Exegetical Analysis Of Passage
NGRK 505
Exegetical Analysis Essay Instructions
Romans 8:1-8
Each student will write a 1800-2200-word exegetical analysis essay showing engagement with the Greek text of their selected passage by using relevant Greek language tools. This assignment will build upon the insights, observations, and conclusions of the exegetical assignments in previous modules/weeks of this course, but it will focus especially on working with the text of the passage itself (rather than on the wider literary context, historical context, or application of the passage). The purpose of this assignment is to draw out the meaning of the selected passage of Scripture, incorporating grammatical analysis, lexical analysis, comparison of translations, and evaluation of scholarly conclusions about various details of the selected passage. Students will need to engage with at least 7 scholarly secondary sources, consisting primarily of exegetical commentaries and peer-reviewed journal articles.
This assignment is due by 11:59 p.m. (ET) on Sunday of Module/Week 6.
Resources for Turabian formatting may be found in the Online Writing Center. Your paper should follow the footnote method of citation.
Students should follow this guidance when constructing their papers:
1. When you wrote about the literary context and historical-cultural context of your passage in previous essays, you were focusing on the big picture of your passage; you focused on the forest rather than the trees. In this essay, you should focus on the details and close-up view of your passage; focus on the trees within the forest.
2. Although you will build upon the exegetical work that you have done for other assignments, do not reproduce the content of those essays in this paper. However, the insights and observations you’ve made in those assignments should inform your analysis of particular details in your passage, and you can certainly refer to aspects of the literary context or historical-cultural context when that is the case; but that should not involve reproducing large portions of what you had written for those assignments. Pack as much relevant exegetical analysis of your passage as possible into the allotted word count. Avoid the temptation to meet your word count by including lengthy quotations of your passage (Scripture citations will suffice unless you need to quote part of your passage to make a point).
3. You are not writing a commentary! Instead, you are describing (as best as possible) the meaning that was intended by the original human author when he wrote this passage of Scripture. Your exegetical skills should help you describe the author’s intended meaning and what the author intended to do or accomplish with this passage among his readers. Remember that words don’t just mean things; they do things.
4. The meaning of your passage or its main point is expressed through specific words in a specific context that are organized in a specific grammatical arrangement. Some words and grammatical features are more important than others for determining the meaning and structure of the passage. Focus on what is most important first, and then fill in other details afterwards. Your paper should provide reasonable coverage of the most important details of your passage rather than moving word-by-word or phrase-by-phrase. It would be a shame to spend an entire paragraph describing the parsing of a verb of little importance while overlooking a different verb that is determinative for the meaning of the passage. It would also be a shame to allocate most of your word count to one or two features of the passage, then cover everything else in a single paragraph. Pace yourself, distribute your word count wisely, and accomplish as much as possible within the word count.
5. Part of exegetical analysis is knowing which tools to apply and when to apply them, because you can’t use all the skills all the time. You must determine the most relevant places to provide lexical analysis of words, grammatical analysis of clauses, comparison of English translations, and engagement with scholarly sources. The better judgment you show about when and how to use these tools, the better your grade will be.
Structure and Format:
1. Your essay should have an introduction and a conclusion. The body of your essay should be made up of sections corresponding to the main sections of your passage identified in your block diagram.
a. Your introduction should include a brief statement of the main point of your passage and the main supporting points (these are probably the first two levels of indenting in your block diagram).
b. The main point will function like a thesis statement about the meaning and purpose of your selected passage. The rest of the paper will support these claims with detailed analysis.
c. In the conclusion, please make a first attempt to bridge the gap from the ancient context of your passage to the present day. Your focus in this assignment is on the human author’s intended meaning as conveyed through the Greek text. But since Scripture is inspired, the divine Author intended for this passage to mean something to Christians in this century as well (what it meant and what it means). You will discuss this in detail in your Module/Week 8 assignment, but briefly address it in the conclusion of this essay.
2. The other sections of your paper should generally correspond to sections of your passage in the block diagram. Your passage might have 3 to 5 sections, so these can be used as headings/sections for your paper.
a. Within each section, describe the grammatical relationships of clauses to what has come before and after. Describe how the Greek grammar clarifies the meaning and purpose of the passage.
b. Analyze how various words should be translated to most accurately convey the ancient meaning/concept intended by the author in that context. This should involve both lexical analysis and comparison of English translations. Evaluate uncertainties and adopt a position on the most plausible option in those instances.
c. Evaluate the scholarly positions about how to interpret key aspects of your passage. You should approach this as someone who is qualified to express your own conclusions about the evidence; you are not just neutrally reporting what the experts think. Base your claims, positions, and conclusions on careful analysis of the text and relevant evidence.
3. Proofread! At a minimum, use the review tab in MS Word to correct spelling and grammar errors. See the screenshot below for where to find it.
Read your paper and revise it for clarity before turning it in. Can someone who isn’t able to read your mind understand what you intend to communicate by reading your words? Make sure the presentation of your paper is neat. Clean up errors with Greek fonts. Make sure your citations of Scripture are correctly presented in Turabian formatting. Make sure your paragraphs are correctly spaced and indented. If you don’t know how to do any of these things, just use the Help tab in MS Word.
Page 1 of 3
Do you need a similar assignment done for you from scratch? Order now!
Use Discount Code "Newclient" for a 15% Discount!
