Skip to Main Content

New Testament Interpretation Through Rhetorical Criticism

Online ISBN:
9781469616261
Print ISBN:
9780807841204
Publisher:
University of North Carolina Press
Book

New Testament Interpretation Through Rhetorical Criticism

Published:
10 September 1984
Online ISBN:
9781469616261
Print ISBN:
9780807841204
Publisher:
University of North Carolina Press

Abstract

This book 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, the book'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 a 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. The book 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). The first chapter 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. The book provides in succeeding chapters examples of rhetorical analysis, including close looks at the Sermon on the Mount, the Sermon on the Plain, Jesus's farewell to the disciples in John's Gospel, and the distinctive rhetoric of Jesus.

Contents
Close
This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

Close

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

View Article Abstract & Purchase Options

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

Close