One strategy would be to emphasize breadth i.e. comparative study:
Study "Doublets" and "Triplets"
Study "Variations on Themes"
However we will emphasize depth i.e. "drilling down" to study short texts in detail:
The "E" (Elohist) text is simpler and less sophisticated, and might make a good staring text for Biblical analysis.
We will instead initially concentrate on the "J" (Yahwist) text,
essentially as presented in R. E. Friedman's "The Hidden Book in the Bible" (see below):
The usual method of studying the Bible is "Beginning to End", for example:
Garden of Eden
to
King Solomon
Instead we will use an "inside-out" approach:
we will start by using computer and Internet tools to examine in detail the text of Samson's Riddle
(Judges 14:1
to Judges 15:8);
we will compare Samson's behavior to the Nazirite Laws, composed by the "P" (Priestly) author;
we will how the "J" author reused the Samson narrative structure in Samuel before Kingship;
we will try to find literary links to the stories immediately preceding and following Samson.
The literary connections to other Bible stories by the "J" author will become manifest when we study them, like:
Noah's Drunkenness
Judah and Tamar
Joseph and Potiphar's Wife
Samuel and Saul
Absalom
When we have enough experience, we will begin to perceive the overall Form and Architecture of the Yahwists's work:
how the "J" author continually reused and varied the same themes, terms, and composition structures;
how older texts were reworked with improved composition techniques;
how the entire work consists of a sophisticated, multilevel hierarchical structure,
and the implications of this for interpreting the meaning of the work;
what are the author's intended ethical (if not theological) lessons of these deliberately ordered moral tales;
that this is not some random or merely sequential writing down of folk or oral traditions,
although the author (like Joel Chandler Harris)
worked hard to create that impression.
We will also see how some unusual textual clues, in the light of modern archaeology, can reveal the probable date of composition.
We will explore the place of the work in the prehistory of Drama,
at the time of the spread of the Osiris-Dionysios cult in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Examining "Doublets" and "Triplets" opens a window into the art of The Redactor ("R"):
the compiler and editor (and occasional author), probably Ezra and his school,
who wove together the "J", "E" "P", "D" and other documents
into more or less the current Hebrew books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings.
The "P" (Priestly) narrative, which continues on into the books of Joshua, Judges, and beyond,
can now be examined by comparing it to the "J" text.
The "E" (Elohist) and "D" (Deuteronomist) narratives are derived ultimately from a Northern (Kingdom of Israel) Phophetic Document,
reworked by Jeremiah and his followers.