Guidelines
The goal of this assignment is not to survey the secondary literature (i.e., what other people say
about the Bible) on these topics; rather, it is to enable students to practice engaging in theological
analysis of the biblical texts themselves (the primary sources/literature). Consequently, the main
source for this paper should be the Bible, and the lion’s share of the
writing should involve reflections/ideas about the Scriptures being considered and their
implications for developing a theological perspective on the theme. Citations of writings from
others should be kept to a minimum unless citing is necessary to avoid plagiarism. Furthermore,
since this is a course in Old Testament theology, resist the urge to stay with the familiar by
turning this assignment into a New Testament theology paper.
At least two-thirds of the paper must be devoted to the theological theme’s Old Testament
development before getting on to the New Testament development of it. Finally, I strongly
encourage students to submit their papers to HBU’s ASC office for a tutor’s feedback and
coaching on writing style prior to submitting the final draft to the instructor. This will make them
a better student and writer, lead to a higher grade on the assignment, and make the instructor
much happier.
