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126-550: The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Studies defines the field as a set of various, and in some cases independent disciplines for the study of the collection of ancient texts generally known as the Bible. These disciplines include but are not limited to historical criticism , archaeology , hermeneutics , textual criticism , cultural anthropology , history , the history of interpretation, sociology , theology , and patristics . Several academic associations and societies promote research in

252-450: A "critical edition" containing a text most closely approximating the original. There are three fundamental approaches to textual criticism: eclecticism, stemmatics, and copy-text editing. Techniques from the biological discipline of cladistics are currently also being used to determine the relationships between manuscripts. The phrase "lower criticism" is used to describe the contrast between textual criticism and " higher criticism ", which

378-422: A coherent narrative onto the text. The more coherent the final structure is, the more of a "composition" it is, whereas the less coherent the material has been welded, the more it should be seen as a "redaction". Nevertheless, there is no precise boundary in which a text can be said to have moved from a redaction to a composition. Another difference between the two is that redaction criticism is diachronic, looking at

504-445: A commentary that focuses on textual criticism or historical criticism from a secular point of view. However, each volume will inevitably lean toward the personal emphasis bias of its author, and within any commentaries there may be great variety in the depth, accuracy, and critical or theological strength of each volume. In Christianity , biblical exegeses have relied on various doctrines. The doctrine of four senses of Scripture

630-724: A creative work, such as a film, novel, poetry or other artistic output by the PhD candidate. Together, the two elements form the candidate's research thesis. In the late 1930s, Leo Strauss called for the first time for a reconsideration of the "distinction between exoteric (or public) and esoteric (or secret) teaching." In 1952 he published Persecution and the Art of Writing , arguing that serious writers write esoterically, that is, with multiple or layered meanings, often disguised within irony or paradox, obscure references, even deliberate self-contradiction. Esoteric writing serves several purposes: protecting

756-456: A few difficulties when it comes to analyzing the Old Testament as a historical text. New Testament historical analysis is also difficult due to the nature of the original texts that we can analyze, specifically their translatability as well as how oral tradition had effects on written tradition during the formation and canonization of gospel texts and the teachings of Jesus. The Hebrew Bible,

882-521: A field to be self-correcting, as mistakes in earlier work can be corrected in subsequent work, and some have argued that this clarifies the level of confidence that someone today is capable of attaining when it comes to what happened in the past. The sense of the historical-critical method involves an application of both a critical and a historical reading of a text. To read a text critically means to suspend inherited presuppositions about its origin, transmission, and meaning, and to assess their adequacy in

1008-413: A foundation. The talmudical hermeneutics form asmachta is defined as finding hints for a given law. Midrash exegesis was largely in the nature of homiletics , expounding the Bible not primarily in order to understand the documents of the past (although in some instances it is indeed the case), but to find religious edification , moral instruction, and sustenance for the thoughts and feelings of

1134-547: A highly symbolic book, there will be different outcomes in the interpretation of particular sections. Additionally, one's view of the scriptures as sacred and written by God or as a historical text has implications on one's interpretation of text. Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and literary criticism that is concerned with the identification and removal of transcription errors in texts, both manuscripts and printed books. Ancient scribes made errors or alterations when copying manuscripts by hand. Given

1260-412: A historical character to them (such as the historical circumstances or motivations that led authors to making specific literary decisions), but more importantly, that the term "historical-critical method" need not refer to all critical approaches but only the ones with an interest in historical questions. Therefore, "biblical criticism" may be adopted as a broader term referring to all critical approaches to

1386-405: A manuscript copy, several or many copies, but not the original document, the textual critic seeks to reconstruct the original text (the urtext , archetype or autograph ) as closely as possible. The same processes can be used to attempt to reconstruct intermediate editions, or recensions, of a document's transcription history. The ultimate objective of the textual critic's work is the production of

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1512-431: A piece of information or present it to an external audience, but end up doing so nonetheless, are considered greatly valuable. All possible explanations must be considered by the historian, and data and argumentation must be used in order to rule out various options. In the context of biblical studies , an appeal to canonical texts is insufficient to settle what actually happened in biblical history. A critical inspection of

1638-496: A problem with comparing the translation to the original Hebrew (because we have it). This may lead to problems of establishing the reliability of translations like the Septuagint. In order to overcome this, researches have come up with methods to use the very few manuscripts we have and continually draw conclusions and compare to original texts using those conclusions to provide more reliability to available texts. In order to indicate if

1764-731: A product of the social environment and human intelligence of their authors. Catholic centres of biblical exegesis include: For more than a century, German universities such as Tübingen have had reputations as centers of exegesis; in the US, the Divinity Schools of Chicago , Harvard and Yale became famous. Robert A. Traina's book Methodical Bible Study is an example of Protestant Christian exegesis. The Mimamsa school of Indian philosophy , also known as Pūrva Mīmāṃsā ("prior" inquiry, also Karma-Mīmāṃsā ), in contrast to Uttara Mīmāṃsā ("posterior" inquiry, also Brahma-Mīmāṃsā ),

1890-420: A replacement, of historical criticism. Second, postcolonial and feminist readings of the Bible are easily integrated as a part of historical criticism, and these can play their role as a corrective of argumentation in the field that has proceeded from ideological influences. As such, historical criticism has been adopted by its critics, as in the case of feminist theologians who seek to recover the views of women in

2016-576: A response to 'negative higher criticism.' On the other hand, attempts to revive the extreme historical criticism of the Dutch Radical School by Robert M. Price , Darrell J. Doughty and Hermann Detering have also been met with strong criticism and indifference by mainstream scholars. Such positions are nowadays confined to the minor Journal of Higher Criticism and other fringe publications. Exegesis Exegesis ( / ˌ ɛ k s ɪ ˈ dʒ iː s ɪ s / EK -sih- JEE -sis ; from

