Religion, Old Testament: Genesis: Home

Prophet Research Paper

Overview:

 

Research and report on one of the Old Testament prophets from the list of options. The purpose of this project is to learn about one prophet in-depth and develop research and writing skills.

 

Two Components to the Project:

 

(1)  Research – work individually on this, without collaborating with other students. You must have a minimum of 5 sources:

 

• At least two sources must be books (“print” sources) from the class portal.
• At least two sources from the following online databases, accessed through the Underwood Library on the EHS website):
  • Oxford Biblical Studies Online database – Browse references for your prophet
  • GVRL (Gale Virtual Reference Library) - Type in your prophet's name into the GRVL and discover which hits you are able to use.
  • Gale Biography in Context
• Another source will be the Bible. Refer to the page “Biblical Passages for Your Prophets” to find the passages you are required to read for your prophet. Quote at least one of the listed passages in your paper, to support your research findings.

Use Noodle Tools to create a correct Bibliography that must be printed and turned in with your paper.

 

(2)  Paper – work individually on this, without collaborating with other students. Cover the following subjects, one or two paragraphs each, in a printed paper:

     

1. Introduction / Historical Context (When & Where)
   • What was going on in the people’s lives when the prophet spoke?
   • When did he live? Where did he live & prophesy?
   • Give any important background information for the prophet
2. Prophet’s Message
   • What was the main theme of his teaching and preaching?
   • What does that message have to do with his historical context?
   • Refer to 2 or 3 of the biblical passages I’ve given you for your prophet, to support your summary of the prophet’s message.
   • Include one brief quotation from the Bible (from the one of the biblical passages I’ve given you), and include a parenthetical citation for it. An example this is:

“Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31).

• How does the prophet describe God?

3. People’s Reaction
   • What did people think of the prophet?
   • Was he famous in his own time?
   • Was he persecuted?
   • Did they change their behavior because of the prophet’s teaching?

 

4. Significance in his own time
   • Why was he important in his own day?
   • Did he prophesy any important events?

 

5. Significance today / Conclusion
   • In what ways is our context today (world political situation, social concerns, or even the everyday life of a person like you) like the prophet’s?
   • What does this prophet have to say to us today?
   • Why is this prophet important enough to be in the Bible?
   • Draw a conclusion that brings all of your ideas together…

 

Your paper should be well-written and use correct grammar and spelling. It should be printed and turned in to me before class via Turnitin.com on the due date with your bibliography (Works Cited).

 

This grade will count 15% of your overall grade in Old Testament!

 

Biblical Passages for Your Prophets

Read the Biblical passages indicated below for your prophet, as part of your research. You will use this information particularly to understand your prophet’s message, and you will include a quotation from one of the listed passages in your paper.

 

• 1 Kings 16:29-33: The problem with King Ahab
• 1 Kings 17:1-24: The drought and the widow of Zarephath
• 1 Kings 18:1-2, 17-40: Elijah’s contest with Baal’s prophets
• 1 Kings 19:1-18: Persecution by Jezebel & encountering God in the sound of sheer silence
• 1 Kings 21:1-29: Naboth’s vineyard
• 2 Kings 2:1-11: Elijah’s ascent to heaven in a whirlwind

 

• 2 Kings 2:1-15: Elisha’s dedication to Elijah, and receiving Elijah’s mantle
• 2 Kings 4:8-37: Raising the Shunammite woman’s son from the dead
• 2 Kings 4:42-44: Elisha multiplies loaves of bread
• 2 Kings 5:1-15: Elisha heals Naaman of leprosy
• 2 Kings 6:8-23: Elisha helps the king of Israel against the king of Aram

 

• Amos 2:4-6: Because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals
• Amos 3:1-2: You only have I known
• Amos 5:11-15: Because you trample on the poor... seek good and not evil
• Amos 5:21-24: Let just roll down like waters
• Amos 7:7-17: A plumb line in the midst of Israel
• Amos 9:11-15: Hope for the future

 

