Help:Commentary pages

Each commentary page is divided into four categories. The sections below discuss what is appropriate and what is not for each section. In addition, each commentary page has a related discussion page. Content that does not belong on the commentary page may be appropriate for the related discussion page. See help:discussion pages for more detail.

What are appropriate questions?

Good questions. Questions are likely to be good if they are:

• Sincere questions - a question you really have about the scriptures, something you suspect someone may know the answer to but you don't.
• Thought-provoking questions - a question you think is helpful to think about in order to understand the scriptures better even if the scriptures don't provide enough information for us to know the answer.

Bad questions. Questions are not likely to be good if they are:

• Quiz or trivial-pursuit type questions - the answer to your question is clearly given in the text; these are the type of questions that would be good for a quiz to see if you had read carefully; these types of questions tend not to be very valuable for readers on this site.
• Tendentious or leading questions - you want to take a certain position but choose to do it by suggesting it as a question rather than putting it as a position in the exegesis.

When questions are answered in the exegesis section, they should be deleted from the questions section.

What are appropriate lexical notes?

The Lexical notes section of the commentary page is a place to write about the meaning and origin of words in the text.

What is appropriate exegesis?

The Exegesis section of the commentary page is a place to explain the text.

Appropriate exegesis. Good exegesis will help explain the text by doing one or more of the following:

• Analyzing possible interpretations of the text: If there is more than one way to interpret a phrase or passage, analyzing the implications of different readings is appropriate exegesis.
• Contextual insights: The context of particular passages is often significant in understanding and appreciating the significance of a particular passage; analyzing the context is appropriate exegesis.
• Relation to other scriptural passages: Comparing and contrasting the teachings in one scriptural passage with another scriptural passage can shed light on the meaning and significance of different scriptural passages.

Inappropriate exegesis. The following are inappropriate for the exegesis section of commentary pages:

• Unsubstantiated commentary or speculation: Exegesis should be directly based on the text of the scriptures. Even if commentary reflects true doctrine, if it is not directly substantiated by the text, it is not appropriate for the commentary page (such comments are fine on the discussion page or on a user subpage).
• Personal experiences or reflection: Personal experiences can be put on user subpages, but are not appropriate for the exegesis section where the neutral point of view should be used.
• False doctrine: Writing commentary that is inconsistent with being a believing member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as stated in the site policies.
• Links to external sites: All links to non-commentary pages of this site should be put in the external links section of the page, as stated in the site policies.
• Restatement or summary of text: Exegesis should shed some sort of insight on the text, not just summarize or restate what is in the text. (Outlines of passages should generally be put on a user page, although short outlines may be appropriate for the exegesis section, especially when the outline pertains to the insight being given.)

What are appropriate related links?

The related links section of the commentary page is a place to link to other content relevant to the text.

Related links

• User subpages help.
• Site policies page.
• Main help page.
• Editing help page.