The student will craft a brief three page essay that summarizes and explains the message of the Torah. The three pages do not include the cover page (nor bibliography if you include one). In this essay, you are not to list what happened in that part of the Bible. Instead, you are to define the author’s message to the reader: what is the author telling the reader about what happened? As such, your goal is to explain the author’s message by describing most of the book and its most important parts. Each essay must not be any shorter or longer than three double-spaced pages and must be written in Times New Romans 12 Point font with appropriate 1 inch margins. Each essay will have a proper introduction and conclusion that will state and restate your thesis of that section’s message. In addition, each body paragraph will provide evidence from the biblical text and, if needed, additional sources to defend your thesis. The student must employ an academic writing style with appropriate citation according to the Turabian manual. Please submit your papers in Blackboard as .doc or .docx files. As you consider your topic, please remember that the assignment is not to tell me the setting of the Torah. Its setting is clearly the Old Covenant. Instead, your task is to define what he is telling his readers about the Old Covenant. That is, what message (lesson, instruction, insight) and hope does he give to the reader as he examines life under the Old Covenant in the Torah? As such, you will advance a thesis that claims what the author intends to communicate with the shape of his book. That is, you are now asked to argue what the author is offering as the book’s hope. How does the author answer his dilemma? What hope does he offer? Is his hope for the reader the law codes themselves? Or, is his hope based upon something or someone other than the law codes? If so, what does the author have to say about the law codes? Therefore, there are the two main approaches to the message of the Torah that most of your papers will follow: 1) the law codes themselves and the necessity of obedience are the book’s hope (the law codes solve the book’s problems) or 2) the law codes are part of a larger strategy to point to a hope that will only come in the end of the days through the seed of Abraham. The first approach essentially contends that the book is written to persuade the reader that the Mosaic Covenant is an everlasting covenant that will eventually overcome the book’s dilemma. On the other hand, the second approach presents the law codes as something that is good for the reader but does not solve the book’s dilemma. That solution will come in the end of the days through the arrival of the One promised to Abraham. The key to deciding between these approaches is to think though what the book presents as its primary dilemma and its primary (or exclusive) solution. You need to consider what prompted the author to actually sit down and write this book. Why is it si ...

1. The student will craft a brief three page essay that summarizes
and explains the message of the Torah. The three pages do not
include the cover page (nor bibliography if you include one).
In this essay, you are not to list what happened in that part of
the Bible. Instead, you are to define the author’s message to the
reader: what is the author telling the reader about what
happened? As such, your goal is to explain the author’s message
by describing most of the book and its most important parts.
Each essay must not be any shorter or longer than three double-
spaced pages and must be written in Times New Romans 12
Point font with appropriate 1 inch margins. Each essay will
have a proper introduction and conclusion that will state and
restate your thesis of that section’s message. In addition, each
body paragraph will provide evidence from the biblical text and,
if needed, additional sources to defend your thesis. The student
must employ an academic writing style with appropriate citation
according to the Turabian manual. Please submit your papers in
Blackboard as .doc or .docx files.
As you consider your topic, please remember that the
assignment is not to tell me the setting of the Torah. Its setting
is clearly the Old Covenant. Instead, your task is to define what
he is telling his readers about the Old Covenant. That is, what
message (lesson, instruction, insight) and hope does he give to
the reader as he examines life under the Old Covenant in the
Torah?

2. As such, you will advance a thesis that claims what the author
intends to communicate with the shape of his book. That is, you
are now asked to argue what the author is offering as the book’s
hope. How does the author answer his dilemma? What hope
does he offer? Is his hope for the reader the law codes
themselves? Or, is his hope based upon something or someone
other than the law codes? If so, what does the author have to
say about the law codes? Therefore, there are the two main
approaches to the message of the Torah that most of your papers
will follow: 1) the law codes themselves and the necessity of
obedience are the book’s hope (the law codes solve the book’s
problems) or 2) the law codes are part of a larger strategy to
point to a hope that will only come in the end of the days
through the seed of Abraham. The first approach essentially
contends that the book is written to persuade the reader that the
Mosaic Covenant is an everlasting covenant that will eventually
overcome the book’s dilemma. On the other hand, the second
approach presents the law codes as something that is good for
the reader but does not solve the book’s dilemma. That solution
will come in the end of the days through the arrival of the One
promised to Abraham. The key to deciding between these
approaches is to think though what the book presents as its
primary dilemma and its primary (or exclusive) solution. You
need to consider what prompted the author to actually sit down
and write this book. Why is it significant that he tell his grand
story from Adam and his land all the way to Israel and Moses
waiting outside of the land?
Essay Outline
Introductory Paragraph
After an introductory sentence or two that provides a brief
explanation of the importance of the question that your essay

3. answers, you will write a final sentence that clearly declares
your thesis. This thesis statement should be the final sentence
of this paragraph and is also your claim. Your purpose in
crafting this paper is to prove your claim about the message of
that part of the Bible.
Body Paragraphs
In each body paragraph you should begin by stating a warrant
(reason, defense) that helps to prove your claim (thesis). The
rest of each paragraph should clarify, explain, develop and
deepen this warrant and (if needed) refute one or more opposing
theses by this same reasoning.
Concluding Paragraph
Restate your thesis (claim) and its warrants in one or two
sentences. The final sentence(s) should draw to a close by
providing one final application or implication of your thesis
being correct.
Step One
Determine the message of the book. What is its dilemma, and
what is its hope? The message should highlight the book’s hope
(solution) in light of its dilemma (problem). Your goal in
crafting a thesis statement is to explain most of the book and its
most important parts. How do you define these most important
parts?
a. Consider the beginning and the ending of the book.

