Exegesis

You are the exegete

• The one who explores
• The one who questions
• The one who researches
• The one who draws conclusions

Exegetes are

• Curious
• Disciplined
• Fearless
• Not loners, but good conversationalists across time with experts both living and dead

Understanding "Criticism"

• Not skeptical or negative, but analytical
• Literary, grammatical, historical, social-scientific
• transformative: canonical, theological, ideological

Historical Criticism

• What was going on in the background?
• What cultural issues are in play?
• What other sources are informing the writing?
• What traditions are in place?
• What did the message mean to the original audience?
• Social-Scientific is a subset: mindset, politics, economic conditions, etc.

Literary Criticism

• What's the genre: poetry, parable, prayer, letter, narrative, speech, history, biography, proverb?
• What's the tone: instructive, humorous, corrective, etc.?
• Who is the audience of the book and pericope?
• What are the literary devices: metaphors, parallelism, imagery, etc.?
• What is the intended outcome for the original audience and/or the reader?

Grammatical/Lexical Criticism

• What words are used and what is the original language meaning?
• What is the structure of the passage? What do the connecting words imply (therefore, yet, and)?
• Are there idioms or quotations?
• What's the relationship between the words? Repetitions? Parallelism? Introjections?

Transformative

• Meaning relative to whole of Scripture
• Theological context
• Application
• Lens of doing the Word: redemption, social change, justice or other agenda

ASSIGNMENT

• Close reading
• Contextual reading
• Multiple translation reading
• Commentary reading
• Textbook reading
• Parallel text reading (books about

Introduction

• What's the passage you've selected?
• Why is it important/interesting?
• What questions will you address?How will you address the passage and write the paper?

Historical Questions

• Describe the author and audience of the book
• List important people, places, ideas, or customs in the passage and give background information on each

Literary Questions

• Describe the setting of this passage
• What part of the book does it occur within?
• Outline the structure of the passage

Gramatical Questions

• What are the most important words or phrases in the passage?
• What are the meaning of those? Are there alternate or deeper meanings based on study of the language?

Transformative or Theological Questions

• What is the passage saying about God and what God wants?
• What is the passage saying about people and their spiritual, physical, emotional, and social needs and responsibilities? What are people's problems and potentials?
• What does the passage tell you about how the world works and how the world under God's rule should work?

Conclusion

• What is the overall main message of the passage?
• How does the message apply to the 21st century world and/or you personally?
• "From this passage, we can conclude ...."

Format

• Typed, MLA format
• 2-3 pages plus cover page plus Works Cited
• Minimum of 4 sources
• Follow the outline, designating sections

GODSPEED