Lesson 10: Interpretive Tools
Use Your Words (Paraphrasing)
The Purpose and Value
The purpose of writing a paraphrase is not to improve the text of Scripture.
Rather, a paraphrase aims to express your understanding of a text clearly. Thus a good paraphrase does not come by simply grabbing a thesaurus and changing a few key words. Instead, a good paraphrase restates the text so as to demonstrate your interpretation of its meaning. Thus a paraphrase helps you and others evaluate how faithfully you have exegeted a text.
In my experience, writing a paraphrase is one of the most difficult—and most rewarding—tasks in Bible study. It is difficult because you must wrestle with the text until you understand what it means. You simply cannot restate a text that you do not understand. Yet paraphrasing is also rewarding. When you finish paraphrasing a text, you can clearly communicate to others what the text means.
An Example
Below we paraphrased Psalm 8. The left column contains the ESV. The right column contains our paraphrase.
- Carefully read through Psalm 8 in the ESV.
- Carefully read through our paraphrase.
- Go line by line and compare our paraphrase with the ESV.
- Answer the question below.
Note three specific places in which our paraphrase explained or clarified Psalm 8 for you.
Log in / create an account to enroll or continue where you left off.
Some Tips
We propose the following five tips to help you as you paraphrase:
- Clarify the links between ideas. Sometimes an author will use explicit conjunctions (connecting words): “like,” “but,” “because,” “since,” “therefore,” “however,” “in order to,” “that is.” At other times, an author merely implies a connection. Either way, your paraphrase should clarify the author’s logic.
- Express the meaning in your own words. Don’t just change a few key words and use close synonyms. For example, in verse 6 above, rather than simply swapping the word “dominion” for a close synonym, I used the phrase, “responsibility as steward of your authority.” This expresses how I interpret “dominion” in this context (see also Gen 1:26–28).
- Expand the text. A paraphrase explains a text. It restates words and unpacks ideas. It clarifies the logic, expounds metaphors, and reveals allusions. Thus, a paraphrase should be longer than the original.
- Capture the tone. A faithful paraphrase captures and communicates the message of the original. This not only involves capturing the ideas but also the tone intended by the original. In our paraphrase of Psalm 8, we aimed to maintain the sense of wonder and worship that this psalm communicates.
- Get back to work. If you find a verse particularly hard to restate in your own words, it may indicate that you don’t yet understand the text. This should drive you back to the text. Get back to work as you interpret and prayerfully pursue understanding.
Your Turn
Now it’s time for you to paraphrase your assigned passage. In the “mine” column of the discourse module below for your assigned passage, paraphrase the text. Remember the five tips above.
(1) Click on your assigned passage; (2) In the “mine” column, paraphrase your assigned passage.
Log in / create an account to enroll or continue where you left off.
Further Study
Our Paraphrase course is currently closed for improvements. When released, we will include a link to it here!