2142-439: A secular worldview, ruling out the possibility of any transcendental truth to the claims of the text being studied. David Law has argued that this criticism is a strawman. Law argues that the method only eliminates a theological worldview as a presupposition, not as a conclusion. What the historical-critical method does, therefore, is allow one to study the text without prejudice as to what conclusion they will arrive at. Similarly,

2268-549: A set of books, each of which is devoted to the exposition of one or two books of the Bible . Long books or those that contain much material either for theological or historical-critical speculation, such as Genesis or Psalms , may be split over two or three volumes. Some, such as the Four Gospels , may be multiple- or single-volume, while short books such as the deuterocanonical portions of Daniel , Esther , and Jeremiah (i.e. Book of Susanna , Prayer of Azariah , Bel and

2394-405: A translation is authentic or not, it is crucial to look for keywords that may seem unique and that are not translated from a root language such as Hebrew or any of the other original languages. This shows that there are many other languages present in the translations that seems as if it was reinvented over and over again. However, it is normal to see such a change, and it shows the difference between

2520-602: Is a concept used in biblical hermeneutics . In the 3rd century, the theologian Origen , a graduate of Catechetical School of Alexandria , formulated the principle of the three senses of Scripture (literal, moral and spiritual) from the Jewish method of interpretation ( midrash ) used by Paul of Tarsus in Epistle to the Galatians chapter 4. The historical-grammatical method is a Christian hermeneutical method that strives to discover

2646-448: Is called an exegete ( / ˌ ɛ k s ɪ ˈ dʒ iː t / ; from Greek ἐξηγητής ), the plural of exegesis is exegeses ( / ˌ ɛ k s ɪ ˈ dʒ iː s iː z / ), and adjectives are exegetic or exegetical (e.g., exegetical commentaries). In biblical exegesis, the opposite of exegesis (to draw out) is eisegesis (to draw in), in the sense of an eisegetic commentator "importing" or "drawing in" their own subjective interpretations into

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2772-421: Is employed, and (3) oral prehistory of forms, which tend to be short and stereotypical, and so easy to memorize and pass on to others, and their (4) history of transmission. Redaction criticism studies "the collection, arrangement, editing and modification of sources" and is frequently used to reconstruct the community and purposes of the authors of the text. Whereas source and form criticism are concerned with

2898-446: Is equivalent to the demand, frequently reiterated by Biblical scholars from the eighteenth century onwards, that the Bible is to be interpreted in the same manner as any other text. By contrast, to read a text historically would mean to require the meanings ascribed to it to have been humanly 'thinkable' or 'sayable' within the text's original historical environment, as far as the latter can be retrospectively reconstructed. At least for

3024-642: Is founded upon historical-literary dynamics, either using scripture to interpret history and science, or using science and history to interpret scripture. This is particularly important when applied to the person of Jesus Christ and the Gospels in the New Testament. Many people agree that Jesus was a real historical person, but whether he was truly the Son of God is debatable among many people, and this distinction proves to be important for one's interpretation of texts and whether

3150-418: Is not held by the preponderance of contemporary scholars affiliated to major universities. Gleason Archer Jr. , O. T. Allis , C. S. Lewis , Gerhard Maier, Martyn Lloyd-Jones , Robert L. Thomas, F. David Farnell , William J. Abraham , J. I. Packer , G. K. Beale and Scott W. Hahn rejected the historical-critical hermeneutical method as evangelicals. Evangelical Christians have often partly attributed

3276-536: Is strongly concerned with textual exegesis, and consequently gave rise to the study of philology and the philosophy of language . Its notion of shabda "speech" as indivisible unity of sound and meaning ( signifier and signified ) is due to Bhartrhari (7th century). Tafsīr ( Arabic : تفسير , tafsīr , "interpretation") is the Arabic word for exegesis, commentary or explanation of the Qur'an . It explains those aspects of

3402-504: Is the endeavor to establish the authorship, date, and place of composition of the original text. Historical research has often dominated modern biblical studies. Biblical scholars usually try to interpret a particular text within its original historical context and use whatever information is available to reconstruct that setting. Historical criticism aims to determine the provenance , authorship, and process by which ancient texts were composed. Famous theories of historical criticism include

3528-701: The Phaedrus , Strauss proposed that the classical and medieval art of esoteric writing is the proper medium for philosophic learning: rather than displaying philosophers' thoughts superficially, classical and medieval philosophical texts guide their readers in thinking and learning independently of imparted knowledge. Thus, Strauss agrees with the Socrates of the Phaedrus , where the Greek indicates that, insofar as writing does not respond when questioned, good writing provokes questions in

3654-847: The Age of Enlightenment , but it is more appropriately related to the Renaissance . Historical criticism began in the 17th century and gained popular recognition in the 19th and 20th centuries. The perspective of the early historical critic was influenced by the rejection of traditional interpretations that came about with the Protestant Reformation . With each passing century, historical criticism became refined into various methodologies used today: philology , textual criticism , literary criticism , source criticism , form criticism , redaction criticism , tradition criticism , canonical criticism , and related methodologies. Historical-critical methods are

3780-524: The Babylonian Epic of Creation ), medical treatises, magical texts, ancient dictionaries, and law collections (the Code of Hammurabi ). Most of them, however, comment on divination treatises, in particular treatises that predict the future from the appearance and movement of celestial bodies on the one hand ( Enūma Anu Enlil ), and from the appearance of a sacrificed sheep's liver on the other ( Bārûtu ). As with

