What is Pattern Analysis?
Since 2016, God has led me on a journey to develop a deeper and more meaningful way to read the Scriptures called Pattern Analysis. This is the study of pericopes (pronounced pur-ic’-o-pee, not to be confused with the word periscope), units of literature such as stories, poetic pieces, or prophecies. Pattern Analysis is the study of pericopes—how they are organized and how they persuade—in an innovative approach that builds on and adds to commonly held practices. The result is a consistent methodology to discern the emphatic voice of the Holy Spirit throughout the entire Bible.
The story of Christ's three temptations from beginning to end is a pericope, also known as a literary unit. This methodology identifies the demarcation, the literary structure, and the rhetorical significance (the way of persuasion) for each pericope.
A draft of the manuscript, Pattern Analysis Methodology, has been completed and is awaiting scholarly review (Pattern Analysis Files).
The Methodology
This project began in 2016 after reading Jerome Walsh's Style and Structure in Biblical Hebrew Narrative (Liturgical Press, 2001). It expanded Walsh's Genesis to Esther methodology to the entire Bible and made some substantial modifications. Software was developed for input, analysis, and presentation of each pericope.The first part of the methodology, the demarcation, identifies the beginning of each literary unit and key locations within. The structural analysis, the second part, is where related portions of the text are documented. The correct name for these portions is elements. The rhetorical third part presents persuasive and convicting parts of the text.
The output of each analysis is an HTML web page such as:
1 John 4:7-19 – An imperfect chiasm
Acts 9:32-43 – A parallel symmetry
Daniel 5:1-30 – An immediate repetition
Results
The result is a fresh and beneficial approach to the Bible. So far, all of the New Testament, the minor prophets, and the Torah have been analyzed. Some of the larger Old Testament books are not yet completed. That is, 84% of the Bible or 26,000 of the total 31,000 verses have been analyzed and all conform to this methodology.This approach presents surprisingly strong evidence that the Holy Spirit used consistent verse-by-verse methods to inspire the Bible. That is, the structural organization and placement of persuasive thoughts are in the same predictable locations. Once the literary structure is determined, the search for persuasion begins based on potential locations within it.
Most recently, the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) were completed. An analysis was then performed to see how each of forty (40) literary devices compares across the nine (9) genres: Frequencies for All Literary Devices. By comparing the Torah with the New Testament books, very strong consistency may be seen. Rather than looking at the books Moses supposedly wrote as different voices than the New Testament, a more consistent perspective of the Bible may now be considered.
Directions
There are at least three areas where this work should be helpful. First, that the Bible's relevance would be enhanced. Today it is too common to hear people state that, because men wrote and/or altered the Bible, it is not trustworthy. If we can confidently show there is one consistent but complex thought process from Genesis to Revelation, the question of how it was written should take a sudden turn. Pattern analysis presents compelling evidence that these authors heard the thematic voice of the Holy Spirit, for "all Scripture is inspired by God" (2 Timothy 3:16). The result should be that the Bible will be viewed as much more relevant because God somehow spoke to these men.My second hope is that this methodology will be well-accepted by academia. My manuscript, Pattern Analysis Methodology, awaits scholarly review.
My third hope is that Bible students will use this methodology for their own analyses of the text. The Pattern Analysis Software, currently a laptop version, should be modified for use through the internet. Workbooks are envisioned that should help people grow in their understanding and inspiration from the text.
You may email me at Tom@ThomasBClarke.com.