3.3 Assignment

Getting Started

Reading the Bible well is a skill that you develop with time and practice. This will be your third try in this course. We hope and pray that you are feeling more confident with your reading of the Bible. Remember that we depend all along on the Spirit and we also read in community with other people.  

For this interpretation paper, you  will choose a short passage from Acts chs. 15-16. This is a critical juncture in Acts that includes the very important Jerusalem Council meeting in ch. 15 and a foray into the “ends of the earth” in ch. 16. Keep in mind that narrative can often take more time to develop than teaching or discourse, so the passage you select may be just a a bit longer for this paper. 

Upon successful completion of the course material, you will be able to:

· Interpret a passage from Acts.

Resources

· Bible 

· “Acts 13-20” ( The Bible Project.com )

Background Information

The Bible Project has several more videos that explore various books and parts of scripture as well as videos that cover key themes and topics. This assignment invites you to view a video on Acts as a way to give you more context about the passage you will be interpreting.

Instructions

1. View the rubric ;to be sure you understand the criteria for earning your grade.

2. You are allowed to choose a passage of your preference from anywhere in Acts 15 or 16. Your passage should contain a complete idea or story. You should not start in the middle of something or cut a unit off early. Generally, your selection should be at least 3 verses long but no longer than 10 verses. Remember that a narrative passage may be a bit longer to get a complete scene.

3. Once you have chosen your passage. You will want to read it closely, attending to its overall flow, the structure of sentences, key nouns, key verbs, and any important descriptive elements. Then you will want to consider the four contexts (immediate, literary, cultural-historical, and canonical) and see how they may inform your understanding of the passage. Remember that you can draw on the videos on “Literary Styles in the Bible,” “Cultures in and of the Bible,” and “The Story of the Bible” to help provide some material for these various contexts. 

4. Compose a 650-750 word paper in proper APA format that contains the following

a. A brief introduction that identifies your passage and explains why you chose it (approximately 50-75 words).

b. A section that explores the details of the passage’s flow, sentence structure, nouns, verbs, and descriptors (approximately 250-300 words).

c. A section that explains the passage more fully by using two of the following contexts with connections to details in the passage: immediate, literary, historical-cultural, and canonical (approximately 250-300 words).

d. A short conclusion that states your main takeaway from your interpretive work and how that point may apply to our time and place (approximately 100-150 words).