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Course 4 · Lesson 4.4

Literary and canonical reading

11 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 4 outline

Module 1: How the Canon Formed

  1. What a canon is, and what canonical means
  2. The Old Testament canon: Law, Prophets and Writings
  3. The New Testament canon: from gospels and letters to a list
  4. Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant canons compared

Module 2: The Hebrew Bible and the Septuagint

  1. The Hebrew Bible and the work of the Masoretes
  2. Origin and character of the Septuagint
  3. The Dead Sea Scrolls and the state of the Old Testament text
  4. How New Testament writers quote the Old Testament

Module 3: Transmission of the New Testament Text

  1. Copying by hand: papyri, codices and scribes
  2. Manuscript traditions: Alexandrian, Western and Byzantine texts
  3. Kinds of variants and how they arise
  4. The principles of textual criticism
  5. Reading a critical apparatus and a translation footnote

Module 4: Reading Responsibly: Exegesis and Method

  1. Exegesis and eisegesis with worked examples
  2. Source, form and redaction criticism: what each asks
  3. Strengths and limits of the historical method
  4. Literary and canonical reading

Module 5: Meaning Beyond the Surface: Typology, Allegory and Genre

  1. Typology in the New Testament and the fathers
  2. Allegory and its critics: Alexandria and Antioch
  3. Reading by genre: narrative, law, poetry, prophecy, gospel and letter
  4. Setting, authorship and audience as questions to ask of any passage

Module 6: Christian Approaches to Interpretation

  1. The fourfold sense of Scripture in the medieval church
  2. Reformation principles: Scripture, clarity and the grammatical and historical sense
  3. Orthodox and Catholic approaches: Scripture within Tradition
  4. Historical scholarship and theological interpretation in conversation

Module 7: Writing an Exegesis

  1. Choosing a passage and framing a question
  2. Observation and context: what the text says and where it stands
  3. Using commentaries and reference works without being led by them
  4. Writing up, checking conclusions and revising

All courses

Program / Course 4: Biblical Studies and Hermeneutics / Lesson 4.4

What you will learn

  • Describe what literary reading attends to and give examples of its tools.
  • Describe canonical reading and its focus on the final form of the text.
  • Explain how the two approaches complement the historical methods.
  • Apply a few literary tools to a short passage.

The big idea

Literary reading treats a biblical book as a crafted whole and asks how its plot, characters, repetitions, structure and style create meaning. Canonical reading goes further and asks how a book speaks within the whole Bible, in the final form in which the church has received it. Both approaches take the text as it stands, in contrast to methods that look behind it. Used together with historical study, they help the reader to see both how a text was made and what it says now.

Key terms

Literary criticism
The study of a text as literature, attending to form, style, structure and the effects on a reader.
Narrative criticism
A literary approach to stories that attends to plot, characters, setting, point of view and the narrator.
Inclusio
A framing device in which a text begins and ends with the same word or phrase, enclosing what lies between.
Chiasm
A pattern in which elements are arranged in a mirror sequence, such as A B C B’ A’, with the center often carrying the main point.
Canonical criticism
An approach that reads each book in the light of its place in the final canon and the use made of it by the community of faith.
Final form
The text as it has been received and read, in contrast to hypothetical earlier stages.
Intertextuality
The ways in which one text refers to, quotes or echoes another.

Background

In the late twentieth century, many scholars grew dissatisfied with approaches that cut the Bible into sources and layers. They asked whether the text as it stands could be read as a whole. Literary critics, such as Robert Alter, who wrote on the art of biblical narrative, showed that Hebrew stories are told with subtle skill, using repetition, small variations and economy of detail. Their work helped readers see that the final authors and editors were artists.

At the same time, Brevard Childs of Yale argued for what he called a canonical approach. He held that the proper object of interpretation is the final form of the biblical book as received by the community of faith, not a reconstructed earlier stage. He did not reject historical study. He asked that its results serve the reading of the text as Scripture. James Sanders developed a related approach, which pays more attention to the process by which texts were shaped and used.

Neither approach is entirely new. Early Christian writers read Scripture as a unity and noticed patterns of language across books. What is new is the vocabulary of modern literary study and the effort to join it with the study of history.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: Notice how a text is built

Start with structure. Look for repeated words and phrases, for frames at the beginning and end, and for turning points. The book of Jonah, for example, begins with a command to go to Nineveh and a flight in the opposite direction, and it returns to the same command later. The repetition marks a turn in the story. In many psalms, a line at the beginning returns at the end, as in Psalm 8, which opens and closes with the words “O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!” This frame shapes how the psalm is heard.

Next look at plot and character. Who wants what? What gets in the way? What is told and what is left out? Hebrew narrative is often very sparing and invites the reader to fill in feeling and motive. A reader who notices what is not said understands the story better.

Step 2: Pay attention to style and voice

Note the voice of the narrator and the kind of speech in the passage. Is the narrator reliable, and does he comment on the action? Is there irony, in which a character says more than he knows? The Gospel of John is full of such moments. When Caiaphas says that it is expedient that one man die for the people (John 11:50), the narrator shows that his words mean more than he intended. Seeing the irony does not require special knowledge, only attention.