3906-711: The Bible . The latter scholars built on the tradition of Enlightenment and Rationalist thinkers such as John Locke (1632–1704), David Hume , Immanuel Kant , Gotthold Lessing , Gottlieb Fichte , G. W. F. Hegel (1770–1831) and the French rationalists . Such ideas influenced thought in England through the work of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and, in particular, through George Eliot 's translations of Strauss's The Life of Jesus (1846) and Feuerbach's The Essence of Christianity (1854). In 1860, seven liberal Anglican theologians began

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4032-449: The Books of Kings and the Books of Chronicles . With the progression of scholarship, some have begun to distinguish redaction criticism into redaction criticism and composition criticism. Composition criticism more strictly focuses on the final stages of the redaction of a text, in which the various materials are brought together and fused into a unified whole, and whence the author has imposed

4158-658: The Gathas and those on dādīg texts, such as the Vendīdād , the Hērbedestān and the Nērangestān . Since many 19th and 20th century works by Zoroastrians contain an element of exegesis, while on the other hand no exegetical literature in the strict sense of the word can be said to exist, the phenomenon of modern Zoroastrian exegesis as such will be discussed here, without detailed reference to individual texts. Several universities, including

4284-508: The Greek ἐξήγησις , from ἐξηγεῖσθαι , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Biblical works. In modern usage, exegesis can involve critical interpretations of virtually any text, including not just religious texts but also philosophy , literature , or virtually any other genre of writing. The phrase Biblical exegesis can be used to distinguish studies of

4410-574: The Holy Spirit inspired the authors of the scriptural texts, and so the words of those texts convey a divine revelation . In this view of exegesis, the principle of sensus plenior applies—that because of its divine authorship, the Bible has a "fuller meaning" than its human authors intended or could have foreseen. Rational exegesis bases its operation on the idea that the authors have their own inspiration (in this sense, synonymous with artistic inspiration ), so their works are completely and utterly

4536-692: The Instruction on the Historical Truth of the Gospels , which confirmed the method and delineated how its tools can be used to aid in exegesis . The Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) reconfirmed this approach. Another reiteration of this came with The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church by the Pontifical Biblical Commission . Due to these trends, Roman Catholic scholars entered into academia and have since made substantial contributions to

4662-487: The Q source . In recent years, source-critical approaches have been increasingly applied in Quranic studies . Form criticism is the identification and analysis of "forms" in a text, defined by the use of recognizable and conventional patterns. For example, letters, court archives, hymns, parables, sports reports, wedding announcements, and so forth are recognizable by their use of standardized formulae and stylized phrases. In

4788-583: The Sasanian era. This lengthy period of oral transmission has clearly helped to give the Middle Persian Zand its characteristic shape and has, in a sense, limited its scope. Although the later tradition makes a formal distinction between "Gathic" (gāhānīg), "legal" (dādīg), and perhaps "ritual" (hādag-mānsrīg) Avestan texts, there appear to be no significant differences in approach between the Pahlavi commentary on

4914-557: The School of Alexandria , viewed as being contrary to the original sense of the text. In 1440, Lorenzo Valla demonstrated that the Donation of Constantine was a forgery on the basis of linguistic, legal, historical, and political arguments. The Protestant Reformation saw an increase in efforts to plainly interpret the text of the Bible without the overriding lenses of tradition. The Middle Ages saw several trends that increasingly de-prioritized

5040-586: The Sorbonne in Paris, Leiden University , and the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Free University of Brussels), put exegesis in a secular context, next to exegesis in a religious tradition. Secular exegesis is an element of the study of religion . At Australian and British universities, the exegesis forms part of the required work for fine arts, including creative-writing doctorates . A scholarly text accompanies

5166-636: The Talmud , but continued during ancient times, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance ; it remains a subject of study today. Jews have centers for exegetic studies around the world, in each community: they consider exegesis an important tool for the understanding of scripture. Associated with the rabbinic text studies, such methodology is known to adopt a wide assortment of literary tools, in conjunction with meticulous, widespread engagement with classical exegetical literature. Zoroastrian exegesis consists basically of

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5292-531: The canonical gospels . It also plays an important role in the quest for a historical Jesus . It also addresses the physical text, including the meaning of the words and the way in which they are used and its preservation, history and integrity. Biblical criticism draws upon a wide range of scholarly disciplines, including archaeology , anthropology , folklore , comparative religion , oral tradition studies and historical and religious studies. New Testament and Old Testament rhetorical analysis differ because of

5418-593: The creation of the world and the flood of Noah . The use of terms like "myth" vs "history" also creates controversy due to some connotations that each word has. Oftentimes "myth" or "mythical" texts are seen as not true stories, where as "history" or "historical" texts are seen as fact. Mythical stories can also sometimes be seen as stories which serve some sort of religious or moral lesson, but are not necessarily true, however this does not mean that true historical stories do not have religious and moral lessons that accompany them. These views on myth and history are examples of

5544-651: The documentary hypothesis , which suggests that the Pentateuch was compiled from four different written sources, and different reconstructions of "the historical Jesus", which are based primarily on the differences between the canonical Gospels. There is much controversy around using the Bible as a historical source. The Old Testament is supposed to serve as a continuous account of the establishment of ancient Israel . While many historians agree that figures like King David and King Solomon are real historical figures, there comes trouble when seeking to affirm or deny events like

5670-587: The historical-critical method (HCM) or higher criticism , in contrast to lower criticism or textual criticism ) is a branch of criticism that investigates the origins of ancient texts to understand "the world behind the text" and emphasizes a process that "delays any assessment of scripture's truth and relevance until after the act of interpretation has been carried out". While often discussed in terms of ancient Jewish, Christian, and increasingly Islamic writings, historical criticism has also been applied to other religious and secular writings from various parts of

