My first exegesis assignment

[junostarlighter]

hey everyone,

i got my first exegesis paper to write and i need some help. here’s my assignment:

Your chance to become an exegete! Exegesis is the (rigorous) intellectual exercise which is devoted to interpreting, explaining, and understanding ancient texts – especially sacred texts. Exegesis is usually approached through one (or more) of the following exegetical techniques: a) Tropological – involves an exegetical interpretation that focuses on the ethical or moral lesson embedded in the text; b) Literal – this approach seeks to determine the historical setting, factual reliability, or truth of the text; c) Allegorical exegesis seeks to uncover spiritual or typological meanings and implications; d) Anagogical exegesis looks for eschatological or future-predictive elements in a text; e) Comparative exegesis looks for commonalities and/or differences in both the narrative form and content of two or more texts.
If you choose this option you must choose Paul’s Letter to the Romans or his Second Letter to the Corinthians – and do a comparative exegesis of one of those texts over against any one of the following: 1) The Code of Handsome Lake; 2) Any selection of fifty consecutive suras of the Qu’ran; or 3) The Book of Daniel in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). Your exegesis must include a comparative perspective, plus, at least Two other approaches.

I’m thinking about doing Romans and Daniel. Are there any special sections of the books that I should keep an eye on or help to get my going in the right direction?

~mario

 

[John_Hiner]

Where does this “assignment” come from? It seems huge.

Pax.

John Hiner

 

[junostarlighter]

i’m taking a ‘religion in western tradition’ class at my university.

 

[Nita]

Wow! Hope you have more than a couple days to do this assignment… Have compared verses/passages/events - but have never compared whole books. Should be interesting. Why don’t you post your paper here when you’re finished - I’d love to read it.

Nita

 

[junostarlighter]

thanks nita. i’ll post it.

i’m starting to get frustrated with it though. the two books seem to be at opposite ends of the spectrum. i’m starting to reread the books and i don’t even know where to start…i think i may be in a little over my head with this one!

 

[Nita]

Don’t give up. Remember comparative exegesis “looks for commonalities and/or differences in both the narrative form and content of two or more texts.” Maybe outlining some of the differences is a good way to get the ball rolling.

I ran myself a copy of your original post because I thought it would be interesting to try myself. Trouble is, I often have good intentions of doing something, but time goes by and I never get around to it.

Nita

 

[richardeekw]

An important point for assignment writing, is to commence by defining the parameters of your disucssion, such as a particular Topic or Subjects in the books which you choose to discuss.
This will focus your train of thoughts to the examiner right from the start.

End the essay with your own viewpoint,- who you agree or disagree with and WHY.(That is the responsibility of an exegate). You must research from a variety of Schorlely works, in addition to your own analysis and interpretation.

Look forward to read your posting.

 

[junostarlighter]

Okay…i got something of it to show you guys. Feel free to critique and tear it apart. It’s not the final thing because i still have more to write at the end comparing similiarities and differences in daniel and romans. let me know what you think. i’m gonna try to attach the file to it.

 

[RyanL]

Hi,

I’ll look over the Romans part…

Eliminate contractions in scholarly writings - no “hadn’t”. Use “had not”.

Be aware of tenses. You use sometimes switch between past and present tense (“did not” and “do not”); pick a tense and stick with it. If you’re going to switch tenses, make sure it is deliberate, explicit, and serves a demonstrable purpose.

The “wrath of God” is not literal - God does not have those type of emotions in His divine nature. It is language of condescension, useful to convey to us the nature of God’s justice (Ludwig Ott, Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma (Rockford, Ill.: TAN Books and Publishers, 1960), 45.) The “love of God” is literal, but it is not the romanticized love of the enlightenment, sometimes referred to as eros - rather, it is agape, which Pope Benedict calls the “dynamic of his self-giving.” (Deus Caritas Est, 13). Maybe you want to note this, maybe you don’t.

“This new life of grace is what makes us truly -]to be/-] God’s children. We -]don’t merely seem to be/-] are not merely adopted through a legal fiction; with God’s word we actually -]are/-] become his children.”

“…despite this, God -]has/-] made use…” – Be very wary of using forms of “have”, i.e., “has made”, “has done”, “have received” – typically, you can eliminate the “have” without affecting the sentence. Chop unnecessary words, as a rule.

Double check for capitalization and punctuation before you submit.

“…the gospel calls believers to offer their “bodies as a living sacrifice”” – you left out the “to offer” part.

At the end of your exegesis of Romans, you may want to underscore that the “additions” which Paul calls Christians to does not undermine justification by faith, but rather completes it (Jas 2:22). It is only by serving Christ in this way can the believer truly observe what Paul calls the “obedience of faith” (Rom 1:5, 16:26). This is a phrase Paul places as at the beginning and end of his epistle, like bookends, providing context for his usage of the term ‘faith’.

Along these same lines, you may, if you want to lengthen it out some, include a bit about falling away. Rom 11:22 explicitly presents salvation as being contingent on our obedience, and that our initial justification does not mean eternal security. But that’s only if you want to go there; a full treatment would certainly lengthen your response dramatically.

God Bless,
RyanL