Guidelines for Exegesis

Guidelines for Exegesis

1.  Read the assigned text in several versions of the Bible from the following list:

New International Version (NIV)

American Standard Version (ASV)

New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

New Jerusalem Bible (NJB)

New English Bible (NEB)

Common English Bible (CEB)

TANAKH (the English version of the Hebrew Bible published by the Jewish Publication Society)

List the versions you have used.  Note any significant differences.  A significant difference is one which changes your understanding of the passage.

2.  What questions do you have about this text? (I have suggested some questions below, but what are your questions?)

3. What is your first guess as to what this text is about?  Do you have any biases or preconceived notions about the text that come from previous encounters with the text?

Make a first try at developing a thesis and writing an introduction.

(Contextual Analysis)

4.  Look at the historical context of the text.  What do you think might have been the main purpose or meaning of the text for the time in which it was written?

5.  Are there other stories that remind you of this one?  For instance, if there is a well in the story, how does this passage compare to other well stories?

6.  Are there clues in the text as to the situation out of which this passage might have arisen?

7.  Literary Context: What comes right before and right after in the narrative?  How does the context enhance your understanding?  “Analyzing the literary context means asking where a text is located; analyzing the rhetorical context means asking why a text is located where it is.” (Gorman, 70)

8. Formal Analysis.  What is the form of the text? What is the genre of the text?  Can you outline the movement (plot) of the text? How does the narrator use plot, characterization, dialogue, etc.?

9. Detailed Analysis.   Look carefully at every sentence, phrase, word!  Why does the text say it this way instead of another way?  How does each detail contribute to the whole?  See Gorman pp 93-94 for a list of questions.

10.  Synthesis.  What do you think the main point of the passage is?  Write a first draft of the paper; do this BEFORE looking at the commentaries.  Remember that you are attempting to support your thesis throughout the paper.  You will not use everything you have learned; you will use whatever information is relevant to your main point.

11.  Read the relevant sections of at least two approved commentaries.

Use the commentaries to see why the significant differences occur in the translations.  Usually they occur because the Hebrew is difficult to translate.  Also use the commentary to get background information on customs, geographical issues, political and anthropological details, and explanations of Hebrew words.  Many commentaries will not give a final interpretation of a passage; that is your job.

12.  Write a final interpretation.  Don’t worry if you see more than one possible interpretation, or if your interpretation differs from that of another student or a commentary.  God can speak in multiple ways through the same text!

13.  Think about some ways in which this text might relate to the issues in your congregation and note these.