Writing an OT Theology Paper

By Walter McConnell

We do not write essays because we know everything about a subject, but because we want to know more. The discipline of writing essays will help us learn more about a subject than we could have otherwise.

Writing a paper on OT theology is in many ways similar to writing any other paper. But since many students find the whole concept of writing an academic paper daunting, it is good to have some guidance that will help us through the whole process. First and foremost, essay writing should not be seen as something to fear, but as part of the learning and stretching process that goes on at SBC. The reason you are required to write essays is so that you will have an opportunity to improve the way you think about a subject and learn how to express your thoughts in words that someone else can read and from which they can benefit.

Do not think that any of your lecturers expect you to be able to write an article so good that it could be printed in a Bible dictionary or published in a theological journal. Some of you may one day get to that level, but you are not expected to be there at this point. Most of you still have a lot to learn about your subject, the discipline of research, and expressing your ideas in written form before you will be able to produce "heavy weight" scholarship. Do not think that we will expect too much of you, but at the same time, do not think that we do not want you to work! All writers know that their craft is made up of a lot of hard work. Like many other things, it is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.

It has been said that there were two kind of writers — intelligent ones and stupid ones. The "intelligent authors" are those who write because they know all about their subject. The stupid authors are those who write because they want to know all about their subject but do not yet fully understand it. Even though we may not really like the terminology, most of us fall into this second category. And for this reason, you do not need to know everything before you begin writing. Instead, you should see writing an essay as a way to learn more about your subject.

Selecting a topic

By picking a topic that is of interest to you and that relates to the course you are taking, you will be able to maintain your interest while researching and writing your paper.

The first thing to do when writing an essay is to pick a topic. It is best to chose a topic that you are interested in and want to know more about. Although it is not always possible to find a topic that perfectly suits your interests, you should try to find one that is interesting to you. There is usually a direct correlation between your interest in a subject and the job you will do studying it. However, your subject must also be suitable for the course you are taking. You may be fascinated by patristic arguments about the natures of Jesus Christ or with the practical outworking of spiritual gifts in the local church, but these topics (as important as they are) have very little to do with OT theology. This is why your instructor gives you a number of different potential topics from which to choose.

The syllabus for OT Theology 1 included a number of different topics that would be good to research. These include: the image of God, land, rebellion against God, Yahweh’s presence, Yahweh’s providence, Yahweh and the nations, blessing and cursing, election, Day of Atonement, the tabernacle, the priesthood, sin and sacrifice, worship, and the precedence of the younger son. You may find that one of these topics appeals to you at first sight. You may have other ideas about what you would like to study. Either way, it would be good to get together with your instructor and talk to him about the paper you would like to write. Supposedly he knows a bit more about OT theology than you do, so he would probably be a fairly good reference person. At any rate, he will do his best to help you choose a topic and give you some tips about doing your research and writing your paper. Whether you believe it or not, he is actually here to help you succeed in your studies! If there is anything you do not understand about the process of researching and writing a paper, do not hesitate to ask for an explanation.

Begin researching your topic

Begin your research by getting an overview of your topic in a theological dictionaryand by building an adequate bibliography.

Once you have chosen a topic or been assigned a topic, the next thing to do is to begin building a bibliography and then reading some material that relates to the subject. This may include books or articles suggested by your instructor, and it should include some more that you find by yourself. One of the best places to begin your search is in the library where you will find several different dictionaries of biblical theology as well as other Bible and theological dictionaries. These books offer broad discussions of most major topics. They also contain bibliographic material on some of the other important works that you might want to consult. The library also contains some bibliographies of OT theology that might prove helpful.

After you have consulted the dictionaries of biblical theology, you should look at various OT theologies to see if they have anything to say about your topic. You would not want to write about the theme of promise without consulting Walter Kaiser’s Toward an Old Testament Theology, to see what he has to say on the topic. Neither would you want to write something about the covenant apart from some reference to Walter Eichrodt’s Theology of the Old Testament. A quick glance through the table of contents and the index of an OT theology should be enough to indicate whether a particular book will discuss the passage or theme that you wish to study. This will help you limit your study so that you do not have to read the entire book.

