip--
Psalms 5 per day except
Ps 119 alone (on 25th of month) 1 month cycle (4 1/3 weeks)
Proverbs 1 per day 1 month cycle (4 1/3 weeks)
In practice, this works out to once or twice a year through the whole scriptures plus monthly through Psalms and Proverb. Also, in practice, this means that when I skip a day or a week, but come back to regular reading soon, that I'll still keep fresh with the whole Book. The system is forgiving toward not being able to always work the system. The truly biggest problem with this approach is that it takes about a half hour for everything except Psalms and Proverbs, another 15-20 minutes. It's justified because I feel a need to see things from God's point of view instead of any other point of view from culture, friends, or profession. It competes with daily responsibilities; which means that there is a real cost, and not a casual habit. It is feasible, able to be done; it's just not an automatic thing.
Also, this is broad and shallow reading. There is some advantage to broad and shallow, such as being reminded of the parts that you don't want to hear, and to be shaken out of a too narrow faith.
There is a time and place for deep, prolonged, concentrated reading on one verse at a time, or one word at a time, or one book at a time.
In the college Christian group to which I belonged, Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, we learned inductive Bible study and Bible memorization. I also learned them from Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ, then) and The Navigators. From all three, I learned the value of "front lines."
For a while during the 1980s, I read the book of Job one chapter a day, in addition to anything else, so that I might somehow understand the book. All Job's friends seemed to be right, so why did God say they were wrong? It took some time to understand (better) the difference between being having the right answers and being right before God.
Another time honored way of close reading is Lectio Divina, which too has great benefits.
One downside of all three methods is that we may easily hear what we want to hear without confronting God's word "against us."
Another downside to all methods of Bible reading-is that we might come to believe that the scriptures just dropped down from heaven, which they didn't. They emerged from the life of the people of God, and yes, are God-breathed. There's room for having a historical awareness and awareness of good ways of interpreting versus poor ways of interpreting scripture.
The upside to all methods of Bible reading is that if we see past the practice to see Jesus Christ, then frequent reading of scripture can be part of a complete life lived before God, across a complete lifetime, under the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
II. Some technical notes.
A. Applications of the Inverse Square Law
Price's square root law states that half of the literature on a subject will be contributed by the square root of the total number of authors publishing in that area.
The Pareto distribution, named after the Italian civil engineer, economist, and sociologist Vilfredo Pareto, is a power-law probability distribution that is used in description of social, scientific, geophysical, actuarial, and many other types of observable phenomena. Originally applied to describing the distribution of wealth in a society, fitting the trend that a large portion of wealth is held by a small fraction of the population, the Pareto distribution has colloquially become known and referred to as the Pareto principle, or "80-20 rule", and is sometimes called the "Matthew principle". This rule states that, for example, 80% of the wealth of a society is held by 20% of its population. However, the Pareto distribution only produces this result for a particular power value, (α = log45 ≈ 1.16). While α is variable, empirical observation has found the 80-20 distribution to fit a wide range of cases, including natural phenomena and human activities.
The Matthew effect, Matthew principle, or Matthew effect of accumulated advantage can be observed in many aspects of life and fields of activity. It is sometimes summarized by the adage "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer."[1][2] The concept is applicable to matters of fame or status, but may also be applied literally to cumulative advantage of economic capital.The term was coined by sociologist Robert K. Merton in 1968[3] and takes its name from the Parable of the talents or minas in the biblical Gospel of Matthew. Merton credited his collaborator and wife, sociologist Harriet Zuckerman, as co-author of the concept of the Matthew effect.[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_effect
My principles of selection.
In the first draft, I just called to mind parts of the Bible that seemed important somehow.
For later drafts, the principles were "what to believe" (orthodoxy); "what to do" (orthopraxy); who Jesus is and what he did taught; and scriptures that have been especially treasured in the larger body of Christ over centuries, inspiring piety, devotion, comfort and commitment to God.
B. What is not included, and why the short list is not enough.
The rest of Psalms is not (but should be) included because of proven help to prayer.
The rest of Proverbs should be included as the most basic instruction in how to live.
Hebrews should be included to explain who Jesus is and what he did.
Hebrews should also be included because of Heb 6:1,2 a list of the most basic topics of doctrine.
2 Peter 1 should be included because of the list of the most basic virtues of Christian life.
Almost all narratives are left out in deference to the interpretive passages that guide our understanding of the narratives (stories). Narratives inspire our faith, but doctrine guides our faith. This lack of narrative takes away many of the great children's stories and sources of inspiration, and cautionary tales.
Almost all the prophetic scriptures are left out, because prophecy is all about measuring the way we live against the way God wants us to live, and reprove us for not holding on to the very point of the standards during our lives. Both prophecy in this approach, and grace as an experience of life in the Holy Spirit, address this concern.
The prophetic scriptures should be included to focus our minds on final things on which we place our hope, Christ's return, our Blessed Hope; as well as the chastising that God brings to His children who nevertheless wander; and disasters that God ultimately brings on nations that harden their hearts against Him.
C. Please consider these three further readings.
Walter Bruggemann's The Creative Word: Canon As a Model for Biblical Education.
Tom Green's Voices: The Educational Formation of Conscience.
My own book, in a free download on Academia.edu, Practice Makes Perfect: Christian Education Viewed as Initiation Into a Practice. The idea is that Christianity is part of a complete way of life, and what that would mean.
