The Long Train of Clauses

Have you ever noticed the length of some of the sentences in the Epistles? Some of them are packed with commas and clauses.  What's going on?  Is there an easy way to make it clear? 

To get our head around this, lets look at the benediction of Hebrews 13:20-21. Take a moment and open your Bible to Hebrews 13:20-12.  Read it a couple times. It will take less than a minute. 

What's the main point?  Among all those clauses we might be tempted to gravitate to our favorite parts.  Our pet theology and doctrines might not make it easy for us to see anything else. Some may love that it says God is the God of peace.  Some might like that Jesus is Lord and he's the great Shepherd of the sheep. Or maybe you're all about the blood of the eternal covenant and that all glory belongs to Jesus.  Or maybe you like that this benediction is to Jesus (which is kind of rare) and that the author is praying that you might be equipped to do God's will.  It might make you smile that doing God's will is pleasing to God.  But what is the main point of this little unit of thought?  

The epistles tend to get really packed with thoughts and most of the sentences end up crashing together in such a way that we might miss the main point.  Diagramming or mapping the paragraph helps.  If you can, diagramming in the original language might make it even clearer.  But you don't often need to go that far to get to the main point.  

Phrase diagramming is a tool that helps you map out the clauses.  And once you map them out, you get a better idea what each phrase and word is modifying.  After doing some phrase diagramming, you can walk through Hebrews 13:20-21 and get a better idea of what the author is getting at. 

What is the main point?  If I boiled all the modifying clauses off, what would I have left? 

"May the God of Peace equip you to do his will. Amen."

Now, what if I started adding the modifiers back into the thought.  To do this, the thought still has to remain complete.

Here's what's next.  

"May the God of Peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus equip you with everything good that you may to do his will. Amen."

As we can see, the God of Peace brought Jesus back from the dead.  We also see that what God equips us with do do his will is good, not bad, and by saying 'everything' we get the idea that it's complete. 

But now it's going to get a little more tricky.  Is the next clause modifying the original statement or the newest clause?  (Paul loves to continue modifying the modifiers! It's not so tough in Hebrews.) There is where lines and maps might help, but we can probably see it in this paragraph without lines and a map.  

 "May the God of Peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good that you may to do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight. Amen."

The 'great Shepherd of the sheep' is not pointing to the God of Peace but to Jesus, who is mentioned in the previous modifying clause.  It's a way of bringing even more clarity or praise.  The 'working in us that which is pleasing in his sight' clause is a description of how we will do God's will --Jesus or the God of Peace working in and through us.  

"May the God of Peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may to do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ. Amen."

The next clause, 'by the blood of the eternal covenant,' gives us a means.  How and maybe even a little why.  This clause points back to a great deal previously discussed in the book as a reminder, but it also is clarifying what is being said and connects it to the next part of the idea.  This is the final modifying clause before we move into the next part of the main idea (which you saw in the first pass above).  Interestingly, the modifying clause in the second part of the statement, 'through Jesus Christ,' is also an explanation of means.  This clause tells us how we are about do do God's will and why it is pleasing to God--because it is through Christ. 

Now the final modifier. 

"May the God of Peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may to do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen."

This last clause is a form of worship that brings the benediction into a form of a prayer and worship of Jesus and it is attached to the mention of Jesus in the previous modifying clause.  It's saying, this entire paragraph prayer is meant to glorify God forever.  

Now, I'll ask again. . . what is the main point?  Go back up to the first pass.

"May the God of Peace equip you to do his will. Amen."

This is an important prayer and statement.  As you start to ask questions such as who's will, why, how, and so-on, the modifying clauses help to provide you with more answers. However, those answers all must work within the confines of God equipping you to do his will. 

I hope you found this helpful.  And I pray that the God of Peace equips you to do his will!