Important scholars of this quest included David Strauss (18081874), whose Life of Jesus used a mythical interpretation of the gospels to undermine their historicity. [25]:698,699, In 1953, Ernst Ksemann (19061998), gave a famous lecture before the Old Marburgers, his former colleagues at the University of Marburg, where he had studied under Bultmann. The term "biblical criticism" is an unfortunate one, because it gives the impression that the scholars who practice it are engaged in criticizing the Bible, in a hostile sense. Using the perspectives, theories, models, and research of the social sciences to determine what social norms may have influenced the growth of biblical tradition, it is similar to historical biblical criticism in its goals and methods and has less in common with literary critical approaches. what you don't like or don't agree with); [161], Jeffrey Burton Russell describes it thus: "Faith was transferred from the words of scripture itself to those of influential biblical critics liberal Christianity retreated hastily before the advance of science and biblical criticism. [64], By 1990, biblical criticism as a primarily historical discipline changed into a group of disciplines with often conflicting interests. Destructive criticism on the other hand . Meanwhile, post-modernism and post-critical interpretation began questioning whether biblical criticism had a role and function at all. [117]:158, Form criticism began in the early twentieth century when theologian Karl Ludwig Schmidt observed that Mark's Gospel is composed of short units. Literary criticism also offers many possibilities for enriching the devotional and . Biblical criticism is an umbrella term covering various techniques for applying literary historical-critical methods in analyzing and studying the Bible and its textual content. Key Concepts: Psychoanalysis, the unconscious, drive, psychic [96]:19 The validity of using the same critical methods for novels and for the Gospels, without the assurance the Gospels are actually novels, must be questioned. [17], Albert Schweitzer in The Quest of the Historical Jesus, acknowledges that Reimarus's work "is a polemic, not an objective historical study", while also referring to it as "a masterpiece of world literature. For criticisms of the Bible as a source of reliable information or ethical guidance, see, The widely accepted two-source hypothesis, showing two sources for both Matthew and Luke, Source criticism of the Old Testament: Wellhausen's hypothesis, Source criticism of the New Testament: the synoptic problem. [186]:83 The growing anti-semitism in Germany of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the perception that higher criticism was an entirely Protestant Christian pursuit, and the sense that many Bible critics were not impartial academics but were proponents of supersessionism, prompted Schechter to describe "Higher Criticism as Higher Anti-semitism". [19][20] Instead of interpreting the Bible historically, Johann Gottfried Eichhorn (17521827), Johann Philipp Gabler (17531826), and Georg Lorenz Bauer (17551806) used the concept of myth as a tool for interpreting the Bible. [37]:2, According to Episcopalian priest and queer theologian Patrick S. Cheng (Episcopal Divinity School): "Queer biblical hermeneutics is a way of looking at the sacred text through the eyes of queer people. The errancy of the Bible, the fact of no extant originals, the compilation and inclusion of the books of the Bible are almost never discussed from the Pulpit, leaving the ordinary Christian in the dark. [84][85] Alan Cooper discusses this difficulty using the example of Amos 6.12 which reads: "Does one plough with oxen?" [138]:98[13]:181 Form critics saw the synoptic writers as mere collectors and focused on the Sitz im Leben as the creator of the texts, whereas redaction critics have dealt more positively with the Gospel writers, asserting an understanding of them as theologians of the early church. history [114]:12[115]:fn.6 There is also material unique to each gospel. [116]:5[117]:157, While most scholars agree that the two-source theory offers the best explanation for the Synoptic problem, and some say it has been solved, others say it is not solved satisfactorily. [1] [72]:47 It is one of the largest areas of biblical criticism in terms of the sheer amount of information it addresses. Reimarus distinguished between what Jesus taught and how he is portrayed in the New Testament. He discovered that the alternation of two different names for God occurs in Genesis and up to Exodus 3 but not in the rest of the Pentateuch, and he also found apparent anachronisms: statements seemingly from a later time than that in which Genesis was set. As such, this [187]:215 According to Aly Elrefaei, the strongest refutation of Wellhausen's Documentary theory came from Yehezkel Kaufmann in 1937. [33][34]:9195 This still occasions