Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
addendum
The goal of the second phase of biblical interpretation, Critical
Interpretation, is to critically examine the biblical text using various
critical methodologies designed to get at what the text means. Four
major areas of concern are involved in this phase of interpretation:
Text and Translation Issues, Historical Issues, New Literary Issues, and
Post Modern Issues.
Historical Issues
1. Socio-Historical context
a. Source-critical concerns
Who was the author?
What is the historical origin and setting
(when/where/why) of text?
What is the social location of the text (social
systems/groups/networks/ideologies)?
Whom is the writer addressing? What is the social,
political and cultural context to which the passage is
addressed? Does the passage suggest anything about
the kind of people that might have been present in the
authors community? How might this passage have
addressed concerns that were significant to the people
of that community?
2. Literary-historical Issues
a. What is the literary context? Where does the passage come
in relation to the whole work? What comes before and after
the passage? How does the passage relate, if at all, to the
immediate context?
b. Form-critical concerns
What is the genre of the text?
What is the structure of the text?
How did the text function in its original setting?
c. Redaction-critical concerns
Can the approximate shape of text before it reached the
hand of the redactor(s) be determined?
How has the redactor reshaped the tradition?
Does the literary context cast light on the interpretation
of the text by the redactor?