On An Exegesis

I spent two and a half hours in the library today, doing preliminary source-searching and getting a bit of information for a paper/ presentation. I'm doing research for an exegesis - an in-depth analytical study of a certain passage (in this case, the Greek version of the death of Judas from the book of Matthew in the New Testament).

Also, it's not due for three weeks.

Usually I'm not so excited about paper topics. I will freely admit that I have started writing papers within 24 hours of the due date. Not every paper, but... some.

The abnormal thing about this is that I very rarely begin the researching process three weeks before the deadline. 10 days is usual for me, if it's a research-heavy topic. Three weeks is pushing the limit of what I consider a 'normal paper-writing time frame.'

So what's different about this paper?

LET'S MAKE A LIST!

1. Exegesis-writing is not to be messed with. I've never written an exegesis. My professor handed around a "general outline of basic exegesis-writing goals" in class. The outline had four sections, each with a few bullet points of Things You Should Say About This Section. The outline, with bullet points, easily fit on one side of the page. In my notes for the outline, I gave each section a full page in my notebook, for five pages total. I might need more pages for notes from my sources.
2. The page count is nerve-wracking. When the "exegesis-writing outline" was handed out, the professor didn't specify any minimum or maximum page count. He was very vague when other people asked about the page count; eventually, he said that if you write fewer than five pages, you're not giving the topic enough depth. This should not be a problem, especially if I'm doing two weeks of research and one week of writing. Given that I only got three books with a few pages of information among them, hitting the minimum page count may be worrying.
3. I've never written a paper on a language topic before. I'm surprised I made it this far, because many of my peers in modern languages have had to do papers in and on the language. I've done a few essays about Greek works, including how Xenophon's Anabasis fits into the historiographic tradition. I've never done a paper where I've had to take a close look at seven verses and concluded something about them.
4. 5 pages of analysis on 10 lines of prose is intimidating. Usually, I don't have to do a paper on so short a passage. HOWEVER, a good exegesis is comprised of a lot of research into linguistics, history, and culture of the time in which the passage was written. When was Matthew writing? Why did he include Judas's suicide? Why is he the only one who talks about Judas dying, except for Acts, which says he keeled over from internal disease? These are the things that I need to talk about.