RS-2B03: Women in the Biblical Tradition

A. Y. Reed

INSTRUCTIONS FOR EXEGESIS PAPERS

For this course, students will be required to submit two exegesis papers, each of which is 3-5 pages (double-spaced, 12 point font) in length. The papers will be dedicated to analyzing primary sources (i.e., in this case, biblical passages, as distinct from later writings about them). The first paper is due Friday, 24 October in the lecture and will deal with a passage from the Hebrew Bible. The second is due Friday, 21 November in the lecture and will deal with a passage from New Testament. If an emergency or special situation arises such that you will be unable to make these deadlines, you must make arrangements with Dr. Reed at least a week prior to the due date. Late papers will be penalized by 1/3 of a letter grade per every day late.

For each paper, a list will be circulated with the specific passages from which students can choose. If you wish to write one of your papers on another passage related to biblical women, which is not listed (for example: a passage from the assigned portions of “apocryphal”/deutero-canonical books or a passage that we’re not covering in this class), please discuss this with Dr. Reed at least two weeks before the paper is due.

PURPOSE OF THE PAPER ASSIGNMENT

The paper assignment is, above all, an exercise in exegesis, the close reading of primary sources. Many ancient texts – and especially the books in the Bibles of present-day faith communities – have been read and interpreted and re-interpreted to speak to changing concerns and contexts in a vast range of different times and places, for many centuries and up until the present day. Biblical traditions have also had a profound influence in shaping modern Western culture more broadly. These factors, together with the enormous gap in time and space between our current context and the very ancient cultures in which these texts took shape, can make it difficult for us – as readers engaged in the academic, secular, non-confessional, and historical study of biblical literature – to understand these texts on their own terms, without seeing them through the lens of a long tradition of interpretation or through the lens of our own modern questions, values, and assumptions. Yet, the academic study of biblical literature must begin with the effort to read the texts on their own terms and to try to recover something of their original intent and their meaning within their original socio-historical contexts. 

The purpose of this paper is to pursue these aims in a focused manner, by selecting a single passage and carefully analyzing the narrative, literary, and religious/ethical choices that it makes, as well considering how this specific text relates to the more general themes, trends, and concepts that our course has explored.

Practically speaking, this means that your exegesis paper should try to answer questions such as:

• What problem, if any, motivates the action in the narrative? Why do the characters do what they do? Can we tell why their story and this particular tale is deemed important to tell? For instance, does it have any aetiological function?
• How do the various characters function in the story? What is the stance of the narrator towards the characters and the choices that they make? On whom does the narrator focus? With whom is the reader meant to sympathize? What textual cues and clues shape the way a reader sees these characters?
• What does the text choose to say and choose not to say? What blanks are left for the reader to fill in or imagine? What questions remain unanswered?
• Do you think that there a specific message that the text is trying to communicate? If so, how does the text go about saying it? For instance, does it state its message explicitly to reader, or does it provide the reader with an illustrative story, which s/he must contemplate in order to arrive at the message? Does it argue for a certain belief or practice, and if so, can you get a sense of whom it may be arguing against?
• Or, alternately, is there a specific issue or situation that the text seems to be addressing or struggling with? Does it refrain from communicating a clear-cut judgment and leave some answers ambiguous or, relatedly, communicate an ambivalence towards certain characters and their actions?
• What does the text take for granted? What are the unspoken assumptions (esp. about gender)?

GUIDELINES

A. Your paper should have the following structure:

1. Introduction: A short paragraph describing your text and its broader context (E.g.: What is the narrative or literary context in which this passage appears? What genre or type of text is it? What era does it describe? In what era was it likely written?)

2. Exegesis:  A close reading of the text, which should be the majority of your paper. In most cases, you should describe the text (i.e. what it is trying to achieve and how it does this) following the order in which the text unfolds, in order to show its own progression. Feel free to quote liberally from the text itself, when needed—although you should most often try instead to restate what it is trying to say in your own words. Feel free also to focus only on a few verses within the passage. In this section, attention to detail is especially important!

3. Conclusion: One or two paragraphs that make some conclusions about how your specific text relates to the broader themes that we have discussed in our course. In addition, if you would like to express your own opinions about the text and its message (or note the questions that you had difficulty resolving in your exegesis—which you should feel free to do, since many of the primary texts are indeed quite difficult!), this is the place to do it. Another possible approach is to conclude your paper by saying something brief about the later influence of the text.

B. In order to engage in exegesis, you must do your best to set aside your own beliefs and opinions while reading and writing about your text. If you would like to express your own opinions, you should do this only after dealing with the text on its own terms and you should put such comments, not in the exegesis section of your paper, but in the Conclusion.

C. Remember that all texts have audiences; all authors write for the readers whom s/he imagines. This can be called the “intended audience” of the text. In many cases, however, texts are read and cherished by others, whom the authors might not have even imagined. Thus, the question of the “actual audience” of a text should be carefully distinguished from the question of the “intended audience” of a text. In this paper, you should concentrate on the “intended audience”—although the issue of its “actual audience” can be brought in, especially in your Conclusion.

D. Please make sure to spell-check your paper and to proofread it before turning it in! This is much more important than you might think. In addition, papers should be double-spaced and in a twelve-point font.