widespread debate within topics such as Pauline studies, New Testament Studies, early-church studies, Jewish Law, the theology of grace, and the doctrine of justification. [203]:119 Subject matter is identical to verbal meaning and is found in plot and nowhere else. [7], Jean Astruc (16841766), a French physician, believed these critics were wrong about Mosaic authorship. [197][198] It grew out of form criticism's Sitz im Leben and the sense that historical form criticism had failed to adequately analyze the social and anthropological contexts which form critics claimed had formed the texts. Morally, people have abandoned absolutes and opted for radical relativism. Historical-biblical criticism includes a wide range of approaches and questions within four major methodologies: textual, source, form, and literary criticism. During the latter half of the twentieth century, field studies of cultures with existing oral traditions directly impacted many of these presuppositions. [13]:43[15] Semler argued for an end to all doctrinal assumptions, giving historical criticism its nonsectarian character. The first article labeled narrative criticism was "Narrative Criticism and the Gospel of Mark," published in 1982 by Bible scholar David Rhoads. This theory argues that fragments of documents rather than continuous, coherent documents are the sources for the Pentateuch. It is dated around 850 B.C. [25]:34 This quest focused largely on the teachings of Jesus as interpreted by existentialist philosophy. According to Reimarus, Jesus was a political Messiah who failed at creating political change and was executed by the Roman state as a dissident. -modern historians are more objective than their ancient counterparts, suspicious of the supernatural, establishes historicity of a biblical text by means of comparative study (religion, historiography, archaeology) Source Criticism: -assumes isolating literary sources in a written document unlocks meaning of a text [3][2]:27, By 1990, new perspectives, globalization and input from different academic fields expanded biblical criticism, moving it beyond its original criteria, and changing it into a group of disciplines with different, often conflicting, interests. Other schools of biblical criticism that are more exegetical in intentthat is, concerned with recovering original meanings of textsinclude redaction criticism, which studies how the documents were assembled by their final authors and editors, and historical criticism, which seeks to interpret biblical writings in the context of their historical settings. Five major categories of biblical criticism, described, including the Documentary. [9]:166168[95]:7,8, Examples of source criticism include its two most influential and well-known theories, the first concerning the origins of the Pentateuch in the Old Testament (Wellhausen's hypothesis); and the second tracing the sources of the four gospels of the New Testament (two-source hypothesis). For purposes of discussion, these individual methods are separated here and the Bible is addressed as a whole, but this is an artificial approach that is used only for the purpose of description, and is not how biblical criticism is actually practiced. In Old Testament studies, source criticism is generally focused on identifying sources of a single text. Clark responded, but disagreement continued. Form criticism then theorizes concerning the individual pericope's Sitz im Leben ("setting in life" or "place in life"). Understanding and evaluating modern critical approaches to the study of the Old Testament can be a very real problem for any theological student; however, for the evangelical student, committed to the belief that the Bible is the Word of God, the problems raised are manifold. [173]:300 Two years later, Lagrange funded a journal (Revue Biblique), spoke at various conferences, wrote Bible commentaries that incorporated textual critical work of his own, did pioneering work on biblical genres and forms, and laid the path to overcoming resistance to the historical-critical method among his fellow scholars. Yet according to Sanders, "we know quite a lot" about Jesus. "[It] is safe to conclude that in many measurable features contemporary evangelical scholarship on the scriptures enjoys a considerable good health". [citation needed] Devout Christians have long regarded their Bible as the perfect word of God (and devout Jews have held the Hebrew Bible similarly in high regard). [4]:20 Karl Barth (18861968), Rudolf Bultmann (18841976), and others moved away from concern over the historical Jesus and concentrated instead on the kerygma: the message of the New Testament. [105]:vi, In New Testament studies, source criticism has taken a slightly different approach from Old Testament studies by focusing on identifying the common sources of multiple texts instead of looking for the multiple sources of a single set of texts. [4]:22 