Kurios (greek for lord/master) would, for example, be written out in full when refering to a human master, but contracted to KS + a line over it when refering to Jesus.

One other thought: the word accidental is an interesting choice. If the Holy Spirit brings a particular passage to my attention, that is not an accident, it is an opportunity to ponder and meditate upon its meaning. I am not elevating that passage above any other, but I receive insight I might have otherwise missed.

Good question and great comments. We’re in the deep end of the pool with this one….

I was poking fun as well. ;) After looking at my post again, I see that didn’t come out clearly.

It seems a bit like reading Cliff Notes instead of reading the novel.

You changed my example. I might actually agree with you that the first part of 1 John is a more critical moment in Scripture than Rom 1 — and that’s not a hermeneutical issue. You can’t change the example and expect me to say, ‘well, that means my example falls apart and then I have to change my mind.”

However, the hermeneutical issue is whether or not we can read whay was written the way the writer intended it to be read. And in that, we have to recognize the critical moments for what they are — which, I reiterate, is an underscoring of how critical some other part of Scripture is.

Thanks for the link. Even though I was originally poking fun at that kind of idea, I bet it could be really useful for certain types of studies.

I think there might be something psychological, however, about reading a pre-coded Bible. The colors (or symbols) seem more authoritative when they are professionally printed than when they are hand marked.