3.1 Interpreting the text

Question 1

What does biblical criticism mean?

Answer 1

• Umbrella term for scholar’s approach to the texts, addressing the bible as literature

Question 2

What does biblical criticism attempt to do for the gospels?

Answer 2

• Figure out how they came to be
• Their reliability as sources for the life and teachings of Jesus
• Find out their purpose

Question 3

Describe Mark’s gospel

Answer 3

69-70 CE, Rome?
- earliest gospel
- Attributed to Peter’s secretary in Rome
- Poor greek
- Author doesnt know about destruction of Temple (70CE)

Explains Jewish customs for gentile readers

Question 4

Describe Matthew’s gospel

Answer 4

85 CE, Antioch?
- very ‘Jewish’
- does not explain Jewish customs, uses proof texts from the Old Testament
- Good knowlege of 1st centuryPalestine
- Some specific details of the Roman seige of Jerusalem in 70CE
- Focus on Gentiles and Jesus’ ethical teachings
- ‘gospel of compassion’- focuses on salvation for all

Question 5

Describe John’s gospel

Answer 5

90-100CE, Ephesus?
- Last gospel to be written
- describes Jesus’ enemies as ‘the jews’
- ‘high christology’ (Jesus is word of God made flesh)
- refers to christians being expelled from Synagogues (80s-90s CE)
- ‘backward looking’ style
- more accurate knowledge of pre- 70CE Jerusalem than other gospels so might go back to original eye witnesses

Question 6

What is the oral tradition?

Answer 6

The teachings of Jesus and accounts of the events in his life from eyewitnesses, passed on by word of mouth- used by the Gospel authors to write the gospels
- before it was written down

Question 7

What was Catholic/ conservative protestant’s belief about Oral Law?

Answer 7

Oral tradition faithfully preserved Jesus’ historic behaviour, words and teachings

Question 8

What is Liberal/ modernist scholars’ belief about Oral Law?

Answer 8

Oral tradition distorted Jesus’ behaviour, words anf teachings, attributing Jesus to things that actually reflect later Christian ideas and christologies

Question 9

What is Christology?

including high and low

synoptic link to Prologue in John- 2.1: Word becomes flesh

Answer 9

• Belief about Jesus’ status: human teacher, inspired prophet, supernatural wonderworker, angelic being or God-inhuman form?

High: Jesus is a divine being INCARNATED in human form, perhaps a belief Christians developed later in 1st century

Low: Jesus is a human being EXALTED (raised up) by God to a supernatural state, perhaps the earliest christian belief

Question 10

What are the 4 stages of development of oral tradition?

Answer 10

1. Jesus’ life and teachings
2. People telling and repeating stories about Jesus and his teachings
3. The early christian community preserving the oral stories and teachings
4. The author using this oral tradition when writing their gospel

Question 11

What are the 3 main criticisms of the development of the gospels?

Answer 11

Source criticism- examines where the material came from and establish the original source

Form criticism- identify different ‘forms’ or** types of writing** in the text and the historical context within which they were written

redaction criticism- identify how the author shaped their material; evangelist seen as an editor or ‘redactor’ in the creation of the text

Question 12

What is the synoptic prblem?

Answer 12

The question of the literary relationship between the first three gospels, and the sources used in each

Question 13

What are the solutions to the synoptic problem?

Answer 13

1. the gospels are independent eyewitness accounts
2. inspiration by the holy spirit
3. Proto gospel
4. multiple sources

Question 14

what are the strengths and weaknesses of the gospels being eye witness accounts as a solution to the synoptic problem?

Answer 14

Strength: Fits with traditional authors who were actual disciples (matthew, John) or were friends of disciples (Mark, Luke)

Criticism: Synoptc similarities become a problem- clear evidence of copying from each other

Question 15

what are the strengths and weaknesses of the gospels being inspiration by the holy spirit as a solution to the synoptic problem?

Answer 15

strength: Fits with idea of scripture being divinely inspired and wording being precisely influenced by God

Criticism: Does not explain synoptic differences or why John is so dissimilar

Question 16

what are the strengths and weaknesses of the gospels using a Proto-gospel as a solution to the synoptic problem?

