The HistoricalCritical Method

1
The Historical-Critical Method

• A Friendly Guide

2
The Historical-Critical Method

• The historical-critical method is the
  indispensable method for the scientific study of
  the meaning of ancient texts. Holy Scripture
  inasmuch as it is the Word of God in human
  language, has been composed by human authors in
  all its various parts and in all the sources that
  lie behind them. Because of this, its proper
  understanding not only admits the use of this
  method but actually requires it.
• The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church

3
The Historical-Critical Method

• What is the historical-critical method?
• It attempts to reconstruct the texts
• origin
• historical context
• its original meaning, i.e., what it meant to its
  original ancient author(s) and first readers.

4
The Historical-Critical Method

• In other words, this approach understands that
  the Bible developed within a knowable historical
  environment which contributed directly to the
  expression of its content.

5
The Historical-Critical Method

• This method is characterized by the use of one or
  more of the following critical approaches.
• Text criticism
• Source criticism
• Form criticism
• Redaction criticism.

6
The Historical-Critical MethodText criticism
definition

• Text criticism seeks to retrieve and establish as
  much of the original text as is possible.

7
The Historical-Critical MethodText criticism

• This approach understands that the text may have
  scribal errors in
• spelling
• misreadings of difficult words and passages
• expansions of sentences
• inaccurate corrections.

8
The Historical-Critical MethodText criticism
Scribal Mistakes

• Haplography
• A error in copying involving a loss of text when
  two identical or similar letters or groups of
  letters occur in sequence and are copied only
  once.
• nmynb wba alw
• nmynb ynb wba alw
• And the sons of Benjamin were not willing

9
The Historical-Critical MethodText criticism
Scribal Mistakes

• Parablepsis
• The oversight or faulty reading which
  occurred when a scribe overlooked part of his
  text.
• wqzyw yrcm bqy ab rvak
• hwhy la kytwba
• wqzyw yrcmh nyw hmyrcm bqy ab rvak
• hwhy la kytwba
• When Joseph went o Egypt, the Egyptians
  oppressed them, and your fathers cried out to
  Yahweh.

10
The Historical-Critical MethodText criticism
Scribal Mistakes

• Qualification of Generalizations
• Scribes believed that some general statements
  were open to misunderstanding and qualified them
  with glosses.
• wdbl hwhyl ytlb rxy yhlal xbz
• rxy yrxa yhlal xbz
• He who sacrifices to other gods will be placed
  under the ban except to Yahweh alone

11
The Historical-Critical MethodText Criticism

• If a text can be full of scribal errors, how do
  we find out about them in order to identify them?
• We look at other manuscript traditions.
• That is, we look at other versions of the same
  text but from other periods.
• The earliest manuscripts are the best.

12
The Historical-Critical MethodText criticism

• This is a page from the Masoretic Text.
• Its symbol is M.
• At the bottom is the apparatus indicated by the
  arrow.
• On the side is the qere-kethib indicated by the
  arrow.

13
The Historical-Critical MethodText Criticism

• The Hebrew for "what is written", kethib refers
  to the consonants found in the Hebrew text and
  preserved by scribal tradition.
• In the margin they wrote the consonants of
  suggested corrections (the qere, "what is to be
  read"), putting the vowels of the correction
  around these consonants in the text indicating
  the need for correction.

14
The Historical-Critical MethodText criticism

• This is an enlargement of the apparatus.
• It contains all the variant readings of the
  biblical verses on the main page.
• These variant readings come from other OT
  manuscript traditions. It is in these other
  texts that we can find the corrections to scribal
  errors.

15
The Historical-Critical MethodText criticism
Famous Catholic Scholars

• Carlo Maria Cardinal Martini
• New Testament Text Critic scholar.
• He headed the Scripture Department at the
  Biblicum where he also was appointed Rector of
  the Institute in 1969.
• He left that office in1978.

16
The Historical-Critical MethodText Criticism
Discussion on Text Criticism
17
The Historical-Critical MethodSource Criticism
definition

• Source criticism seeks to discover the literary
  sources of a document. Thus, it is basically
  interested in the written materials upon which a
  text may be based.

18
The Historical-Critical MethodSource Criticism
the founder

• In the Old Testament Julius Wellhausen is
  considered the father of Source Criticism.
• He proposed that the Pentateuch was composed from
  four main sources.
• J Yahwist
• E Elohist
• D Deuteronomist
• P Priestly writer

19
The Historical-Critical MethodSource Criticism

• Wellhausen also established the criteria for the
  classical theory of Source Criticism in the OT.
• He used five literary identifiers to distinguish
  the sources.