• Hosea 1:2-11: Go, take for yourself a wife of whoredom
• Hosea 2:16-20: And I will take you for my wife forever
• Hosea 4:1-3: There is no faithfulness or loyalty, and no knowledge of God in the land
• Hosea 11:1-4: When Israel was a child, I loved him
• Hosea 14:1-7: I will heal their disloyalty

 

• Isaiah 5:18-25: They have rejected the instruction of the LORD of hosts
• Isaiah 9:2-7: The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light
• Isaiah 10:20-23: A remnant will return
• Isaiah 11:1-9: A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse
• Isaiah 12:1-6: Surely God is my salvation
• Isaiah 35:8-10: The ransomed of the LORD shall return

 

• Micah 3:9-12: Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins
• Micah 5:1-5a: But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah
• Micah 6:6-8: What does the LORD require of you but to do justice
• Micah 6:9-16: The voice of the LORD cries to the city
• Micah 7:8-9, 18-20: He will again have compassion upon us

 

• Jeremiah 3:12-18: Return, faithless Israel
• Jeremiah 4:13-18, 23-27: Look! He comes up like clouds
• Jeremiah 5:20-29: Hear this, O foolish and senseless people
• Jeremiah 6:16-19: I am going to bring disaster on this people
• Jeremiah 29:10-14: For surely I know the plans I have for you
• Jeremiah 31:31-34: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts

 

• Isaiah 40:1-11: Comfort, O comfort my people
• Isaiah 40:28-31: Those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength
• Isaiah 42:5-9: I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations
• Isaiah 43:1-7: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you
• Isaiah 44:24-28: Who says of Jerusalem, “It shall be rebuilt”
• Isaiah 45:18-23: Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth!
• Isaiah 52:7-10: How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace
• Isaiah 53:4-9: The LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all

 

• Ezekiel 1:1-14: vision of the “four living creatures”
• Ezekiel 2:1 – 3:4: Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel
• Ezekiel 4:4-7: You shall bear their punishment for the number of the days that you lie there
• Ezekiel 36:22-32: I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh
• Ezekiel 37:1-14: Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live
• Ezekiel 39:21-29: Then they shall know that I am the LORD their God

 

 

Citing Your Sources

 

For your paper, you will create a Bibliography, which should include:

1. two “print” sources, which are research materials available for your prophet on  the class portal
2. two sources from one of these online databases, which you’ll access through the EHS library’s portal:

• The Oxford Biblical Studies database (primarily)
• Gale Virtual Reference Library
• Gale Biography in Context

Use their “cite” option, which is at the top left of the screen in Oxford Biblical Studies materials, to get the information you need, but do not include the URL.

3. the Holy Bible

 

HOW to cite all of this material:

Use Noodle Tools through the Underwood Library website to enter all your sources: the two (or more) “print” sources from our class portal you have used, the two database sources you found through the school library, and the Holy Bible. From Noodle Tools, you can then print your Bibliography.

 

Citations: In your paper, you should also use Noodle Tools to give appropriate credit to your information:

1. When scholars have differing opinions about some of the information
2. When giving a direct quotation from the source – although I prefer for you to use your own words (i.e. use direct quotations of your scholarly research sparingly!)

When quoting the Bible, include the chapter and verse reference in parentheses following the quotation:

“The just shall live by his faith.” (Habakkuk 2:4)

 

 

 

 

Accessing the Oxford Biblical Studies Database: www.oxfordbiblicalstudies.com

 

You can access this website through our Underwood Library portal, under Online Data Bases for Religion. The username and password are both “episcopal.”

 

Under “Browse,” if you click on “Reference,” you may find articles about your prophet that are helpful. Note the “cite” button on the toolbar.

 

Under “Bible Texts,” select the first option, “New Oxford Annotated Bible (NRSV).” In the left-hand column, click on “The Prophetic Books,” and then click on your prophet. That will take you to the “Introduction” for your prophet, where you’ll get some good information about your prophet and that book of the Bible. Note the “cite” button on the toolbar.

 

After the Introduction, you’ll find the Biblical text for that book. If you click on “side-by-side” at the top of the page, you can find commentary for the chapters and verses.

NoodleTools Template: Choose Database  --> Religious Work. 