It begins with the understanding that biblical criticism's focus on historicity produced a distinction between the meaning of what the text says and what it is about (what it historically references). [78] The impact of variants on the reliability of a single text is usually tested by comparing it to a manuscript whose reliability has been long established. Vaughn A. Booker writes that, "Such developments included the introduction of the varieties of American metaphysical theology in sermons and songs, liturgical modifications [to accommodate] Holy Spirit possession presences through shouting and dancing, and musical changes". German pietism played a role in its development, as did British deism, with its greatest influences being rationalism and Protestant scholarship. [45]:10 Bultmann had claimed that, since the gospel writers wrote theology, their writings could not be considered history, but Ksemann reasoned that one does not necessarily preclude the other. Any explanation offered must "account for (a) what is common to all the Gospels; (b) what is common to any two of them; (c) what is peculiar to each". [13]:viiiix, Textual criticism involves examination of the text itself and all associated manuscripts with the aim of determining the original text. MacKenzie and Kaltner say "scholarly analysis is very much in a state of flux". 7 Destructive criticism. [96]:147. See also: Biblical Errancy. [81]:214 [92] Some twenty-first century scholars have advocated abandoning these older approaches to textual criticism in favor of new computer-assisted methods for determining manuscript relationships in a more reliable way. [201]:67 It questions anything that claims "objectively secured foundations, universals, metaphysics, or analytical dualism". There is also some verbatim agreement between Matthew and Luke of verses not found in Mark. [103]:58,59 Furthermore, they argue, it provides an explanation for the peculiar character of the material labeled P, which reflects the perspective and concerns of Israel's priests. Fundamentalism began, at least partly, as a response to the biblical criticism of nineteenth century liberalism. [14]:94,95 What was seen as extreme rationalism followed in the work of Heinrich Paulus (17611851) who denied the existence of miracles. Since Mark was believed to be the first gospel, the form critics looked for the addition of proper names for anonymous characters, indirect discourse being turned into direct quotation, and the elimination of Aramaic terms and forms, with details becoming more concrete in Matthew, and then more so in Luke. What are the five basic types of biblical criticism? For full treatment, see biblical literature: Biblical criticism. another term for biblical exegesis. [143]:4,11 Rhetorical analysis divides a passage into units, observes how a single unit shifts or breaks, taking special note of poetic devices, meter, parallelism, word play and so on. In societies where the "lay person" often has a passionate relationship with the Bible, it has been controversial to examine the book through historical types of literary criticism.Even though, as religious experts explain, historical criticism is used in seminaries, it is not popular in non-academic environments, where many people . The Jesuit Augustin Bea (18811968) had played a vital part in its publication. [39] In The Essence of Christianity (1900), Adolf Von Harnack (18511930) described Jesus as a reformer. First, form criticism arose and turned the focus of biblical criticism from author to genre, and from individual to community. The rise of redaction criticism closed this debate by bringing about a greater emphasis on diversity. [152]:7 Christopher T. Paris says that, "narrative criticism admits the existence of sources and redactions but chooses to focus on the artistic weaving of these materials into a sustained narrative picture". [28] Schweitzer records that Semler "rose up and slew Reimarus in the name of scientific theology". [129]:15 Two concerns give it its value: concern for the nature of the text and for its shape and structure. [102]:93, Advocates of Wellhausen's hypothesis contend it accounts well for the differences and duplication found in the Pentateuchal books. This qualitative analysis involves three primary dimensions: (1) analyzing the act of criticism and what it does; (2) analyzing what goes on within the rhetoric being analyzed and what is created by that rhetoric; and (3) understanding the processes involved in all of it. [97]:64[102]:39,80[107]:11[108][note 5] As a result, few biblical scholars of the twenty-first century hold to Wellhausen's Documentary hypothesis in its classical form. [170] In 1864, Pope Pius IX promulgated the encyclical letter Quanta cura ("Condemning Current Errors"), which decried what the Pontiff considered significant errors afflicting the modern age. [200]:288 Literary texts are seen as "cultural artifacts" that reveal context as well as content, and within New Historicism, the "literary text and the historical situation" are equally important". 