5796-528: The midrash literature. Jewish exegetes have the title mefarshim ( מפרשים , "commentators"). The Midrash is a compilation of homiletic teachings or commentaries on the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), a biblical exegesis of the Pentateuch and its paragraphs related to the Law or Torah , which also forms an object of analysis. It comprises the legal and ritual Halakha , the collective body of Jewish laws, and exegesis of

5922-465: The story of Susanna in the Book of Daniel was not authentic. Augustine stressed the use of secular learning in interpreting the Bible against those who would instead follow the interpretation of the claimants of divine inspiration. Many have viewed the exegetical School of Antioch as strikingly critical, especially with respect to their confutation of various allegorical readings of the Bible as advanced in

6048-423: The 1907 Lamentibili sane exitu . However, around the time of the mid-twentieth century, attitudes changed. In 1943, Pope Pius XII issued the encyclical Divino afflante Spiritu , making historical criticism not only permissible but "a duty". Catholic biblical scholar Raymond E. Brown described this encyclical as a " Magna Carta for biblical progress". In 1964, the Pontifical Biblical Commission published

6174-533: The 19th century, Western scholars commonly understood that philosophical writing is not at home in any polity, no matter how liberal. Insofar as it questions conventional wisdom at its roots, philosophy must guard itself especially against those readers who believe themselves authoritative, wise, and liberal defenders of the status quo. In questioning established opinions, or in investigating the principles of morality, philosophers of old found it necessary to convey their messages in an oblique manner. Their "art of writing"

6300-444: The Bible from other critical textual explanations. Textual criticism investigates the history and origins of the text, but exegesis may include the study of the historical and cultural backgrounds of the author, text, and original audience. Other analyses include classification of the type of literary genres presented in the text and analysis of grammatical and syntactical features in the text itself. One who practices exegesis

6426-536: The Bible to " demythologize " it. The Catholic Church did not adopt historical criticism as an approach until the twentieth century. The method was rejected by the Council of Trent in 1546, stressing the interpretation promoted by the Church as opposed to personal interpretation. The earlier decision was confirmed at the First Vatican Council in 1869–1870. In 1907, Pope Pius X condemned historical criticism in

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6552-449: The Bible, whereas "historical criticism" only refers to those that relate back to the happenings of history. Others have been concerned in that the word "critical" might sound as though it implies a critique , or a hostile judgement of the text. However, in the context of the historical-critical method, the term "critical" is more appropriately understood as referring to an act of objective evaluation, and an approach that stresses not only

6678-424: The Bible. Therefore, as opposed to being in crisis, historical criticism can be said to have been "expanded, corrected and complemented by the introduction of new methods." A number of authors, throughout history, have applied methods that resembled the approaches used with the historical-critical method. For example, some Church Fathers engaged in disputes regarding some of the authorship attributions of some of

6804-581: The Biblical author's original intended meaning in the text. It is the primary method of interpretation for many conservative Protestant exegetes who reject the historical-critical method to various degrees (from the complete rejection of historical criticism of some fundamentalist Protestants to the moderated acceptance of it in the Catholic Church since Pope Pius XII ), in contrast to the overwhelming reliance on historical-critical interpretation, often to

6930-472: The Dragon , Additions to Esther , Baruch and the Epistle of Jeremiah ), or the pastoral or Johannine epistles are often condensed into one volume. The form of each book may be identical or allow for variations in methodology among the many authors who collaborate to write a full commentary. Each book's commentary generally consists of a background and introductory section, followed by detailed commentary of

7056-888: The European Association of Biblical Studies, the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies , the Evangelical Theological Society , the Institute for Biblical Research , the American Schools of Oriental Research , and the Catholic Biblical Association . Biblical criticism is the scholarly "study and investigation of biblical writings that seeks to make discerning judgments about these writings". Viewing biblical texts as being ordinary pieces of literature, rather than set apart from other literature, as in

7182-422: The Gospels should be read literally or symbolically. The Book of Revelation is very different from the other books of the Bible, drawing need for additional analysis to determine whether it should be read literally or symbolically. The goals of the author of the book (John) also have implications toward how one reads the book. If one reads Revelation as a literal unfolding of the end times vs reading Revelation as

7308-422: The Old Testament, including historical accounts, proverbs , poetic texts, praise texts (such as psalms ) and prophetic texts. The New Testament is different in that it has primarily two styles present: the gospels , which are mostly historical accounts, and the letters, or epistles . When it comes to textually analyzing and criticizing the New Testament, there are a couple of eclectic approaches to understanding

7434-654: The Old Testament, prophetic forms are typically introduced by the formula "Thus says the Lord". Many sayings of Jesus have a recognizable formulaic structure, including the Beatitudes and the woe pronouncements upon the Pharisees . Form critics are especially interested in (1) the genre of a text, such as 'letter', 'parable', etc (2) Sitz im leben ("setting in life") referring to the real-life contexts or settings (be they cultural, social, or religious) in which particular forms or language

7560-611: The Qur'an; and so on and so forth. Such an author of tafsīr is a mufassir ( 'مُفسر , mufassir , plural: مفسرون , mufassirūn ). Imam Razi 's Tafsir Kabir in Arabic and Mufti Naeemi 's Tafsir Naeemi in Urdu are some of the significant works on tafsīr in Islam. Traditional Jewish forms of exegesis appear throughout rabbinic literature , which includes the Mishnah , the two Talmuds , and