20
The Historical-Critical MethodSource Criticism

• Duplication and repetition of material
• variation in the ways of referring to God
• contrasting author perspectives
• variation in vocabulary and literary style
• evidence of editorial activity.

21
The Historical-Critical MethodSource Criticism
based on referring to God

• Yahwist
• Called J because Yahweh is spelled with J in
  German
• This source uses the divine name Yahweh
• Believed to date to the end of Davids reign or
  to the period of Solomon.

Solomon
David
22
The Historical-Critical MethodSource Criticism
based on author perspective

• Yahwist
• It reflects Southern traditions.
• Thus, it emphasizes Judah. That is
• Judah as the son of Jacob or
• Judah as the area that the tribe of Judah
  occupied.

23
The Historical-Critical MethodSource Criticism
based on vocabulary and style

• Yahwist Style
• Prefers the narrative style and stories
• Frequently uses puns
• Uses the term Sinai for Gods mountain
• Calls indigenous people Canaanites
• God is anthropromorphic.

24
The Historical-Critical MethodSource Criticism

• Source Criticism also acknowledges that texts
  could be shaped according to other literary types
  from the ANE such as
• Treaties
• Genealogies
• King lists
• Boundary lists
• Inheritance texts.

25
The Historical-Critical MethodSource Criticism
New Testament

• Source Criticism for the Synoptic Gospels
  involves
• The identification of the sources that were
  brought together in order to create them. These
  are
• Materials from Mark
• Materials unique to Matthew
• Materials unique to Luke
• The Q source.

26
The Historical-Critical MethodSource Criticism
Famous Catholic Scholars

• Raymond E. Brown, SS.
• Auburn Distinguished Professor Emeritus of
  Biblical Studies at Union Theological Seminary,
  New York.
• He was twice appointed a member of the Pontifical
  Biblical Commission, by Pope Paul VI in 1972 and
  by Pope John Paul II in 1996.
• Best known for The Birth of the Messiah, 1993.

Raymond E Brown August 8, 1998
27
The Historical-Critical MethodSource Criticism
Discussion on Source Criticism
28
The Historical-Critical MethodForm Criticism
definition

• Form Criticism is a method of literary analysis
  that seeks to go behind the written documents.
• This is done in order to determine the underlying
  oral traditions.

Sofer writing the Torah
Shouting Man by DaVinci
29
The Historical-Critical MethodForm Criticism
The founder

• Herman Gunkel (1852-1932) first introduced and
  developed form criticism.
• He shifted attention away from analyses of entire
  texts (Source Criticism) to smaller units of
  text, also known as pericopies.

30
The Historical-Critical MethodForm Criticism

• Gunkel showed how these units grew out of
  particular customs associated with events.
• This means that each unit has a characteristic
  pattern connected with the event.

Coronation of Charlemagne
31
The Historical-Critical MethodForm Criticism

• These events are not single one-time only events.
• Rather these are acts/words that are repeated in
  the same way every time a type of event occurs.

32
The Historical-Critical MethodForm Criticism

• Form criticism may also be described as the
  analysis of literary units to discover the
  typical formal structures and patterns behind the
  present text.
• In this it attempts to recover the original
  sociological setting or "setting in life" (German
  Sitz im Leben) of that form of literature.

33
The Historical-Critical MethodForm Criticism

• Thus, Gunkel introduced the idea that the Book of
  Psalms was the product of Jerusalem temple cult.
• The Psalms were not private, prayerful,
  meditative reflections of individuals but

34
The Historical-Critical MethodForm Criticism

• the Psalms were the prayers of the community,
  which were developed and used within a liturgical
  context.
• Liturgy is the Psalms original "setting in life"

35
The Historical-Critical MethodForm Criticism

• Gunkel then distinguished several different types
  of Psalms based on the tenor of their mood and
  style
• Hymns of Praise
• Community Laments
• Thanksgiving Psalms
• Entrance liturgies
• Royal Psalms.

36
The Historical-Critical MethodForm Criticism
New Testament

• Form Criticism for the Synoptic Gospels involves
• The classification of small units of text in
  order to better understand the different uses of
  these forms among the authors. Some of these
  forms are
• Parables
• Miracle stories
• Pronouncement stories
• Legendary materials.