4. [143]:8,9 Critics of rhetorical analysis say there is a "lack of a well-developed methodology" and that it has a "tendency to be nothing more than an exercise in stylistics". The following forms are common to folklore: legends, superstitions, songs, tales, proverbs, riddles, spells, nursery rhymes; pseudo-scientific lore about weather, plants, animals; customary activities at births, marriages, deaths; traditional dances and forms of drama. [11]:6 Rationalism also became a significant influence:[12][13]:8,224 Swiss theologian Jean Alphonse Turretin (16711737) is an example of the "moderate rationalism" of the era. [4]:22, There is no general agreement among scholars on how to periodize the various quests for the historical Jesus. Literary criticism, which emerged in the twentieth century, differed from these earlier methods. Meaning, an approach to theological knowledge (found primarily in the Bible) that involves arranging the data into well-ordered categories and . Different types of criticism: constructive criticism. [201]:73 Many of these early postmodernist views came from France following World War II. In it, Schweitzer scathingly critiqued the various books on the life of Jesus that had been written in the late-nineteenth century as reflecting more of the lives of the authors than Jesus. [191]:2425 Carol L. Meyers says feminist archaeology has shown "male dominance was real; but it was fragmentary, not hegemonic" leading to a change in the anthropological description of ancient Israel as heterarchy rather than patriarchy. Wellhausen's and Kaufmann's methods were similar yet their conclusions were opposed. 1. What are the four types of biblical criticism? In fact, like the related term "literary criticism," it refers not to hostility towards the text, but the application of one's critical faculties to reading it. Biblical criticism can be broken into two major forms: higher and lower criticism. He saw it as a "necessary tool to enable intelligent churchgoers" to understand the Bible, and was a pioneer in establishing the final form of the supplementary hypothesis of the documentary hypothesis. For some, the many challenges to form criticism mean its future is in doubt. [101], Later scholars added to and refined Wellhausen's theory. [82]:213 One of Griesbach's rules is lectio brevior praeferenda: "the shorter reading is to be preferred". [102]:92 This observation led to the idea there was such a thing as a Deuteronomist school that had originally edited and kept the document updated. For some, the future of form criticism is not an issue: it has none. [32]:4952 The fragmentary theory was a later understanding of Wellhausen produced by form criticism. "[128]:14 Redaction criticism developed after World War II in Germany and arrived in England and North America by the 1950s. [157]:121 The most profound legacy of the loss of biblical authority is the formation of the modern world itself, according to religion and ethics scholar Jeffrey Stout. The bottom line though is that biblical studies focuses on the Bible as a book. Textual criticism examines biblical manuscripts and their content to identify what the original text probably said. "[27]:22,16 According to Schweitzer, Reimarus was wrong in his assumption that Jesus's end-of-world eschatology was "earthly and political in character" but was right in viewing Jesus as an apocalyptic preacher, as evidenced by his repeated warnings about the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of time. Higher criticism: the study of the sources and literary methods employed by the biblical authors. [25]:862 Reimarus had left permission for his work to be published after his death, and Lessing did so between 1774 and 1778, publishing them as Die Fragmente eines unbekannten Autors (The Fragments of an Unknown Author). [200]:288, Postmodern biblical criticism began after the 1940s and 1950s when the term postmodern came into use to signify a rejection of modern conventions. [4]:21,22 Newer forms of biblical criticism are primarily literary: no longer focused on the historical, they attend to the text as it exists now. For others biblical criticism "proved to be a failure, due principally to the assumption that diachronic, linear research could master any and all of the questions and problems attendant on interpretation". Rudolf Bultmann later used this approach, and it became particularly influential in the early twentieth century. Wellhausen's theory went virtually unchallenged until the 1970s, when it began to be heavily criticized. [4]:vii,21 New criticism, which developed as an adjunct to literary criticism, was concerned with the particulars of style. Hermeneutics and Bible Study Methods: A study of principles or sound interpretation