Name of the database: Oxford Biblical Studies Online 

URL - SKIP

Most recent date of access: click "today" 

Section: Religion Work 

Role: SKIP

Title of religious work or multivolume work: Example:  Commentary on Amos 9:11-15

Click on: "Citing a Bible" 

Bible Version: Choose "NRSV" 

Title of Volume: SKIP

Volume: SKIP

Total # of volumes: SKIP 

Publisher: Oxford UP

Year 2009

FINAL Citation:

Commentary on Amos 9:11-15. New Revised Standard Version, Oxford UP, 2009. The
     New Oxford Annotated Bible. Oxford Biblical Studies Online. Accessed 28
     Nov. 2018.

 

 

You can EXPORT the citation from a Gale database into NoodleTools

1. Click “Citation Tools” 
2. Choose “NoodleTools” Click “Export” 
3. Choose your project and click “Import References”
4. Refresh your NoodleTools tab to access the new citation. 
5. Check the template to edit errors. (below: bold or strikethrough show errors) 

 

Gale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL) and Gale Biography in Context

"Hatshepsut." Encyclopedia of World Biography, Gale, 1998. Biography In Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/K1631002894/BIC?u=tlc041322570&sid=BIC&xid=e52c73c2. Accessed 15 Nov. 2018.

 

Final version with corrections.

 

"The Philosophy of Greek Medicine." Science and Its Times, edited by Neil Schlager and Josh Lauer, vol. 1, Gale, 2001. Biography In Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CV2643450071/BIC?u=tlc041322570&sid=BIC&xid=40c18ee3. Accessed 15 Nov. 2018.

 

Final version with corrections. 

 

"On the Imitation of Man." American Decades Primary Sources, edited by Cynthia Rose, vol. 2: 1910-1919, Gale, 2004, pp. 345-347. Biography In Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX3490200325/BIC?u=tlc041322570&sid=BIC&xid=b76c5b50. Accessed 15 Nov. 2018.

 

Final version with corrections. 

"On the Imitation of Man." American Decades Primary Sources: 1910-1919, edited by Cynthia Rose, vol. 2, Detroit, Gale, 2004, pp. 345-47. Biography In Context. Accessed 15 Nov. 2018

Citing your PRINT source:

Use the NoodleTools Template: Choose PRINT –> Anthology/Collection

 

First Section: Story, Essay… All about the article. 

Contributor to the specific work: Author name(s) 

Title of specific work: Title of the article

Year specific work was originally authored or published: SKIP

 

Second Section: Anthology/Collection, All about the book. 

Pages of the work in the anthology: page numbers for your article

Contributors to the anthology as a whole: Editor, if identified. 

Title of Anthology: The title of the book the article is in. ex: Encyclopedia of Ancient Literature. 

Title of volume: SKIP

Volume: the number of the volume, if identified. 

Total number of volumes: SKIP

Publisher: Yes. ex: Facts on File. 

Year: publication year. 

Publication city: SKIP

Edition: 1st, 2nd, rev. 

Series Name: If identified. ex: Great Events in History

 

NOODLETOOLS TEMPLATE: CHOOSE: DATABASE ---> REFERENCE SOURCE (The ONLY time you use this template) 

FIRST SECTION: Database

Choose: E-publication (born digital) 

Database Publisher/Vendor: Encyclopedia Britannica

Date of publication: MM/DD/YY (Look at the “Cite” button) 

URL - SKIP

Most recent date of access – click “Today”

SECOND SECTION: Article/Entry

Authors of Article/Entry: Look at the bottom of your article: Some articles have the authors listed. Type in ALL author names. 

Article/entry title: What is the title of your article?

THIRD SECTION:  Reference Source: 

Contributors: SKIP

Type of reference source:  Encyclopedia

Title of encyclopedia: Britannica School

Edition: SKIP

Examples – Final Citation for Britannica School

Ames, Roger T. Confucius. Britannica School. Encyclopedia Britannica, 20 May 2009. Accessed 16 Nov. 2018.

 

"Elizabeth II." Britannica School, Encyclopedia Britannica, 30 July 2018. Accessed 16 Nov. 2018.