Answer 16

Strength: Missing original gospel that all others are taken from

Criticism: no evidence for this text; never mentioned in early christian writing

Question 17

what are the strengths and weaknesses of the gospels using multiple sources as a solution to the synoptic problem?

Answer 17

Strength: The gospels borrow from each other and from earlier now lost sources

criticism: no mention of these sources by earlier Christian writers, who describe Matthew as the first gospel

Question 18

How can the Gospels have so much in common but also have differences?

Answer 18

• The early Church explanation was that each writer wrote independently but used a common apostolic witness
• The gospels were writeen in the sam order as the New Test; the later ones used the earlier ones- so mark abreviated Matthew, and Luke used both Matthew and Mark- argued by Augustine

Griesbach’s synopsis allowed scholars to see:
* where the Evangelists agreed, 2 or all 3
* where material was used by one
* similarities in the actual wording

Scholars believe:
* All used a common source
* either 1 or 2 used a different source
* all shared common written sources, possible Greek translations

Question 19

What are the different source theories hypothesized by scholars?

Answer 19

• proto- gospel
• two source
• four source

Question 20

What is the proto-gospel hypothesis and its criticisms?

Answer 20

• Theory that there is a lost gospel which Mt, Mk, and Lk all used, referred to as ‘proto’- original preaching of Jesus and his disciples before it was altered by later Christians

Was it matthew?:
There was a letter from Bishop Papais that Mt collected the sayings of Jesus from, and were interpreted by Mk and Mt
* But: cannot be verified as the letter no longer exists. Modern scholars believe it is unlikely and majority don’t argue for the priority of Matthew

Was this Mark?
Could have been a proto Mark with less material in it, which the author later supplemented. Mt and Lk use it when writing
* But: doesn’t permit when Mt and Lk agree against MK and other times Mk agrees with Mt against Lk

Question 21

What is the 2 source hypothesis and its criticisms?

Answer 21

• Uses the priority of Mark
• Theory that Mt and Lk used Mk and Q to write their gospels
• Mt and Lk both copied from Mk but the things they didn’t get from Mk they copied from Q (the temptation narrative)
• Q stands for Quelle meaning source in German- thought to be Jesus’ logia

But:
* Mt and Lk both have material in their gospel unique to them
* There is also no evidence for Q

Question 22

What is the 4 source hypothesis and its criticisms?

Answer 22

Mt and Lk both use Mark and Q to write their gospels but Luke used another source L and Matthew used another source M as well

• Source M (228 verses)- mainly Jewish material, including use od Old Test and birth narratives
• Source L (490 verses)- contains 14 parables and references to Mary

But:
* There is no evidence for Q
* Instances where Mt and Lk are similar but Mk is differen, showing they knew each other’s texts
* Occam’s razor argues 2 source hypothesis more simple
* evident of Mk and Lk copying Mt- teaching about the greatest commandment
* proposed that Mark was used as source material by Mt, and that Lk used both Mk and Mt

Question 23

Why do scholars argue for the priority of Mark?

Answer 23

• Mark: referred to Herod Antipas as ‘basileus’- King
• Matthew and Luke: correct Herod Antipas referred to ‘tetrarch’- key person ( Herod was never a king)
• Traditionalist view (Matthew was written first)- could believe that Matthew didn’t use Mark as a source, or that Mark was a simplification of Matthew
• It is the shortest and doesn’t include things like the birth narrative and the Lord’s prayer
• Early church thought that Mark’s gospel was based on the preaching of Apostle Peter, so is dated soon after his death 64CE
• Mark had very little unique material- other gospels copied (MT includes 94% of Mk in his gospel, and Lk 79%)
• Matthew and Luke have better Greek than Mark- Mark only used 400 words in total

Criticism: goes against earliest writers who thought matthew was first gospel- doesnt explain material in Mt and LK that isnt in Mk

Question 24

Why do some scholars believe the Augustinian view that Matthew came first?

Answer 24

• external evidence from the church fathers; Irenaeus testified that matthew’s gospel was first
• there are parallel accounts in Mt and Mk, easier to see that Mk edited Mt rather tha. the other way
• Griesbach argued that Mark was the last of the 3 gospels to be written as it provided a summary of the other 2

Question 25

What is the Form criticism?