and application of the Bible, including analysis of presuppositions, general rules and specialized principles for the various biblical genre and phenomena and the development of an exegetical method. [26] Over time, they came to be known as the Wolfenbttel Fragments. [52] As a major proponent of form criticism, Bultmann "set the agenda for a subsequent generation of leading NT [New Testament] scholars". The form critics did not derive laws of transmission from a study of folk literature as many think. A prerequisite for the exegetical study of the biblical writings, and even for the establishment of hermeneutical principles, is their critical examination. Right is now wrong, and wrong is right. Mid-twentieth century scholars of oral tradition objected to the "book mentality" of source criticism, saying the idea that ancients had "cut and pasted" from their sources reflects the modern world more than the ancient one. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. [14]:117 117,149150,188191, George Ricker Berry says the term "higher criticism", which is sometimes used as an alternate name for historical criticism, was first used by Eichhorn in his three-volume work Einleitung ins Alte Testament (Introduction to the Old Testament) published between 1780 and 1783. [123]:xiii, Form criticism breaks the Bible down into its short units, called pericopes, which are then classified by genre: prose or verse, letters, laws, court archives, war hymns, poems of lament, and so on. [4]:21,22 Biblical criticism's central concept changed from neutral judgment to beginning from a recognition of the various biases the reader brings to the study of the texts. They derived them by two methods: (a) by assuming that purity of form indicates antiquity, and (b) by determining how Matthew and Luke used Mark and Q, and how the later literature used the canonical gospels. Diagram showing the authors and editors of the Pentateuch (Torah) according to the. [38]:39,40 This stark contrast between Judaism and Christianity produced increasingly antisemitic sentiments. Following Pius's death, Pope Benedict XV once again condemned rationalistic biblical criticism in his papal encyclical Spiritus Paraclitus ("Paraclete Spirit"). [188] Bible professor Benjamin D. Sommer says it is "among the most precise and detailed commentaries on the legal texts [Leviticus and Deuteronomy] ever written". By the mid-twentieth century, the high level of departmentalization in biblical criticism, with its large volume of data and absence of applicable theology, had begun to produce a level of dissatisfaction among both scholars and faith communities. Fiorenza says, "Christian male theologians have formulated theological concepts in terms of their own cultural experience, insisting on male language relating to God, and on a symbolic universe in which women do not appear Feminist scholars insist that religious texts and traditions must be reinterpreted so that women and other "non-persons" can achieve full citizenship in religion and society". It is important to understand the meaning of these terms in relation to the exegetical process. Globalization brought a broader spectrum of worldviews into the field, and other academic disciplines as diverse as Near Eastern studies, psychology, cultural anthropology and sociology formed new methods of biblical criticism such as social scientific criticism and psychological biblical criticism. Newer methods brought about by the globalization of biblical studies and by concerns with the 'world in front of the text' - like new historicism, feminist criticism, postcolonial/liberationist criticism, and rhetorical criticism - are well represented in the series. [59] Biblical criticism began to apply new literary approaches such as structuralism and rhetorical criticism, which concentrated less on history and more on the texts themselves. The Enlightenment age, and its skepticism of biblical and church authority, ignited questions concerning the historical basis for the human Jesus separately from traditional theological views concerning his divinity. The Old Testament (the Hebrew Bible), and the New Testament, as distinct bodies of literature, each raise their own problems of interpretation - the two are therefore generally studied separately. 2. [140]:336 Harrington says, "over-theologizing, allegorizing, and psychologizing are the major pitfalls encountered" in redaction criticism. [32]:38,39 Alexander Geddes and Johann Vater proposed that some of these fragments were quite ancient, perhaps from the time of Moses, and were brought together only at a later time. [13]:82, New Testament scholar Joachim Jeremias (19001979) used linguistics, and Jesus's first-century Jewish environment, to interpret the New Testament. [91], Latin scholar Albert C. Clark challenged Griesbach's view of shorter texts in 1914.

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