My Guidelines for Studying the Hebrew Bible in 2022

 I’m going to be studying and writing about the Hebrew Bible for all of 2022. If anybody is following along with my posts, I want to share the guidelines I’m trying to follow so you’ll know what I’m coming from. My approach is also evolving (It’s shifted already and it’s the first week of the year), so I appreciate feedback on my personal study guidelines and want to set expectations that this is exegesis in motion :)


What are your guiding principles for studying the scriptures this year? 



Don’t think about Jesus. 

The original audiences wouldn’t have understood these texts to allude to anyone like Jesus. The church might teach that ancient biblical authors knew and worshiped Christ as their redeemer, but there isn’t evidence of that in the text. I want to avoid christianizing or Mormonizing material that didn’t have that in mind. Paradoxically, I think this will actually increase my understanding of the New Testament and my appreciation for early Christianity next year because I’ll understand better the Jewish assumptions that Christ defied and reframed during and after his ministry. 

Pursue but don’t demand objectivity

There are a number of reasons I want to quiet my personal biases: I want to understand what the original authors intended; I want to understand the will of God and objective truth about him. But, I recognize that true objectivity is impossible. The question then is not, “What does the text mean,” but “What could the text mean?” Sometimes that means I’ll be striving to narrow down my exegesis to the most likely meaning or meanings. Other times I’ll be extrapolating the most useful or insightful meaning to me in my circumstances.

Sometimes great meaning from the text can be derived subjectively. I want to thoughtfully give myself permission to stray from the pursuit of objectivity to apply the text to myself or my current world rather than the ancient one. 

Choose quality secondary sources

The following characteristics don’t automatically mean a source will be high quality, but a combination of them is a good indication. 
  • Source uses a modern biblical translation such as the NRSV or Robert Alter’s Hebrew Bible
  • Source is recent
  • Source uses the term “Hebrew Bible”
  • Source authors have degrees from accredited Universities
  • Source authors are free from pro-religious or anti-religious bias
  • Source comes from a website with a clean, well-design layout
  • Source openly admits what is unknown about the text and explores alternatives to its perspectives. 
  • Source is a bound book
  • Source draws on Talmudic interpretation
  • Source contains a bibliography of other quality sources. 
The following characteristics don’t automatically mean a source will be low quality, but a combination of them is a good indication. 
  • Source claims that Moses wrote the Pentateuch
  • Source is a church or has an anti-religious mission 
  • Source website is cluttered with ads
  • Source relies strictly on the KJV
  • Source speaks of the Old Testament God as less merciful than the New Testament God
  • Source claims the Bible is univocal and/or infallible
  • Source frequently uses proof-texting (identifying lists of scriptures to prove a theological point)

Have fun

The Hebrew Bible is full of poetry, irony, humorous tales, and quippy wisdom. Don’t get buried in the details of the text such that you don’t take time to laugh at what’s going on.

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