Category Descriptions
Content: What is in this writing?
Overview: A brief discussion of this writing
Outline: An outline of the material in this writing in outline (not prose) form
Contents: What does this writing discuss on a literal level? (An outline in prose form)
Origin: How did writing come to be?
Authorship: Who wrote this writing?
Date: What year was this writing written?
Purpose: Why was this writing written?
Background: What were the circumstances surrounding the origin of this writing?
Historical Context: What were the political, social and religious circumstances at the time the writing was written, or at the time the events described in the writing occurred?
Recipients: Who were the people this writing was intended for?
Location: Where was this writing written?
Objects: What are the significant people and places in this writing?
Geography: Where do the events occurring within this writing take place?
Key Figures: Who are the individuals significant to this writing?
Canon: What is this book’s role as a member of the canon?
Relationship: How does this particular writing interact with content from other particular books within the canon?
Placement: How does the location of this writing within the canon contribute to the narrative arc of the Bible?
Canonicity: How did this writing come to be included as part of the canon?
Historicity: To what extent did the events occurring in this writing literally occur in history?
Authenticity: To what extent are this writing’s internal claims about its composition accurate?
Unity: Was this writing originally a contiguous unified whole, or is it made up of different parts compiled at a later date?
Composition: What source material was used in the creation of this writing?
Text: Do the manuscripts of this writing indicate that the text has been affected by the transmission of scribal errors?
Title: How did this writing come to have its current name?
Style: How does the language of this writing contribute to its genre, literary quality, and meaning?
Structure: How do the various divisions inherent within the writing reflect the meaning of the writing?
Meaning: What meaning can be discerned from this writing?
Theme: What distinctive concern or subject pervades this writing?
Emphases: What are some of the major ideas this writing addresses?
Interpretation: How can the meaning of this writing be explained?
Message: What is the main idea the book communicates to its readers?
Theology: What information regarding church doctrine does this writing address?
Significance: How has this writing made an impact on its various readers over the centuries?
Spiritual Content: What is the devotional application of this writing?
Bibliography: A list of other resources containing information on this writing