Synoptic link to Language games in Philosophy

Answer 25

• Identifies each different unit- Pericopae of writing and classifies it into a form, then criticised on how it was adapted to fit the needs of the church
• Gunkel–> ‘seit im leiben’- the context= Comes up with the view that the gospel writers took snippets of texts and stuck them together, so doesn’t have any context–NEGATIVE view of how the gospels were written
  • SYNOPTIC LINK with religious language in philosophy- Language games theory suggests that unless you are part of the ‘team’ that uses a particular type of language with particular rules you will never understand it
  • Bultmann 20th Century Form critic: looks at idea of the gospel writer being unaware of ‘seit im leiben’ and says we need to fundamentally demythologise the gospels– go back to the original context of the different Pericopae

Question 26

What are some examples of the form criticism?

Answer 26

• Interpretation of the parable of the sower (Mark 4:10-20) seems to sit more comfortably in the life of the early church than the ministry of Jesus
• Matthew 18:15-18 is about the issue of sin in the church, so probably not spoken by Jesus himself

Question 27

What are examples identified for the form criticism?

types of text

Answer 27

• paradigms- pithy saying which present Jesus as role model
• tales- good stories, e.g miracle narratives
• legends- narratives where the point was set as an example to be followed
• myths- human and spiritual worlds interact, non-historical, e.g temptations
• exhortations- teachings, e.g love your enemy

Summarised into two main areas:
Sayings of Jesus
Stories about Jesus

Question 28

What is the importance of the form criticism?

Answer 28

• Highlights oral tradition
• Offers context of the teachings of Jesus and their meaning within the early church
• Shows importance the author placed on the teaching or event
• For some scholars it shows the needs of the early church took priority over the need for historical priority- support the christian community in their faith
• Paved the way for redaction criticism

Question 29

What is the redaction criticism?

synoptic link to 4.1- historical approach to interpreting the text

Answer 29

• Focuses on the whole book rather than a series of units and attempts to work out how the material has been adapted/ edited to fit the author’s MOTIF
• John never names Jesus’ mother because jesus’ human background is unimportant when arguing ‘high christology’
• e.g John uses the phrase ‘the jews’ to describe when Jesus reveals the antisemetic agenda of the Johannine Community
• emphasizes creativity of gospel writers, and the importance of the social sitz im leben
• synoptic link to 4.1 historical approach to interpretation

Question 30

What is Mark’s understanding of Jesus?

Answer 30

Messianic secret, Jesus’ authority, the second coming of christ was imminent

Question 31

What was Matthew’s understanding of Jesus?

Answer 31

Jeus as the fufilment of Old Test prophecies, Jesus as Son of David and new Moses, focus on the teachings of Jesus

Question 32

What is Luke’s understanding of Jesus?

Answer 32

Salvation history, Jesus’ message for all people, concern for outcasts, second coming of Christ further in the future

Question 33

Why is the redaction criticism important and its criticisms?

Answer 33

• Shows gospels to be not just collections of fragments of tradition but as planned and sophisticated pieces of writing
• The author’s individual theology can be established by examining how the writer uses the sources and the unique material he contributes to his Gospel.

But:
* Relies on the success of Q and the 4 source hypothesis
* There is a tendency to focus on what the author has adapted rather than on what he has preserved as being significant
* If Mark was written first, the changes he made to his sources cannot be clearly scene, can his purpose be detected using redaction criticism?

Question 34

What are some case studies of redaction criticism?

Answer 34

William Wrede: ‘The messianic secret’- argued Mark’s theme of secrecy prepares the reader for the unexpected outcome of a messiah who is crucified but crucifixion is victory for those that believe Jesus is the Son of God

Hanz Conzelmann: ‘Theology of Saint Luke’- Author of Luke sets Jesus within a historical timeframe and uses all the material to form a story of the salvation offered to humanity through Jesus’ life and teachings.

Question 35

What is the narrative (or reader) criticism?

Answer 35

Some scholars claim it is a better approach to treat the Gospels as a whole. Treat is a piece f literature where the characters, settings, and structure matter.