7686-580: The Qur’an that cannot be known by reason and logic such as the context of the revelation or abrogation of a specific ayah (verse). They are explained using reliable sources: other verses of Qur'an itself as some explain the other; the hadiths of The Prophet as the Quran was revealed on him ; the narrations of the Prophet's companions as they were the main context and reason for the revelation of some specific verses of

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7812-462: The Targum, served to widen the knowledge of the scholars learned in the first division of the national science. The scribes found the material for their discourses, which formed a part of the synagogue service, in the second division of the several branches of the tradition. The Aggadah, the third of these branches, was the source material for the sermon. Jewish exegesis did not finish with the redaction of

7938-594: The actual deduction of a thesis from a passage as a means of proving a point, and the use of such a passage as a mere mnemonic device—a distinction that was also made in a different form later in the Babylonian schools. The Babylonian Amoraim were the first to use the expression " Peshaṭ " ("simple" or face value method) to designate the primary sense, contrasting it with the "Drash," the Midrashic exegesis. These two terms were later on destined to become important features in

8064-435: The allegorical readings, but it took until the Renaissance for them to lose their dominance. Approaches in this period saw an attitude that stressed going "back to the sources", collecting manuscripts (whose authenticity was assessed), establishing critical editions of religious texts, the learning of original languages, etc. The rise of vernacular translations of the Bible, alongside the rise of Protestantism, also challenged

8190-404: The behaviour of past agents, like that of contemporary ones, is at least partly explicable by recourse to certain social and economic factors. Historical phenomena are accepted to be interrelated in a cause-and-effect relationship, and therefore modifications in putative causes will correlate to modifications in putative effects. In this context, an approach called historicism may be applied, where

8316-454: The book pericope -by-pericope or verse-by-verse. Before the 20th century, a commentary would be written by a sole author, but in the recent period, a publishing board will commission a team of scholars to write a commentary, with each volume being divided out among them. A single commentary will generally attempt to give a coherent and unified view on the Bible as a whole, for example, from a Catholic or Reformed ( Calvinist ) perspective, or

8442-424: The canon, as well as extra-biblical literature, archaeology , and all other available sources, is also needed. Likewise, a "hermeneutical autonomy" of the text must be respected, insofar as the meaning of the text should be found within it as opposed to being imported into it, whether that is from one's conclusions, presuppositions, or something else. The beginnings of historical criticism are often associated with

8568-524: The canonical biblical books, such as whether Paul was the author of Epistle to the Hebrews , or whether the author of the Gospel of John was also the author of the Book of Revelation , on the basis of stylistic criteria. Jerome reports widespread doubt concerning whether Peter was the true author of 2 Peter . Julius Africanus advanced several critical arguments in a letter to Origen as to why he believed that

8694-407: The content and nature of the texts. Things like the literary style and the theology of the author may affect how one reads the text. That may require some external criticism knowledge since who the author is will shine light on why they may be saying what they are saying. Biblical exegesis is the explanation or interpretation of the scriptures traditionally known as The Bible. Much biblical exegesis

8820-497: The context in which they were written. The New Testament was written during a time that had many new Greek and Roman ideas on literature and rhetoric , which provide an avenue for what was known and give additional resources to study New Testament texts in those contexts. Old Testament texts were not written in the same context, and due to their ancient nature have few additional resources to refer to for common themes in rhetoric and literature. There are many abstract text styles in

8946-546: The cuneiform record. To give but one example, the pronunciation of the cryptically written name of Gilgamesh, the hero of the Epic of Gilgamesh , was discovered in a cuneiform commentary on a medical text. However, the significance of cuneiform commentaries extends beyond the light they shed on specific details of Mesopotamian civilization. They shed light on what the concerns of the Mesopotamian literate elite were when they read some of

9072-667: The decline of the Christian faith (i.e. declining church attendance, fewer conversions to faith in Christ and biblical devotion, denudation of the Bible's supernaturalism, syncretism of philosophy and Christian revelation etc.) in the developed world to the consequences of historical criticism. Acceptance of historical critical dogmas engendered conflicting representations of Protestant Christianity . The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy in Article XVI affirms traditional inerrancy, but not as

9198-427: The development of the layers of the text through time, whereas composition criticism is synchronic, focusing on the structure of the final text. Controversy has emerged emerged regarding terms "historical" and "critical" in the historical-critical method. Two concerns exist surrounding "historical": (1) Critical approaches are not only historical but also literary and (2) The word "history" is too broad. It can refer to

9324-425: The editorial links, summaries and comments, expansions, additions, and clarifications" on the part of the redactor. Redaction criticism can become complicated when multiple redactors are involved, especially over the course of time, producing an iteration of stages or recension s of the text. An investigation of such a process can rely on internal features of the text and, when available, parallel texts, such as between

9450-485: The ending of Mark 16 and the Johannine Comma . The task of the textual critic is to compare all the variants and establish which reading is the original. Source criticism is the search for the original sources which lie behind a given text. Source criticism focuses on textual or written sources, whereas the consideration of oral sources lies in the domain of form criticism. A prominent example of source criticism in

9576-455: The exclusion of all other hermeneutics, in liberal Christianity . Historical criticism, also known as the historical-critical method or higher criticism , is a branch of literary criticism that investigates the origins of ancient texts in order to understand "the world behind the text". This is done to discover the text's primitive or original meaning in its original historical context and its literal sense. Revealed exegesis considers that

9702-574: The exegetical monopoly of the Catholic Church . Joachim Camerarius argued that scriptures needed to be interpreted from the perspective of the authors, and Hugo Grotius argued that they needed to be interpreted in light of their ancient setting. John Lightfoot stressed the Jewish background of the New Testament , whose understanding would involve the study of texts included in the rabbinic literature . The rise of Deism and Rationalism added to

