about this text?” (And, practically speaking, “Am I willing to stake a significant portion of my course grade on a project related to this text?”) An exegesis paper considers a passage that is a complete unit of manageable size. In general, the passage should not be a single phrase or verse, nor should it be a complete chapter, much less an entire biblical book. A good rule of thumb for exegesis papers is somewhere between five and twenty-five verses, depending on the length and depth of the paper,