4. b. Consider the book’s major patterns—how do the parts fit
together?
c. Consider the different types of literature in the book and how
they relate to each other:
i. Narrative
ii. Poetry
iii. Law Codes
iv. Genealogies
d. Consider key repetitions throughout the whole Torah. What
does the author repeat a lot? Why does he repeat these items?
e. Consider what Deuteronomy as a whole does to explain the
rest of the Torah, especially the law codes and Mt Sinai.
f. Consider what Deuteronomy’s final eight chapters (27-34) say
about the rest of Deuteronomy and the outcome of Joshua’s
conquest. What will happen after Moses’ days, and what will
happen even later in the end of the days?
Step Two
Craft a thesis statement that makes a defensible claim about the
message of the book that the rest of your paper can defend.
Your thesis statement needs to make a claim that is specific
enough to defend and yet broad enough to explain most of the
book and its most important parts. You are asked to reduce all
of the words of the Torah into one really well-designed sentence
a. Key ideas to crafting a good thesis statement:

5. i. Begin your thesis with the phrase “The message of the Torah
is that …” What follows after that is your claim.
ii. Only use one complete sentence for your thesis. Do not use
two. Also, please note that your thesis sentence should be the
last sentence of the introduction.
iii. Only use an active verb for the claim.
iv. The sentence parts must be connected into one claim.
b. Samples: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
Not good:
The message of the Torah is that God is good.
What are the problems with this thesis?
--Passive “is.” The claim is a state of being not an action: “God
is good.”
--Too vague. What does it mean that God is good? You have no
idea what you need to defend with this thesis.
Better (but not good enough):
The message of the Torah is that God saves man.
What are the improvements from the first try?
--No passive in the actual thesis!
What are the problems with this one?
--Too vague.
Better (but not good enough):

6. The message of the Torah is that God’s goodness to Adam
points to His care for the reader.
What are the improvements from the prior tries?
--No passive in the actual thesis!
--More specific
What are the problems with this one?
--“Points” is a very weak verb. What does it mean in this
sentence? Too vague.
--It does not seem to offer an explanation of most of the book
and its most important parts.
Better (but not good enough):
The message of the Torah is that God is good by promising to
restore man to His presence, by sending a seed of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob and giving laws to Israel.
What are the improvements from the prior tries?
--More specific. You can clearly see the ideas.
--Clearly covers many of the book’s parts
What are the problems with this one?
--The ideas are not coordinated into one idea. There is no claim
to hold all the parts of the thesis together. The book, in essence,
has three messages not one with this approach.
--Passive voice! Your thesis should not be a state of being but
an action.

7. Better (but not good enough):
The message of the Torah is that God promises to restore man to
His presence in the end of the days through the work of the
coming seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and provides laws to
hold Israel in place until He comes.
What are the improvements from the first try?
--Very specific. You can clearly see the ideas.
What are the problems?
The “and” (“Jacob and provides”) actually divides the one
sentence into two distinct claims. The two parts can be better
related to each other.
Better (may be good enough but can still be improved):
The message of the Torah is that God’s Word provides man with
His immediate presence and promise of its perfect completion in
the end of the days as man waits for the seed of Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob to return man to God and His kingdom.
Step Three
Form your argument to defend this thesis.
a. Review your thesis statement, and isolate the ideas in your
thesis statement that must be defended. For example, in the
possible thesis statement above the ideas might be isolated as
follows:
i. The message of the Torah is that God’s Word provides man
with His immediate presence and promise of its perfect
completion in the end of the days as man waits for the seed of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to return man to God and His
kingdom.

8. 1. God’s Word provides man with His immediate presence
2. (God’s Word provides man with)… [a] promise of its perfect
completion in the end of the days
3. … as man waits for the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to
return man to god and His kingdom.
ii. Thus, I would divide such a thesis into a three part argument.
Each part of the argument needs a body paragraph that begins
with a topic sentence and advances the defense of this thesis.
b. For each part of your argument, you will have to design a
body paragraph, which should contain 1) a topic sentence, 2)
evidence and analysis to advance this part of the argument and
3) a clincher that ties this part of the argument to the topic
sentence and the next paragraph.
i. Craft a topic sentence. A topic sentence will connect each
body paragraph to the thesis statement. It declares 1) what the
paragraph will cover and 2) how this information will help
defend your thesis statement.
ii. Determine the primary evidence that advances this part of
your argument. Consult your analysis from step 1 for the best
reasons.
iii. Craft a clincher sentence that ties this part of the argument
to the topic sentence and to the next paragraph.
c. Repeat for each body paragraph/ portion of your argument.
Step Four
Craft your introduction and conclusion. Please note that your
introduction and conclusion need to be designed after you know

9. what your argument is. They will come first and last in the
paper, but you need to what you are saying before you can
design a quality introduction and conclusion.
a. Your introduction should begin broadly and move to your
thesis statement. The thesis statement must be the final sentence
of your introduction.
b. Your conclusion should begin with the exact same thesis
statement as was found in your introduction. It should be
followed by a quick summary of your argument (consider your
topic sentences) that leads to a final application or implication
of your thesis being correct.
Step Five
Add your cover page and (if needed) a Bibliography. Your
cover page must be a Turabian cover page. Please see the
Turabian example located online in the class’ resources.
Step Six
Read your paper out loud and with a friend. This easily skipped
step may be the most important. You may have no idea what
your paper actually says until you let someone else interact with
it.
Step Seven
Rewrite your paper. The key to good writing is re-writing.
Nobody writes a good first draft. It always take time and
thought to write well.
Step Eight
Repeat steps 6 and 7 until you have a polished paper.