FOUNDATIONS OF BIBLE STUDY

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FOUNDATIONS OF BIBLE STUDY

• Introduction to the Critical Method

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Biblical Criticism- definition

• Biblical Criticism might be defined as the
  analysis of the biblical text in such a way as to
  discern the reality behind the text as it bears
  upon
• The origin and composition of biblical literature
• The historical events referred to
• The transmission of the original text

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Biblical Criticism- definition

• We can recognize in the previous definition
• Literary criticism
• Historical criticism
• Textual criticism

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• Criticism is not necessarily a negative exercise
  to be shunned.
• It is only when our presuppositions bias us
  against positing divine intervention within
  history and God revealing His truth through human
  vehicles that we want to question critical method.

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• By criticism we mean the making of informed
  judgments.
• Then, in the broadest sense, we can hardly read
  the Bible at all without some kind of critical
  method.

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Textual Criticism

• It has been called Lower Criticism.
• It concerns matters of authorship, date, purpose,
  etc. of the biblical documents.
• It is the first level of study of the text upon
  which the rest builds.
• By far the greatest preponderance of the New
  Testament text does not fall into question in any
  consequential way.

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Textual Criticism

• When a question is raised as to the original
  text, no main doctrinal truth is actually
  affected.
• Evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls for Isaiah
  indicates a text preserved from generation to
  generation.

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• Evidence of available ancient manuscripts and
  biblical quotations in writings of the church
  fathers
• Evidence from transcriptional probability, that
  is, what scribes would likely have copied or not
  in transmission of the text.

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• The first consideration assesses the worth of
  ancient Hebrew and Greek manuscripts, ancient
  translations of the original languages, and
  quotes in writings of the early church fathers.
• The second consideration asks what scribes most
  likely would have written in certain instances,
  including when there were discrepancies.

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Textual Criticism

• Textual Criticism is a very technical field.
• The organization of ancient manuscripts into
  families
• Differing families agree in wording in given
  instances
• Differing families may represent varying
  geographical areas and would help testify to what
  was derived from a more ancient common source.
• The age of a particular manuscript is on itself
  not the only thing of importance.

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Reasons why scribes might have erred in
transmission

• Dittography- the unintentional writing of the
  same word a second time, such as occurs when it
  is in a similar context
• Haplography- the writing of something once that
  should have been repeated
• Marginal gloss- inserting into the text what was
  on the margin of the document being copied
• Harmonistic alterations- to bring a text into
  harmony with a parallel passage

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Literary Criticism

• Four areas to understanding the biblical text
• Genre and form criticism, redaction criticism,
  canonical criticism, and narrative criticism

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Genre/Form Criticism

• Genre often refers to the larger literary types
  that characterize much or the whole of a document
• Such literary types were part of the culture of
  the Ancient Near East.
• This kind of awareness not only helps to prevent
  misinterpretation, but also aides in our exegesis.

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Genre/Form Criticism

• Form Critics sought to explore what was
  considered to be the oral period that lay
  behind the written biblical documents.
• Their concern was to appreciate better the life
  situation (sitz im leben) which explained the
  form the literary units had assumed.

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Genre/Form Criticism

• One value of the form critical movement is that
  it has placed a spotlight on the early church and
  the importance of what Jesus said and did for the
  early church.
• For example, parables should be seen in a
  different light from historical narrative.

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Redaction/Composition Criticism

• Redaction criticism works with the document as a
  whole.
• This contrasts with form criticism, which focuses
  ion the smaller units comprising the whole.
• Whereas form criticism sought through its
  scissors and paste procedures to examine the
  underlying tradition, redaction has sought to see
  what the editors did with the tradition in
  putting it together as whole documents.

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Redaction/Composition Criticism

• Redaction criticism has led scholarship generally
  to place more emphasis on biblical authors as
  authors and not merely as compilers of historical
  traditions.
• It has been popular to speak of them as the first
  interpreters of the Jesus tradition.
• The Evangelists organize their data (the Jesus
  tradition) into a message relevant for the
  congregation which they address.
• The question for us is What did (and is) the
  Holy Spirit saying to the church through the
  author?

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Redaction/Composition Criticism

• The distinctive work of the biblical authors may
  be observed in how they organize their data.
• Chronology is not always the decisive factor for
  the order in which events are recorded.

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Redaction/Composition Criticism

• There are various ways an author may repackage
  his tradition
• Clarifying comments
• Expansion on certain themes
• Frequent use and insertion of certain terms
• Alteration apparently to avoid misunderstanding
  or what is ambiguous
• It is when trends are observed in these and other
  ways that we have a clearer idea of the message
  of the biblical author

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Canonical Criticism

• Canonical Criticism is an extension of redaction
  criticism
• It explores how biblical documents functioned in
  the community of Gods people after they were
  composed.
• Canon criticism would ask how Deuteronomy 34 came
  to be added to this book. It is quite clear that
  the details of Moses departure in chapter 34
  were not originally part of the Mosaic
  legislation.

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Narrative criticism

• Like redaction and canon criticism, narrative
  criticism looks at documents as wholes.
• The stress is on the literary artistry of the
  author.
• Critics speak of implied author meaning the
  author as he is revealed in the text.

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Narrative criticism

• Critics speak of implied reader meaning the
  reader which the author had in mind when
  composing the narrative.
• Our goal should be to recognize the message the
  author wished to convey as he selectively
  utilizes and arranges data at hand.

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Historical Criticism

• We are using the tem to speak of events recorded
  in the Bible
• We are not presupposing an inherent contradiction
  between the ordinary events of human experience
  that can be empirically verified and the biblical
  claims of supernatural intervention in human
  experience.
• Such scholars seem to take the position that the
  Bible is suspect unless it can be proved to be
  accurate.

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Historical Criticism

• For example, it has been demonstrated that in the
  Graeco-Roman world thematic interests often took
  precedence over chronological order in
  biographical writings.
• We at times will want to ascertain as much as
  possible regarding what actually happened.
• At other times, an historically sensitive
  procedure will simply wish to clarify what is
  obscure for other reasons to present day readers.

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Historical Criticism

• A list of historical critical steps was
  formulated by the Ecumenical Study Conference at
  Oxford in 1949
• The determination of the text
• The literary for of the passage
• The historical situation (Sitz Im Leben)
• The meaning which the words had for the original
  author and hearer or reader
• The understanding of the passage in the light of
  its total context and the background out of which
  it emerged.