37
The Historical-Critical MethodForm Criticism
Famous Catholic Scholars

• Carmelite Fr. Roland E. Murphy, co-editor of the
  Jerome Biblical Commentary.
• Taught at The Catholic University of America in
  Washington, 1948-70.
• He was George Washington Ivey professor of
  biblical studies at Duke University Divinity
  School in Durham, N.C., from 1971 until his
  retirement in 1986 at the age of 70.

Roland E. Murphy, O. Carm. August 2, 2002
38
The Historical-Critical MethodForm Criticism
Discussion on Form Criticism
39
The Historical-Critical MethodRedaction
Criticism definition

• Redaction criticism seeks to show how authors
  and/or editors have chosen, shaped and framed
  sources in the composition of the Bible.
• It tries to describe the intention and viewpoints
  of books.

40
The Historical-Critical Method Redaction
Criticism

• Redaction criticism deals with larger units of
  material.
• It seeks to find themes or values that unite and,
  therefore, influenced the present arrangement of
  texts or materials.
• An example of Redaction Criticism is the
  identification of the Deuteronomistic History
  based on the placement of the Book of Deuteronomy
  in the Hebrew Bible.

41
The Historical-Critical MethodRedaction Criticism

• Redaction Criticism notes that Deuteronomy is the
  last book of five.
• In this position it ends the Pentateuch.

42
The Historical-Critical MethodRedaction Criticism

• Gerhard von Rad noticed another possible
  arrangement based on Redaction Criticism.
• He proposed the existence of a Hexateuch, the
  first six books of the Bible.
• Why?
• It contains the occupation of the land.
• Thus, Deuteronomy would not be in a very
  important position here.

43
The Historical-Critical MethodRedaction Criticism

• Another way this could be approached would be to
  remove Deuteronomy from the Pentateuch.
• This creates the Tetrateuch, the first four books
  of the Bible.
• Thus, the story ends with the book of Numbers.
• This roughly corresponds to the Priestly Work
  which ends with the Story Baalam.

44
The Historical-Critical MethodRedaction Criticism

• With the creation of the Tetrateuch, the Book of
  Deuteronomy is detached from the previous books.
• In this position Deuteronomy can be seen as the
  beginning of something and not the end.

45
The Historical-Critical MethodRedaction Criticism

• This arrangement allows us to identify the
  Deuteronomistic History.
• Thus, the Book of Deuteronomy becomes the first
  book in Israels historical account and is seen
  as the source of the value system upon which all
  subsequent history is judged.

46
The Historical-Critical MethodRedaction
Criticism New Testament

• Redaction Criticism in the Synoptic Gospels
  might
• evaluate how Luke used Marks Gospel
• and based on that usage determine how his
  theological intentions may have differed from
  Mark.
• Did he emphasize Jesus as a teacher rather than a
  miracle worker?
• What were the features of Jesus teachings that
  he chose to emphasize and why?

47
The Historical-Critical MethodRedaction
Criticism Famous Catholic Scholars

• Roland de Vaux
• He joined the Dominican Order in 1929.
• He was assigned to the Ecole Biblique in E.
  Jerusalem and eventually became its head.
• He helped discover and collect the Dead Sea
  Scrolls.
• He led the initial excavations at Qumran.

Roland de Vaux 1903-1971
48
The Historical-Critical MethodRedaction
Criticism Famous Catholic Scholars

• I try always to be aware that I am teaching or
  dialoguing as a member of the Society of Jesus.
  As such, I am a representative of the Catholic
  Church and seek to carry on the traditions of my
  forebears and colleagues. God has given me the
  ability to engage in such intellectual
  apostolates, in which His written Word is so
  intimately involved. If such an apostolate has
  had some success, it comes from the graced life
  that I, as Jesuit, have been able to live in
  imitation of greater Jesuit interpreters of
  Scripture such as Salmerón, Bobadilla, and Laínez
  among the First Jesuits.

Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S.J Professor Emeritus and
Professorial Lecturer of Biblical Studies at
Catholic University
49
The Historical-Critical MethodRedaction
Criticism
Discussion on Redaction Criticism
50
The Historical-Critical Method

• The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church
  observes
• The historical-critical method has made it
  possible to understand far more accurately the
  intention of the authors and editors of the
  Bible, as well as the message which they
  addressed to their first readers. The
  achievement of these results has lent the
  historical-critical method an importance of the
  highest order.

51
The Historical-Critical Method
The End