REL 630 – Spring 2006
Victor Matthews
Form
Critical Methods
1. Analysis of the structure -- determining the appropriate, original
unit for analysis
Structure: the outline, the pattern, or the schema of a given
piece of literature or a given genre.
a. Discover the customary
beginning and concluding formulas for each genre. Prophetic books
begin: "The word of the Lord
that came to _____."
b. Recognizing the conventional
patterns of different genres, such as poetic parallelism and
symmetry. A change in genre may indicate a new unit has
begun as do changes in content, style,
mood and tone, person or tense.
c. Having distinguished each
unit, the form critic now outlines that structure, giving attention
primarily to matters of form and
secondarily to matters of content.
2. Description of the Genre -- defining and describing each example
Genre: the type of literature being examined.
a. Note whether the text is
poetry or prose, and then what kind of poetry or prose. A Psalm may be
lyric poetry, a hymn, and a specific
type of hymn of praise.
b. Compare each example of genre
with others of its type in order to reveal which elements are
more or less constant (comprising
formal elements) and which are variable. These comparisons
should also include extrabiblical literary examples.
- Some types of speech or
literature are more stereotyped or formalized than others. Compare
conversation to courtroom stylized
speech, or limerick structure to free style poetry.
c. Be
alert to the short formulas within a particular genre. See the messenger
formula, "Thus says
the Lord," in prophetic speech
or curse formulas as in Duet 27:15ff.
3. Definition of the setting or settings -- the sociological situation
which produced and
maintained the various genres, such
as the activity of the cult, legal institutions, family life,
tribal
institutions, royal court protocol.
a. Description of the setting
follows the correct description of the genre: Hymns belong in worship
and laws belong to the legal process
and the courts.
b. There may be allusions within
a passage to the activities which surrounded the use of certain
genres. Josh 24:1-28 contains a
covenant renewal ceremony. By comparing this passage with or
examples
(Exod 24:3-8, 2 Kgs 23:1-3, Neh 8:1-12), it is possible to determine that the
account
in Joshua reflects a cultic
institution and a situation which must have been repeated many times
in
c. Ask
the questions, "Who is speaking and who are the listeners?" This
provides data on the
circumstances and the setting.
d. The structure of the genre
also can reveal details of the setting, as in the litany style of Ps 136.
e. When a passage contains more
than one genre, it will also reflect more than one setting -- as in
the case with originally cultic,
legal, or wisdom material which has been appropriated,
adapted, or copied for use in
prophetic speeches.
4. Statement of intention, purpose, or function of the
text -- showing how it has arisen and
why it has survived
a. Attempt to determine what function the
genre served or tried to serve in its ancient setting. The
intention of etiological sagas is to
explain existing phenomena by reference to an event
in
the past. But the etiological intention, in some cases, may be secondary to
another, perhaps a
historical, intention.
b. Exegesis and interpretation
hinge on intention of a genre, particularly when distinguishing
between the intention of the ancient
oral material and that of the collector or redactor of
that material.