Although you may find yourself drawn to the commentaries, you should probably approach them with a bit of a caution. Many commentaries were not written to discuss matters of biblical theology. Writing an OT theology paper is not the same as writing an exegetical paper, as OT theology is only one of the steps of the exegetical process. For the most part you should ignore the other aspects of exegesis unless it is essential for your understanding and explaining of the theological meaning. Your purpose is not to come to grips with the structure of the text or of the meaning of words used in it. Rather, your goal will be to see how a theological theme is developed in the text. A commentary is mainly useful only where and if it discusses the theology of a book or section. As this is not the major purpose of most commentaries, it will prove more useful to consult other reference material first.

One more type of literature which should be mentioned is academic journals. These are the basic means by which scholars present their ideas and findings for the benefit of other scholars. Do not think that they are only written for professional scholars. Although some journal articles are so full of jargon and technical language that they are almost unintelligible, most well-written articles will be almost entirely within the capability of someone studying for a first degree in theology. Journal articles are important as they represent real front line research. You may have to access the ATLA CD-ROM in order to find journal articles on the subject you want to research.

As you begin your research, you should be aware that for any given topic there may be more material than you could read in several years’ work. For a 2500-3000 word essay (or even a Ph.D. Dissertation) you will not want to read every book in the library or every journal article listed on the ATLA CD-ROM. You will, however, want to build a good bibliography to be sure that you properly understand the subject and different views held about it. Even so, you will also need to limit your reading to that which is most closely related to your topic. Again, if you have any problems, do not forget to ask your instructor for help. Whereas he will not want to write the essay for you, he will want to be sure that you know what you need to do in order to succeed.

One more word about your bibliography. Obviously a bigger bibliography looks more impressive. However, when you write your paper, be sure only to include the books or articles that you actually read and used. The point is not to show that you know of the existence of a lot of books and articles, but to show that you have consulted the books listed, and have responded to them thoughtfully as you bring together your information and draw your own conclusions about the topic.

Make notes on your reading

Anytime you take notes on a book or article, be sure to write down the full bibliographic information. If you take down the author’s ideas word for word, be sure to include quotation marks. Always cite your sources properly in your paper.

While you are reading, take notes on what you read. You may want to do this on a sheet of A4 paper, on file cards, or on a computer. As your time is limited, you will want to make sure that your notes will help answer the major questions in your paper. Keep focused on that question the whole time you are reading and taking notes. It will help you in the long run.

Your notes are to help you to remember what you read and where you read it. They should help you organize your thoughts as you compose your paper. Be sure to include bibliographic information with your notes.

Example of note

Canonical approach, support for

"It is a source of frustration common to most readers of commentaries that so much energy is spent on the analysis of the pre-history of a text as to leave little for a treatment of the passage in its final form. The complaint is certainly justified. Ultimately the use of source and form criticism is exegetically deficient if these tools do not illuminate the canonical text."

Brevard S. Childs, The Book of Exodus, OTL (Louisville: Westminster, 1974), 149.

Make an outline

While you are reading about your subject and taking notes on what you are reading you should begin to put together an outline that will help you develop your ideas so that you can answer the question. The purpose of an outline is to help you structure your thoughts. It provides a means of bringing your ideas together. Although you will probably amend your outline as you write, it is still a good idea to write an outline early on so that you know where you will be going and what pieces of information you need at each point so that you can get to your conclusion smoothly.

You will need some kind of method to connect your notes to your outline. Some people use some kind of number or colour system for this. What this means is that all notes that pertain to a particular major point on the outline will be coded with the same number or colour. It is also possible to collect your notes topically as they relate to the different parts of your outline. The reason for doing this is that you can quickly see how much information you have about each part of your paper. This helps you see where you have too much information and where you need some extra study.

