A New Challenge

Hannah @ Here in the Lovely Woods really slayed me with our last sentence diagram challenge.

This is Ephesians 1:3-6 (NKJV)

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,  having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.”

I decided to treat “God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” as a title instead of diagramming it out (which was probably just lazy of me…).

This diagram precipitated a lovely discussion about nominative adjectives, passive verb phrases, and the subjunctive mood. Do you think ‘blessed’ is a nominative adjective/subject complement, or is it part of a verb phrase? My really intellectual (not) answer is that when one pronounces ‘blessed’ with two syllables then it is an adjective (e.g. in the first clause), and when one pronounces it with one syllable then it is a verb (e.g. in the second clause).

Some of the prepositional phrases were quite tough to place. Sentence diagramming does wonders as an inductive Bible study method. {grin}

I also left out two words accidentally. Did you notice? I didn’t until I had already taken a picture and posted it. Then I was too lazy to fix it because this was the 6th or 7th attempt at writing it out, and I was not in the mood to fix it!! I really do know where those missing words belong, I promise.

ANYWAY, I think it is time for a new challenge. One not quite as tough as Ephesians 1:3-6. Please consider giving it a try. If you need a crash course in diagramming, try this link (the top half of the page scrolls, so don’t miss all the great examples). Your diagram doesn’t have to be perfect. Any attempt gets points (not that we’re giving scores—ha!).

Here are the three options. The first and last (and part of a middle) sentences of The Declaration of Independence:

"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."

Okay, that might be as tough as Ephesians 1:3-6. Here is an easier option:

"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."

If you are just beginning, give this sentence a try:

“He has plundered our seas.”

If you feel like sharing your diagram, email me a picture at heidi (at) poetsgarden (dot) com. I’d love to see any and all attempts!