Comments on: Agassiz and the Fish

By: Dustin Greenup

Dustin Greenup — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:15:07 +0000

After reading this, I was challenged to help my son learn to observe the picture books he reads with great detail.
http://greenupfamily.blogspot.com/2009/11/how-wheres-waldo-can-help-me-understand.html

By: Bob Kuo

Bob Kuo — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:54:44 +0000

I read this in “Grasping God’s Word” by Duvall and Hays, and undergraduate text in Hermeneutics.

By: Ryan Boyer

Ryan Boyer — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:41:57 +0000

Like Eugene, I heard it as a student at Gordon-Conwell, though from Sean McDonough rather than Hafemann. I still use it when teaching Bible study methods in my church.

By: Eugene

Eugene — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:17:36 +0000

Scott Hafemann gives this story in his exegesis courses at Gordon-Conwell.

By: Jonathan P

Jonathan P — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:50:03 +0000

Tom Steller is still talking about Agassiz and the Fish:)

“Look, look, look”

By: Tim Keller

Tim Keller — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:41:46 +0000

Justin –

When I was a new Christian, I was given this article to read as part of a retreat designed to teach us how to study the Bible. Then we were asked to sit and study one verse–Mark 1:17–for at least 30 minutes. We were asked to write down every observation about the verse we could think of. “Try to have a list of 50+ observations,” we were charged. We were told (rightly) that after about 10 minutes we would feel that we’d seen all there was to see, but we were to persevere. So we did. Then our teacher called us together and asked us to pick out the one most remarkable and life-changing observation we had discovered. We circled it. Then we were asked “Those of you who found that No#1 insight after 5 minutes, raise your hand.” No one raised their hands. “10 minutes.” No one raised their hands. “15 minutes.” A couple of hands. Nearly everyone had discovered their deepest insight only after pushing well beyond the point at which they had thought there was nothing else to see.

By: Mike Francis

Mike Francis — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:34:03 +0000

Should be required reading in every hermeneutics, exegesis and homiletics labs in seminary.

By: Wesley

Wesley — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 07:37:21 +0000

It goes w/o saying, i think, that the study of the Scriptures at any depth is in vain – as Christ said of the Pahrisees – unless the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to the truths therein.
That being said, it is a sad rebuke of today’s fast-paced society that the idea of such painstaking study of anything sounds foreign to our ears – like anything more than a quick ‘google search’ is a task for seminarians! It reminds me of a quote by Spurgeon who once said, “I would rather lay my soul asoak in a half dozen verses all day than rinse my hand in several chapters.” May we all be so dilligent in the searching out the boundless, unsearchable riches of God’s Word. amen.