Does the text belong to a typical literary form? How does the text compare to others of this genre?
e.g. Betrothal-type narrative (Rebekah, Rachel, Zipporah)
Use more databases when doing a broader subject search.
Tracing other occurrences of similar stories will sometimes uncover metaphors, or literary symbols. In relation to the story of the Samaritan woman at the well, you could trace wells or water in the Bible. You could start with a Simple Search in WorldCat, our library catalogue:
You could also do an Advanced Search in WorldCat for books related to studying the Bible as literature:
Useful Subject Headings:
AND finds all terms
OR finds either term
symbol* finds any ending (symbols, symbolism)
Literary Structure or Outline of the Biblical book
Try the following search in EBSCOhost to find articles about the literary structure of the Gospel of John as a whole.
A History of the English Bible as Literature by 
The Liberated Gospel: a Comparison of the Gospel of Mark and Greek Tragedy by 
Stories with Intent: a Comprehensive Guide to the Parables of Jesus by 
An Introduction to the Old Testament Poetic Books by Subject Headings related to the imagery of Water, Wells, Betrothal in the Bible:
Go to EBSCO Services on the library Databases page and try the following search.
Use quotation marks to search for a phrase.
Go to JSTOR and try the following search after selecting Advanced Search. For additional help with JSTOR, look under the Databases tab on the library website.
Peter Turkstra Library, Redeemer University , 777 Garner Road East, Ancaster, ON, L9K 1J4, Canada Circulation Desk Telephone: 905.648.2139 ext. 4266, Email: library@redeemer.ca
