New Testament Interpretation Through Rhetorical Criticism

New Testament Interpretation through Rhetorical Criticism provides readers of the Bible with an important tool for understanding the Scriptures. Based on the theory and practice of Greek rhetoric in the New Testament, George Kennedy's approach acknowledges that New Testament writers wrote to persuade an audience of the truth of their messages. These writers employed rhetorical conventions that were widely known and imitated in the society of the times. Sometimes confirming but often challenging common interpretations of texts, this is the first systematic study of the rhetorical composition of the New Testament. As a complement to form criticism, historical criticism, and other methods of biblical analysis, rhetorical criticism focuses on the text as we have it and seeks to discover the basis of its powerful appeal and the intent of its authors. Kennedy shows that biblical writers employed both "external" modes of persuasion, such as scriptural authority, the evidence of miracles, and the testimony of witnesses, and "internal" methods, such as ethos (authority and character of the speaker), pathos (emotional appeal to the audience), and logos (deductive and inductive argument in the text). In the opening chapter Kennedy presents a survey of how rhetoric was taught in the New Testament period and outlines a rigorous method of rhetorical criticism that involves a series of steps. He provides in succeeding chapters examples of rhetorical analysis, looking closely at the Sermon on the Mount, the Sermon on the Plain, Jesus' farewell to the disciples in John's Gospel, the distinctive rhetoric of Jesus, the speeches in Acts, and the approach of Saint Paul in Second Corinthians, Thessalonians, Galatians, and Romans.

New Testament Interpretation Through Rhetorical Criticism

Please note that this title is only available to customers in the USA, Canada and Mexico. NO salesrights for Rest of World. In view of the current debate on the application of Greek and Roman rhetoric to biblical texts, C. Joachim Classen aims at determining both the opportunities and the limits of such forms of criticism, stressing the importance of supplementing the ancient categories with modern categories. He emphasizes the difference between letters such as Paul’s epistles and other kinds of texts, for example the gospels, and the need to select the aspects and criteria of rhetorical criticism accordingly and tries to illustrate how such criticism may be practiced. In addition, he answers the question to what extent Paul was familiar with Greek rhetoric by an examination of his vocabulary. Classen analyzes at length Melanchthon’s early lectures, his handbooks, and his commentaries to show some of the roots of this type of criticism, the manner in which its greatest exponent developed it, and the qualities ideally required for its successful application.

What role did classical rhetoric play in the writing of the New Testament? What role does classical and modern rhetoric play in interpreting the New Testament today? What role should classical and modern rhetoric play in New Testament interpretation? These and related questions are asked in this collection of over twenty essays originally delivered as papers at the 1992 Heidelberg Conference on Rhetorical Criticism of Biblical Documents. This conference, the first of several scheduled to address fundamental rhetorical issues of increasing importance in New Testament study, drew scholars from three continents and over fourteen countries, making it a truly international scholarly event and this a truly cosmopolitan publication. The authors' varying contexts resulted in a lively and challenging discussion well reflected in this volume's essays. The first part discusses rhetoric in the light of extended interpretation of a variety of New Testament texts. Luke and Acts, most of Paul's letters, and other New Testament documents are scrutinized using various rhetorical categories. In the second part, questions of rhetoric and methodology are raised. New approaches are tested in a number of essays that push the boundaries of traditional rhetorical study. These essays provide an excellent sampling of some of the major work being done in rhetorical study of the New Testament and suggest several avenues for future research.

Witherington provides a much-needed introduction to the ancient art of persuasion and its use within the various New Testament documents. More than just an exploration of the use of the ancient rhetorical tools and devices, this guide introduces the reader to all that went into convincing an audience about some subject. Witherington makes the case that rhetorical criticism is a more fruitful approach to the NT epistles than the oft-employed approaches of literary and discourse criticism. Familiarity with the art of rhetoric also helps the reader explore non-epistolary genres. In addition to the general introduction to rhetorical criticism, the book guides readers through the many and varied uses of rhetoric in most NT documents-not only telling readers about rhetoric in the NT, but showing them the way it was employed. This brief guide book is intended to provide the reader with an entrance into understanding the rhetorical analysis of various parts of the NT, the value such studies bring for understanding what is being proclaimed and defended in the NT, and how Christ is presented in ways that would be considered persuasive in antiquity. - from the introduction

The analysis of biblical rhetoric has been developed only in the last 250 years. The first half of this book outlines the history of the method known as rhetorical analysis in biblical studies, illustrated by numerous texts. The work of Lowth (who focused on 'parallelism'), Bengel (who drew attention to 'chiasmus'), Jebb and Boys (the method's real founders at the turn of the ninteenth century) and Lund (the chief exponent in the mid-twentieth century) are all discussed, as is the current full blooming of rhetorical analysis. The second half of the book is a systematic account of the method, testing it on Psalms 113 and 146, on the first two chapters of Amos, and many other texts, especially from Luke. Translated by Luc Racaut.

Rhetorical criticism is now an established discipline in New Testament interpretationbut rhetorical criticism means very different things to different practitioners. Genealogies of New Testament Rhetorical Criticism gathers critical appreciations of five pioneers of rhetorical criticismHans Dieter Betz, George A. Kennedy, Wilhelm Wuellner, Elisabeth Schssler Fiorenza, and Vernon K. Robbinsand responses from the pioneers themselves or their representatives (Duane F. Watson for George A. Kennedy; Thomas H. Olbricht for Wilhelm Wuellner)to highlight their distinctive approaches and to describe their legacies for contemporary interpretation. From a lucid description of the understanding of persuasion held by the ancients to contemporary appreciations of the ways power shapes discourse, these pioneers have helped to set the agenda for future interpretation. In a final methodological turn, a concluding essay by Todd Penner and Davina C. Lopez asks about the rhetoric of New Testament rhetorical criticism itself. Scholars and students of the field will benefit from this timely contribution.

Rhetorical criticism promised to bring New Testament studies into a new era that approached the Bible as a document of persuasive discourse. Major proponents of this approach suggested that its potential lies in its democratization of biblical interpretation. To date, that promise has never been fulfilled. The reasons can be found by exploring the rhetoric of these rhetorical critics. Such an exploration uncovers systems of disciplinary constraints and discursive habits that keep rhetoric firmly within traditional units of academic biblical interpretation. The promise of rhetoric can only be fulfilled by shattering all notions of a rhetorical 'programme' of biblical interpretation.