Attention and the Critical Study of Scripture
In economics, there is a principle that states that after a certain point, adding more time, effort, or money into any particular endeavor will result in smaller, incremental gains. It’s known as the law of diminishing returns. The idea is that the first steps in a project, an investment, or a hobby will bring dramatic results, whereas the deeper you get into it, the improvements will become more subtle, even marginal.
In the audiophile’s world—that is, someone who loves audio and audio equipment such as headphones, speakers, amps, DACs, etc.—this principle is very obvious. Start with a cheap pair of earbuds that cost around $20, and then move on to a pair of entry-level headphones of about $50–100, and the difference will be staggering. You’ll notice that the bass is tighter, more controlled. Vocals are much clearer and more forward. The soundstage is much wider, making the music literally feel “alive.” However, go from a $1000 pair of headphones to a pair of $5000 headphones and the differences will be more difficult to perceive, at least to the casual listener. The soundstage might be a tad wider, or the treble a touch smoother and airy. Whatever the differences, the casual listener will most likely not be blown away the same way they would be blown away by going from a cheap pair of earbuds to entry-level headphones. However, this is where the principle comes into play. To the trained ear, to the audiophile, these differences will make the investment worthwhile. The audiophile is not looking for transformation, but nuance.
There is a similar experience in the coffee world. If you are Hispanic, you’re probably familiar with instant coffee. Growing up, our parents would often boil some water, add a spoonful of instant coffee and sugar, and call it a day. Coffee, however, has so much more to offer. In the coffee hobby, if you buy freshly roasted beans, grind them yourself with a high-quality grinder, and use a method like pour-over, you’ll discover flavor profiles you never knew were possible. You’ll begin to notice top notes, middle notes, and undertones. You’ll taste nutty hints, fruity notes, and different levels of acidity. You’ll find an entirely new balance in the flavors.
The same dynamic, or principle, is at play when we study the biblical text critically, or at a much deeper and more committed level.
The Big Returns
Your first serious dive into the scriptures will bring with it enormous ROI (return on investment). You’ll discover grand narratives, like the story of Creation, the story of Israel, you will run into the voices of the prophets, the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, and the struggles of the early Christian church. The shift from a purely devotional reading of scripture to a historical study of scripture will feel like going from a pair of cheap earbuds to a higher quality pair of over-ear headphones, or like going from instant coffee to a cup of pour-over. The text will take on a new dimension of meaning and fulfillment. Context will make the sometimes vague parables of Jesus clear and poignant. Knowledge of the Greco-Roman world in which the New Testament was created will make Paul’s letters more vivid, more meaningful.
This is the stage where just about anybody, even the casual listener, will perceive dramatic results through the study of scripture.
The Smaller Returns
Once you’re past the stage of big returns, if you keep going, you’ll begin to notice that the changes start becoming smaller and smaller. Perhaps you start getting into textual criticism, a field of study that explores the different versions of a text in order to gain a better understanding of what a particular passage means or would have meant by trying to get at the original autographs. Maybe you get into the Synoptic Problem, where you would go much deeper into the literary relationship between the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. These subjects, which are usually of little interest to the casual reader or believer, admittedly won’t make a huge difference in your general understanding of scripture or Christian history, but what they will do is refine your reading and understanding of the text.
To most people, these refinements, or incremental improvements in reading and understanding, might seem like splitting hairs. The committed student of scripture, or the highly devoted believer, will find these refinements most rewarding. This is where, using our audiophile analogy, the soundstage gets just a tad wider. Using our coffee analogy, this is where you’ll start noticing the undertones of the coffee flavor profile.
The Role of Attention
Here’s where the economy of attention enters the picture. In today’s world, our most limited resource is not money but attention. With endless content at our fingertips, we’re trained to skim, scroll, and move on. But audiophile listening, coffee exploration, and critical Bible study demand something different: sustained attention.
If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll know by now that the law of diminishing returns does not say there is no value at the advanced levels, as we have been discussing. What it states is that at the deeper and more committed levels of any given endeavor, the value will come in subtler forms. Now, the thing with subtlety is that you have to be paying close attention to perceive it. You’ll hear the slightly wider soundstage, like an audiophile, because you’re paying special, closer attention to the music. The coffee drinker will taste notes that, at first glance, seem to be made up, because a regular person can have the same cup of coffee and only taste bitterness or sweetness, but nothing in between. This, again, is because the advanced coffee drinker has trained themselves to pay particular attention to the levels of notes in the bean and roasting. In similar fashion, the biblical scholar, or the passionate student of scripture, will notice nuances in the way particular passages of scripture can be read or understood because now they are reading closely, more attentively. This requires a lot of attention.
Attention turns what looks like a “small gain” into something profoundly meaningful. Without attention, you’ll never notice it.
Levels of Commitment
The amount of attention you are willing to pay to something at this advanced level will correlate with the amount of commitment you are willing to invest in it. For the casual listener, spending thousands on headphones is pointless. The differences won’t be heard or appreciated. For the casual coffee drinker, they are content with a cup of Dunkin’ and see no reason to invest in expensive coffee beans and equipment. But for the truly committed, their attention has been trained and refined. What once seemed insignificant now glows with meaning. The more closely you listen, taste, or read, the more those subtle increments will reward you.
The economy of attention explains why two people can sit in the same room, hear the same sound, drink the same coffee, or read the same verse, and come away with vastly different experiences. One hears noise, the other hears music. One tastes bitterness, the other tastes balance. One reads words, the other reads a living text.
Why It’s Worth It
It’s easy to dismiss diminishing returns as wasted effort. But in music, coffee drinking, and scripture, the joy is in the nuance. The closer you pay attention, the richer the experience becomes.
In fact, sometimes those small details ripple outward. A manuscript variant can shift the meaning of a passage. A cultural insight can unlock a parable. A subtle literary pattern can alter how we read an entire Gospel. Just as an audiophile’s tiny adjustment to sound can transform their enjoyment of music, or a coffee drinker’s brewing method can extract more flavor out of a bean, a reader’s careful attention to detail can reshape their understanding of the biblical story.
Conclusion
The law of diminishing returns shows us that the deeper we go, the more refined the gains become. The audiophile, the coffee enthusiast, and the biblical student are after the same thing: not dramatic transformations, but subtleties that reward their level of commitment and attention.
In this age of distraction, perhaps this is the most countercultural act we can perform: training ourselves to slow down, listen carefully, and notice the subtleties others will surely miss.
In this economy of attention, learn to see the law of diminishing returns not as a limitation but as an invitation. The more you commit, the more you pay attention, the more you discover.
To end, I love how the Amplified Bible presents Jesus’ words according to Matthew 4:24:
And He said to them, Be careful [how] you are hearing. The measure [of thought and study] you give [to the truth you hear] will be the measure [of virtue and knowledge] that comes back to you, and more [besides] will be given to you who hear.
Paying careful attention, not only to scripture, but to truth, knowledge, wisdom, and data/information, is a deeply rooted biblical principle.
