KEEPING THE BIBLE IN FRAME

Do you think about how to emphasize certain words and phrases when you write?

Novelist Jodi Picoult uses different fonts, boldface, and italics to enhance her stories. Our keyboards overflow with emojis, bullet points, arrows, and punctuation. How do you set things apart in your own writing?

Now imagine you couldn’t use any of those tools.

The earliest copies of the New Testament were written in a similar style: continuous lines of capital letters, with no spaces, verse numbers, or punctuation. So when you read the Bible in your own language—with paragraphs, chapters, verse numbers, section headings, and punctuation—you’re seeing how translators and editors have broken up and organized that plain block of text.

Careful readers pay attention to grammar and syntax, but they also look for big-picture literary signals. One tool ancient authors used was a “frame”—matching scenes or ideas at the beginning and end of a passage—to draw attention to what sits at the center.

Recently I’ve been exploring two framed stories in the Bible: Acts 12:1–25 and Mark 6:7–37.

In Acts 12, Peter’s miraculous escape from prison (vv. 6–19) forms the center. Surrounding it are two scenes involving King Herod. In vv. 1–5, Herod attacks the church, killing the apostle James and arresting Peter. In vv. 20–25, Herod himself dies a gruesome death, eaten by worms from the inside out. The humility of James and Peter sharply contrasts with Herod’s pride and extravagance.

Within these bookends, Peter’s escape is framed. At night he sees a vision; an angel frees him from his chains and leads him out. Peter then goes to the believers to share what has happened, but they struggle to believe him. Even though they had been praying earnestly, they seem to have very little expectation that God would actually intervene. The deliverance feels too good to be true—until it isn’t.

In Mark 6, Jesus sends out the Twelve to preach and heal in his name (vv. 7–13), and later they return and report what they’ve done (vv. 30–32). Their going and coming form the frame for the story of Herod beheading John the Baptist (vv. 14–29).

So why are these middle stories framed in this way? How do the outer scenes help us read what’s at the center?

Answering that requires slow, thoughtful reading—and that’s intentional. The frame is part of the author’s strategy. It invites you to ponder: What connects the middle story to the outer ones? Are there shared or contrasting characters? Repeated words or themes? Shifts in setting or circumstance? What changes from one side of the frame to the other?

Take Mark 6 as an example. The disciples go out and then return. This is their first mission trip, and it’s short because they are told to travel light. When they come back tired, Jesus leads them to a quiet place to rest. But the crowds keep coming. Seeing them as sheep without a shepherd, Jesus steps in as their shepherd—teaching them and then feeding them through the miracle of the loaves and fish.

The disciples are in training. They’re learning what it means to participate in Jesus’ ministry. Right in the middle of that training sequence, the scene shifts to John the Baptist. John, a faithful herald of Jesus, is executed precisely because he tells the truth. He remains faithful unto death because he sees clearly who Jesus is and refuses to compromise.

Herod, by contrast, is supposed to be a shepherd-like king for his people, yet he lacks integrity and courage. He fears his guests and his own reputation more than God. His spinelessness stands in stark contrast to Jesus, the true shepherd-king, who leads with compassion and authority and even uses his weary disciples to feed the crowd.

Once you recognize that biblical authors use frames, you can start looking for them. Sometimes they’re as small as a few paired lines in a psalm; other times they span entire narrative sections like Acts 12 or Mark 6. As you trace these structures for yourself, you’ll see new patterns and themes—and those discoveries will draw you into deeper worship and praise of God.