Who Does “He” Mean? Track Pronoun Referents in a Bible Passage
Resolve pronouns from the nearest plausible person, grammar, action, and surrounding sentences. Draw the connection you can support and mark ambiguity when the passage does not settle it.
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Bibleward · Updated
Reading orientation
List the people before the pronouns
Write each named person in the scene and note when someone enters, leaves, speaks, or acts. Then circle pronouns. This prevents a familiar interpretation from replacing the local sentence as your first evidence.
The chapter repeatedly moves among Samuel, Eli, and the LORD. For each 'he' or 'him,' test the nearby named subject, the action that follows, and the current speaker. Draw an arrow only when those clues support the connection.
Translations may repeat a name where another uses a pronoun. Compare them after mapping the scene so the comparison clarifies a specific ambiguity. A wording difference can reveal the problem; it does not by itself prove which interpretation is best.
For five practice lines, give the likely antecedent and one reason. Use 'ambiguous from this sentence' when more context is needed. This page is narrower than the dialogue guide: it maps grammatical reference rather than every turn in a conversation.