Outline for OT Theology Paper

1. Introduction to Paper
2. Methodology
3. Development of theme in the passage
4. Development of theme in Scripture
5. Conclusion
6. Bibliography

Write your essay

Finally, you will want to write your essay. When you begin writing, be sure that you are writing about the topic that you chose or that was assigned to you. I can tell you, your instructor will not be very impressed if you were assigned to write an OT theology paper on the Day of Atonement, and you write on something that your pastor said about the death of Jesus on the cross and how that relates to the book of Hebrews! This is not to say that you should ignore what your pastor or the book of Hebrews has to say. But if you are told to write a paper on OT theology, most of what you say should deal with the way the OT deals with the topic. Where your pastor or someone else may help you better understand the OT, use their ideas (properly footnoted, of course), but make sure that you only use their thoughts to answer the question that is before you.

When writing your paper, keep in mind the total number of words that you need to write. From this you will also need to consider how many words you need in each section of the paper. For a 2500 word paper, you will probably want to use about 500 words to introduce the paper, 1800 words for the main part of the paper, and 200 words for a conclusion. The numbers are for a general guideline. Remember that the body, the main part, of the paper is the most important part. For this reason you should make sure that neither your introduction nor conclusion is too long or you will not have enough space to write the body of your paper.

A paper on OT theology should begin with your goals in writing the paper and your methodology for writing. If you are writing on the theme of worship, you will have to explain what aspect of this theme you are going to handle, as 2500 words is not enough to fully exhaust the subject. Where will the paper go? What is its point? How does it fit into the world of OT theology? This requires that you indicate how your approach compares with other approaches to OT theology. If you do not do this you will be marked down.

The main part of your paper will present your major thoughts on your topic. It should follow the outline you used to organize your thoughts. For this reason it may be divided into several sections, each of which may be given a heading. The notes you took while researching the topic will be of utmost importance at this time. Use them to answer your questions in a relevant way. In other words, if an idea does not help your paper, no matter how good it may be, ignore it. You may want to quote one of the authors you read or to use their ideas in your own words. If you do so, be sure to use a footnote or end note to show that you are doing so. If you do not, you are guilty of plagiarism, an idea that I will mention at the end. You may also use footnotes to explain something that is relevant to the paper, but outside of the main argument. When you interact with the ideas of various scholars, be sure to critique their viewpoints and explain why you agree with them or not. Do not simply quote their views.

One of the main goals in this part of your paper should be to demonstrate where the particular theme being studied is found in the Bible, how it is developed there, and how it relates to the rest of the canon of Scripture. Is the theme introduced in the section of the Bible you are dealing with? Does it build upon something that has been given before? Does it provide a base for what follows? What does it add to our understanding of the Bible? Although you will probably want to say something about the development of the theme in other parts of the Bible, particularly the NT, be sure that your major focus is on the theme in the passage, book or section of the Bible agreed upon with your instructor.

At the end of your paper you will want to write a conclusion. This should be both for summarizing your position and for closing your paper. It should demonstrate that you have accomplished what you said you were going to do in your introduction.

When you are writing, remember that you are writing an essay. This is a particular literary genre that is distinct from a sermon, a letter to a friend, or a list. Do not preach, and do not adopt an overly "chatty" persona in your paper. Be sure that you do not just make a list of ideas. Everything should be organized with a start, a middle and an end. Remember that an essay is a formal literary composition meant to inform and persuade people about some subject. To write a good essay you need to use formal English. You also need to develop and use literary methods of persuasion so that people will want to read what you write and accept what you say.

It is sometimes said that there is no such thing as a good writer — only a good editor. Do not expect that you will "get it right" the first time you write a sentence, paragraph, or paper. Go back over it again and again. If you find English grammar or organizing your thoughts particularly difficult, get someone else to proof read your paper for you. Then, make whatever corrections they suggest in order to improve your work. Try to discover which grammatical and other mistakes you are most likely to make, and work to correct them. Over time your writing will improve and you will have more and more confidence when writing other papers.

