Analysis

Preaching the Canon

The Well preaches expositionally โ€” through books, passage by passage. These figures read the archive back: which texts have been worked through, which are reached for in support, and how far a sermon travels from the passage it is opening.

This is a partial view, and it will keep moving.706 sermons from 79 series have been transcribed and turned into essays โ€” 100% of the 707 in the archive, across79 catalogued series.

A book showing nothing here has not necessarily gone unpreached โ€” it may simply be further down the queue. Filled bars are evidence; empty ones are not.

706essays
8,093scripture citations
1285kwords
2005โ€“26years spanned
20teachers

Where the archive sits in the Bible

Every book in canon order, sized by length. A filled bar is the share of that book's chapters a sermon has worked through; an outlined one is quoted in support but not yet expounded.

Chapters preached throughQuoted, not yet expoundedNeither

See the full coverage map → for a chapter-by-chapter view of every book, including which chapters were quoted in passing rather than taught.

The load-bearing texts

Some books do most of their work in the margins โ€” quoted constantly to open other passages, while rarely or never being preached through themselves in what has been processed so far.

Citations supporting a sermon on another book
Proverbs
164 ยท 2 sermons
Galatians
118 ยท 1 sermon
1 Samuel
107 ยท 3 sermons
Philippians
105 ยท never
James
96 ยท 1 sermon
Deuteronomy
87 ยท 1 sermon

How far a sermon travels

Of the scripture quoted while preaching a book, how much comes from that book itself. A high share means the exposition stays in its passage; a low one means the text is opened mainly through other scripture.

Quoted from the book being preachedQuoted from elsewhere
Matthew
49% in-book
Genesis
60% in-book
Mark
71% in-book
Romans
66% in-book
Revelation
52% in-book
John
64% in-book
Hebrews
47% in-book
Luke
46% in-book
1 Timothy
29% in-book
Ephesians
53% in-book
Colossians
50% in-book
Joshua
47% in-book

The lowest figures are the most telling: a book preached almost entirely through other scripture is being read in light of the wider canon rather than expounded line by line.

Which way the citations run

Old Testament citationsNew Testament citations
Preaching an Old Testament text
70% OT
Preaching a New Testament text
13% OT

Processed sermons, by year preached

This tracks the transcription queue as much as the preaching calendar.

2005
27
2008
1
2009
13
2010
13
2011
17
2012
11
2013
58
2014
42
2015
43
2016
52
2017
50
2018
38
2019
44
2020
43
2021
47
2022
46
2023
47
2024
44
2025
43
2026
34

The passages the archive returns to

How these numbers were made

Preached means a sermon's primary passage covers that chapter โ€” the text it worked through. Quoted means the passage appears as a block quotation in the essay. They are counted separately on purpose: a citation is not an exposition.

A sermon's passage comes from the archive's own catalog, or from its title. It is never inferred from an essay's citations โ€” expository essays paraphrase their own text and quote the supporting cross-references, so counting citations would name the wrong book. 67 sermons record no passage at all, and a further 47 name a book without a chapter โ€” a survey series working through a whole book at a time. Neither contributes to the coverage figures, which need a chapter.

Every figure recomputes when the site builds, so this page tracks the archive as it grows.