Asking Questions of the Text

  

"The art of biblical exegesis, put very simply, involves learning how to ask questions of a biblical text. Two major problems can cause this to go awry: (1) We can ask 'trick' questions, or (2) we can ask good questions but refuse to listen to the responses that the text gives. When we ask only questions which we think we already know the answers, these are nothing but trick questions. When we dare to ask real and open questions but then resist being surprised or troubled by what the text replies, we have shut our ears to its voice."

Thomas G. Long, The Witness of Preaching, 2nd ed. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2005), 81.