Parts of the paper

Title page. Contains the title of the paper, name of author, name of school, name of instructor and/or class, and the date on which you finished or turned in the paper. The title page should not be numbered.

Paper proper. Usually divided into 1) introduction, 2) body, and 3) conclusion. The first page of this section should be numbered "1".

Introduction. The purpose of the introduction is to introduce
what the paper is about. In the introduction you should state the question or
questions you aim to answer, and possibly say how you are going to answer it.

Body. This is the main part of the paper. In this part you should develop
several main points that help you address the problem stated in the introduction.

Conclusion. Here you briefly restate how your argument in the body of the paper helps solve the problem introduced at the beginning. In the conclusion you could also possibly mention some possibilities for further research.

Bibliography. This is a list of books and articles you actually used when writing your paper. See Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 6th ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), for information on proper style for bibliography entrees. It should be located at the end of the paper on a separate (numbered) page, and titled "BIBLIOGRAPHY".

A few points about style

Since, an essay is a formal literary composition, you should be careful about a number of different technical issues.

Type neatly. All papers should be typed on A4 paper using a 12 point Times New Romans (or equivalent) font. Margins should be set at 2.5 cm or 1 inch. The main text should be double spaced. Block quotations and footnotes (or end notes) can be single spaced. All pages of text should be numbered beginning with the first page of text. The title page should not be numbered, but the bibliography page(s) should be.

Use proper spelling. As Singapore mainly uses British spellings, keep to that standard as much as is possible. If you quote someone who uses non-British spellings, do not "correct" them, but use their spelling. The main thing is to be consistent.

Use proper punctuation.

Do not use contractions. Use "do not", not "don’t", "cannot", not "can’t".

Do not use slang.

Try to avoid repetition.

Do not "pad".

Unless you use quotation marks and footnote the source of a citation, write everything in your own words.

Plagiarism

"You shall not steal." – Ex 20:15

As already mentioned, I need to say a word about plagiarism. Plagiarism is intellectual theft. It is stealing someone’s ideas and saying that they are your own. The way it is usually done in school papers is by taking the ideas someone else had in their book, article, or web site and using it without footnoting where it came from. Simply put, if you quote from someone else’s book or article, put it in quotation marks, and acknowledge in a footnote or end note where it came from. You should also acknowledge the source if one of your major ideas came from somebody else. Now, do not be worried about using other people’s ideas, we all do that, just make sure that you are clear about when the ideas you are writing are not really your own. And be aware, a good reader can tell when your writing style changes abruptly, particularly if English is your second language.

Final word

As I have tried to emphasize in this paper, you are assigned essays to write in order to help you learn. By writing essays you discover what you do not know and develop skills so that you can find information, structure information, and communicate information in a way that demonstrates that you are learning and that you have come to understand your subject better. In the final analysis, the most important thing is not the mark you will receive from doing the paper, but what you learn from it. This learning process does not end once you turn in your paper. After you have turned it in, your instructor will spend a good deal of time reading, evaluating, and commenting on your paper. (Hopefully it will be clear that you spent more time writing the paper than your instructor did marking it!) You should pay close attention to any comments made on your paper. Please do not feel that these comments are there to attack you or belittle you. Rather, they are intended to help you develop your thinking and skills of expression so that you can do a better job in the future. So, read them. Try to understand them. You will learn more if you make the suggested corrections, and that is what the whole process of paper writing is all about. Perhaps, you will even want to rewrite your papers so that you can learn more about the subject.

In conclusion, let me remind you that essay writing is part of the learning and stretching experience that God is bringing into your life at this time. The points I have brought out are intended to make it a little easier, but until you get some practice doing it, many of you will still find it difficult. Do not despair. And do not give up. Remember, God can even use this in order to help you to develop into the person that he wants you to be.

Grading

Methodology: 10%
Contents:
Breadth 30%
Depth 30%
Reading 10%
Creative (critical) Thinking 10%
Grammar, style, and essay structure 10%