9828-547: The field of biblical studies. In 1966, the Commission on Theology and Church Relations of the Luthern Church-Missouri Synod approved the steps taken towards acceptance of historical criticism as had been done earlier by the Catholic Church. Beginning in the nineteenth century, effort on the part of evangelical scholars and writers was expended in opposing theories of historical critical scholars. Evangelicals at

9954-552: The field. The largest is the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) with around 8,500 members in more than 80 countries. It publishes many books and journals in the biblical studies, including its flagship, the Journal of Biblical Literature . SBL hosts one academic conference in North America and another international conference each year, as well as smaller regional meetings. Others include

10080-459: The form of a deus ex machina or simply involve special pleading in the favor of a religious position. Likewise, present experience suggests that known events are associated with natural causes, and this in turn increases the weight of natural explanations for phenomena in the past when they are competed with supernatural explanations. Therefore, without being excluded, natural explanations may still be favored due to their being more in line with

10206-832: The fundamental part of the national science, was the subject of the primary instruction. It was also divided into the three historic groups of the books of the Hebrew Bible: the Pentateuch , the Prophets , and the Hagiographa , called in traditional Hebrew attribution the Torah (the Law or Teaching), the Nevi'im (the Prophets) and the Kethuvim (the Writings) respectively. The intelligent reading and comprehension of

10332-436: The hegemony of the interests of Western males. No reading of a text is free from ideological influences, including the readings produced by historians who apply historical criticism: just as with the texts they read, they too have social, political, and class interests. Proponents of historical criticism have responded to both of these charges. First, literary criticism has been emphasized as a supplement, as opposed to acting as

10458-564: The historical interpretation of cause-and-effect relationships takes place under the framework of methodological naturalism . Methodological naturalism is an approach taken from the natural sciences that excludes supernatural or transcendental hypotheses from consideration as hypotheses. Nevertheless, the historical-critical method can also be pursued independently of methodological naturalism. Approaches that do not methodologically exclude supernatural causes may still take issue with instances of their use as hypotheses, as such hypotheses can take on

10584-467: The history of Hebrew Bible exegesis. In Babylonia was formulated the important principle that the Midrashic exegesis could not annul the primary sense. This principle subsequently became the watchword of commonsense Bible exegesis. How little it was known or recognized may be seen from the admission of Kahana , a Babylonian amora of the fourth century, that while at 18 years of age he had already learned

10710-480: The interpretation of the Avesta . However, the closest equivalent Iranian concept, zand, generally includes Pahlavi texts which were believed to derive from commentaries upon Avestan scripture, but whose extant form contains no Avestan passages. Zoroastrian exegesis differs from similar phenomena in many other religions in that it developed as part of a religious tradition which made little or no use of writing until well into

10836-435: The judgements of historical critics. Some of these counter-views still have support in the more conservative evangelical circles today. There has never been a centralised stance on historical criticism, and Protestant denominations divided over the issue (e.g. Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy , Downgrade controversy etc.). The historical-grammatical method of biblical interpretation has been preferred by evangelicals, but

10962-426: The light of a close reading of that text itself as well as other relevant sources ... This is not to say that scripture should conversely be assumed to be false and mortal, but it does open up the very real possibility that an interpreter may find scripture to contain statements that are, by his own standards, false, inconsistent, or trivial. Hence, a fully critical approach to the Bible, or to the Qur’an for that matter,

11088-401: The mainstream of historical-critical scholarship, the notion of possibility underlying the words 'thinkable' and 'sayable' is informed by the principle of historical analogy – the assumption that past periods of history were constrained by the same natural laws as the present age, that the moral and intellectual abilities of human agents in the past were not radically different from ours, and that

11214-720: The majority of the thousands of texts from the ancient Near East that have survived to the present day, Mesopotamian text commentaries are written on clay tablets in cuneiform script . Text commentaries are written in the East Semitic language of Akkadian , but due to the influence of lexical lists written in Sumerian language on cuneiform scholarship, they often contain Sumerian words or phrases as well. Cuneiform commentaries are important because they provide information about Mesopotamian languages and culture that are not available elsewhere in

11340-405: The most widely studied texts in the Mesopotamian intellectual tradition, a perspective that is important for "seeing things their way." Finally, cuneiform commentaries are also the earliest examples of textual interpretation. It has been repeatedly argued that they influenced rabbinical exegesis. The publication and interpretation of these texts began in the mid-19th century, with the discovery of

11466-466: The notion of the inspiration of a religious text is not rejected, but is treated with indifference insofar as it does not act as a guiding hand for the examination of the text. Since the 1970s, historical criticism has been said by some to be on the decline or even in "crisis" in the face of two trends. The first is the shift, by many scholars, away from studying historical questions related to past texts, and instead to literary questions that center around

11592-399: The original sense of the " scientific method ". Further, argues Barton, the scientific method is applied methodically and an understanding is only extracted from the results produced by the method, whereas the application of, say, source criticism, presupposes a prior understanding of the text. In response, Law has argued that the historical-critical method is similar as opposed to dissimilar to

11718-507: The original writings versus the final outcome of the translations. Although the Bible was originally written in Hebrew, it was first translated into Old Greek in the 3rd century BC. This was still translated into the Old Testament. However, when the Bible was translated into the New Testament, it was now in Greek, or in other words, Koine Greek which is also known as Biblical Greek. Historical criticism Historical criticism (also known as

11844-413: The philosopher from the retribution of the regime, and protecting the regime from the corrosion of philosophy; it attracts the right kind of reader and repels the wrong kind; and ferreting out the interior message is in itself an exercise of philosophic reasoning. Taking his bearings from his study of Maimonides and Al-Farabi , and pointing further back to Plato's discussion of writing as contained in

11970-646: The present. The contrast between explanation of the literal sense and the Midrash, that did not follow the words, was recognized by the Tannaim and the Amoraim , although their idea of the literal meaning of a passage may not be allowed by more modern standards. The above-mentioned tanna , Ishmael b. Elisha said, rejecting an exposition of Eliezer b. Hyrcanus : "Truly, you say to Scripture, 'Be silent while I am expounding! ' ". Tannaitic exegesis distinguishes principally between

12096-456: The pressure exerted on traditional views of the Bible. For example, Johann August Ernesti sought to see the Bible not as a homogeneous whole but as a collection of distinct pieces of literature. Historical criticism as applied to the Bible began with Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677). The phrase "higher criticism" became popular in Europe from the mid-18th century to the early 20th century to describe

12222-514: The process of incorporating this historical criticism into Christian doctrine in Essays and Reviews , causing a five-year storm of controversy, which completely overshadowed the arguments over Charles Darwin 's newly published On the Origin of Species . Two of the authors were indicted for heresy and lost their jobs by 1862, but in 1864, they had the judgement overturned on appeal. La Vie de Jésus (1863),

12348-404: The reader. As part of this trend, postmodernist scholars have sought to challenge the concept of "meaning" itself as interpreted by historical critics who seek to study the historical, intended, or original meaning of a text. The second trend emerges from the work of feminist theologians who have argued that historical criticism is not impartial or objective, but instead is a tool for reasserting

12474-529: The reader—questions that orient the reader towards an understanding of problems the author thought about with utmost seriousness. Strauss thus, in Persecution and the Art of Writing , presents Maimonides "as a closet nonbeliever obfuscating his message for political reasons". Strauss's hermeneutical argument —rearticulated throughout his subsequent writings (most notably in The City and Man [1964])—is that, before

12600-418: The reconstruction of the historical events behind the text, a study of the history of the text itself, the historical (or intended) sense of the text, or a historicist approach that excludes consideration of the supernatural in the interpretation of the past. John Barton has instead preferred the term " biblical criticism " for these reasons. In response, it has been argued that literary approaches may also have

12726-439: The regular scientific and historical understanding of reality. Historical criticism comprises several disciplines, including textual criticism , source criticism , form criticism , redaction criticism , tradition criticism , and radical criticism . Textual criticism seeks to reconstruct the original form of a text. This is often a prerequisite for the application of downstream critical methods, as some confidence in what

12852-432: The royal Assyrian libraries at Nineveh, from which ca. 454 text commentaries have been recovered. The study of cuneiform commentaries is, however, far from complete. It is the subject of on-going research by the small, international community of scholars who specialize in the field of Assyriology . Commentaries on Plato include a large corpus of literature, especially in the ancient and medieval world, to explain and clarify

12978-400: The scientific method in this regard, and that neither are theory-free. Instead, in using both, the investigator begins with a hypothesis, tests it by applying the method to what is being studied, and in light of the data produced, may either accept the initial hypothesis or revise it if needed. Another concern expressed by some is that the historical-critical method commits the investigator to

13104-487: The seminal work by a Frenchman, Ernest Renan (1823–1892), continued in the same tradition as Strauss and Feuerbach. In Catholicism, L'Evangile et l'Eglise (1902), the magnum opus by Alfred Loisy against the Essence of Christianity of Adolf von Harnack (1851–1930) and La Vie de Jesus of Renan, gave birth to the modernist crisis (1902–61). Some scholars, such as Rudolf Bultmann (1884–1976) have used higher criticism of

13230-476: The specific procedures used to examine the text's historical origins, such as the time and place in which the text was written, its sources, and the events, dates, persons, places, things, and customs that are mentioned or implied in the text. Investigations using the historical-critical method are open to being challenged and re-examined by other scholars, and so some conclusions may be probable or more likely than others, but not certain. This, nevertheless, enables

13356-532: The study of the Old Testament is the Documentary Hypothesis , a theory proposed to explain the origins of the Pentateuch in five earlier written sources denoted J, E, P, and D. Source criticism also figures in attempts to resolve the Synoptic problem , which concerns the textual relationships between the Gospel of Mark , the Gospel of Matthew , and the Gospel of Luke , as well as hypothetical documents like

13482-463: The tacit heart of their writings—a heart or message irreducible to "the letter" or historical dimension of texts. Explicitly following Gotthold Ephraim Lessing 's lead, Strauss indicates that medieval political philosophers, no less than their ancient counterparts, carefully adapted their wording to the dominant moral views of their time, lest their writings be condemned as heretical or unjust, not by "the many" (who did not read), but by those "few" whom

13608-461: The text on a deeper level. External criticism in the context of biblical studies involves understanding the who, what, and when of New Testament texts. It does not analyze within the text itself, which is referred to as internal criticism. External criticism focuses on the source and dates of text and what type of text it is (in the New Testament, that is mostly a gospel account or a letter to a church or person). Internal criticism focuses specifically on

13734-467: The text originally said is needed before dissecting it for its sources, form, and editorial history. The challenge of textual criticism is that the original manuscripts ( autographs ) of the texts of the Bible have not survived, and that the copies of them (manuscripts) are not identical (as they contain variants). Variants range from spelling mistakes, to accidental omissions of words, to (albeit more rarely) more substantial variants such as those involved in

13860-517: The text succumbed to the overwhelming authority of the Midrash. It was, therefore, providential that, just at the time when the Midrash was paramount, the close study of the text of the Hebrew Bible, at least in one direction, was pursued with rare energy and perseverance by the Masorites , who set themselves to preserving and transmitting the pronunciation and correct reading of the text. The Mikra ,

13986-440: The text). The historian also seeks to understand the credibility and reliability of the sources in question, understanding sources as akin to witnesses to the past as opposed to straightforward narrations of it. In this process, it is important to understand the intentions, motivations, biases, prejudices, internal consistency, and even the truthfulness of the sources being studied. Involuntary witnesses that did not intend to transmit

14112-466: The text, arrived at by a correct division of the sentences and words, formed the course of instruction in the Hebrew Bible. The scribes were also required to know the Targum, the Aramaic translation of the text. The Targum made possible an immediate comprehension of the text, but was continuously influenced by the exegesis taught in the schools. The reading of the biblical text, which was combined with that of

14238-439: The text, unsupported by the text itself. Eisegesis is often used as a derogatory term. One of the early examples of exegesis, and one of the larger corpora of text commentaries from the ancient world, comes from Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) in the first millennium BCE. Containing over 860 manuscripts, the majority of which date to 700–100 BCE, these commentaries explore numerous types of texts, including literary works (such as

14364-676: The textual basis of the Christian Old Testament (although with order rearranged and some books split into two), was written in Biblical Hebrew , although a few chapters were written in Biblical Aramaic . Deuterocanonical books removed from the Old Testament in some Protestant Christian Bibles are variously written in Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic. The New Testament was written in Koine Greek , with possible Aramaic undertones , as

14490-415: The time accused the 'higher critics' of representing their dogmas as indisputable facts. Bygone churchmen such as James Orr , William Henry Green , William M. Ramsay , Edward Garbett , Alfred Blomfield , Edward Hartley Dewart , William B. Boyce , John Langtry , Dyson Hague , D. K. Paton, John William McGarvey , David MacDill, J. C. Ryle , Charles Spurgeon and Robert D. Wilson pushed back against

14616-537: The traditional view, biblical criticism asks when and where a particular text originated; how, why, by whom, for whom, and in what circumstances it was produced; what influences were at work in its production; what sources were used in its composition; and what message it was intended to convey. It varies slightly depending on whether the focus is on the Hebrew Bible , the Old Testament , the letters of New Testament or

14742-434: The units out of which the text originated, redaction criticism shifts the focus to how the author has, by the time of the final composition of the text, modified earlier forms of the text. This editing process of the text is called redaction, and the author redacting the text is called the redactor (or editor). The redactor may be the same figure as the original author. Instances of redaction may cover "the selection of material,

14868-425: The use of particular methods but in following them through to their conclusions, regardless of what those conclusions are. The status of the historical-critical method as a "method" has been questioned. For the theologian Andrew Louth , it presupposes objective reality and an objective meaning embedded within a text that can be extracted by a skillful interpreter. John Barton argues that it is not so systematic as in

14994-477: The whole Mishnah , he had only heard of that principle a great many years later ( Shab 63a). Kahana's admission is characteristic of the centuries following the final redaction of the Talmud. The primary meaning is no longer considered, but it becomes more and more the fashion to interpret the text according to the meaning given to it in traditional literature. The ability and even the desire for original investigation of

15120-546: The work of German biblical scholars of the Tübingen School . After the groundbreaking work on the New Testament by Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834), the next generation, which included scholars such as David Friedrich Strauss (1808–1874) and Ludwig Feuerbach (1804–1872), analyzed in the mid-19th century the historical records of the Middle East from biblical times, in search of independent confirmation of events in

15246-417: The work of such scholars as Jean Astruc (1684–1766), Johann Salomo Semler (1725–1791), Johann Gottfried Eichhorn (1752–1827), Ferdinand Christian Baur (1792–1860), and Wellhausen (1844–1918). In academic circles, it now is the body of work properly considered "higher criticism", but the phrase is sometimes applied to earlier or later work using similar methods. "Higher criticism" originally referred to

15372-512: The works of Plato. Many Platonist philosophers in the centuries following Plato sought to clarify and summarise his thoughts, but it was during the Roman era, that the Neoplatonists, in particular, wrote many commentaries on individual dialogues of Plato, many of which survive to the present day. A common published form of biblical exegesis is known as a Bible commentary and typically takes the form of

15498-405: The world and periods of history. The historian applying historical criticism has several goals in mind. One is to understand what the text itself is saying in the context of its own time and place, and as it would have been intended to and received by its original audience (sometimes called the sensus literalis sive historicus , i.e. the "historical sense" or the "intended sense" of the meaning of

15624-425: The written Law; and the non-legalistic Aggadah , a compendium of Rabbinic homilies of the parts of the Pentateuch not connected with Law. In the halakhic as well as in the aggadic exegesis, the expounder endeavored not so much to seek the original meaning of the text as to find authority in a Hebrew Bible passage for established concepts and ideas, rules of conduct, and teachings, for which he wished to locate

15750-571: Was the art of esoteric communication. This was especially apparent in medieval times when heterodox political thinkers wrote under the threat of the Inquisition or comparably obtuse tribunals. Strauss's argument is not that the medieval writers he studies reserved one exoteric meaning for the many ( hoi polloi ) and an esoteric, hidden one for the few (hoi oligoi), but that, through rhetorical stratagems including self-contradiction and hyperboles, these writers succeeded in conveying their proper meaning at

15876-512: Was the first translation of the Hebrew Bible, known as the Septuagint or Greek Old Testament. Therefore, Hebrew, Greek and sometimes Aramaic continue to be taught in most universities, colleges and seminaries with strong programs in biblical studies. There are few original Old Testament/Hebrew Bible manuscripts, and while the ancient translations (such as the Septuagint) are available, there comes

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