Step 3: Read in the canon

Now ask where the passage stands in the whole book and the whole Bible. The placing of a text may be part of its meaning. The Psalter opens with Psalm 1 on the blessed man who meditates in the law of the Lord, and Psalm 2 on the Lord’s anointed. Many scholars hold that these two psalms were placed to introduce the collection and set the tone of the whole. A canonical reader asks how the books speak to each other: how the Old Testament looks toward Christ, how the New Testament quotes the Old, how a theme such as exile or covenant runs through many books.

Childs also stressed that the church has read the Bible as Scripture, so the history of how a text has been used is part of the evidence. This brings the approach close to the older Christian habit of reading the whole Bible as a single book.

Step 4: Keep both approaches in balance

Literary and canonical readings have their own risks. A reader can find elaborate structures that the author did not intend. The test is whether a pattern can be seen by other readers and whether it supports the text’s evident point. A canonical reader can also flatten the differences among books by forcing them into harmony. The test here is whether each voice is heard on its own terms before it is placed with others.

Critics also note that a focus on the final form can neglect the history of the text, and that historical critics sometimes neglect the whole. Many scholars now try to hold both. In the assignment for this course, you will use both the history and the final form.

  1. How does the passage begin and end, and is there a frame?
  2. Which words or phrases repeat, and what does the repetition suggest?
  3. Who are the characters, what do they want, and what is left unsaid?
  4. Where does the passage stand in its book, and what comes before and after?
  5. How do other books of the Bible speak of the same theme?
  6. Am I finding a pattern in the text or putting one on it?

Examples

The frame of Psalm 8

Psalm 8 begins and ends with the same line in praise of the Lord’s name. Between the lines, the psalmist wonders at the heavens and at the place of human beings in creation. The frame leads the reader from praise through wonder and back to praise, and shows the psalm’s movement in a simple way.

The center of Mark

In Mark, Peter confesses that Jesus is the Christ in chapter 8, and from there the gospel turns toward Jerusalem and the cross. Many readers see this as the hinge of the book. Attention to the structure shows that the first half asks who Jesus is and the second half shows what kind of Messiah he is.

Isaiah in the canon

The book of Isaiah has been read by historians as the work of more than one period, while canonical readers note that the book as it stands has a unity of themes such as the Holy One of Israel and the city of Zion. The two readings are not necessarily rivals. They ask different questions of the same text.

Different perspectives

Protestant

Brevard Childs, a Presbyterian, worked to renew the reading of the Bible as Christian Scripture. Many evangelical scholars welcome the focus on the final form, as it fits their view of the Bible as a unified, authoritative text, and they use literary tools in preaching and teaching.

Catholic

The Second Vatican Council taught that interpreters should attend to the content and unity of the whole of Scripture, taking account of the living tradition of the church and the analogy of faith. This is close in spirit to canonical reading. Catholic scholars have also contributed to literary study of the Bible.

Orthodox

Orthodox readers have always read the Bible as a unity, in the light of Christ, with the help of the fathers and the liturgy. Literary attention to patterns is a natural extension, and many Orthodox writers draw out patterns in the text for homilies and commentary.

Jewish

Jewish reading has long attended to words, repetitions and patterns in the text. The rabbinic tradition of close reading, and modern Jewish literary scholars such as Robert Alter, have contributed greatly to this approach. Jews read the Tanakh in its Jewish arrangement, and the notion of a Christian canon is not theirs.

Scholarly critics

Some scholars criticize canonical reading for privileging a theological decision about the final form, and some criticize literary reading for imposing modern tastes on ancient texts. Others combine the methods with historical study. The debate continues.

Why it matters

Most of us read the Bible in its final form, a book at a time or a passage at a time. Literary and canonical tools help us to read that form attentively. They also show how a single passage belongs to a larger story, which matters for preaching, prayer and teaching. And they prepare the ground for the lessons on typology and genre in the next module.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: Literary reading treats the Bible as fiction.

Correction: Literary reading studies the craft of a text, whatever its subject. Historical narratives, like those of the ancient world, are written with literary art, and noticing the art does not decide whether the events happened.

Misunderstanding: Canonical reading ignores history.

Correction: Childs and others hold that history serves the reading of the text as Scripture. They object when history alone is used to decide the meaning.

Misunderstanding: Any pattern a reader finds in the text is intended by the author.

Correction: A pattern should be tested. It should be visible to other readers and fit the point of the passage.

Misunderstanding: Reading the Bible as a whole means treating every book as saying the same thing.

Correction: A careful canonical reader hears the distinct voices of the books, and then asks how they speak together.

Knowledge check

What does literary reading attend to?

It attends to how a text is made: its structure, repeated words, plot, characters, narrator, irony and style. It asks how these features create meaning for a reader. Tools include the study of frames such as inclusio and mirror patterns such as chiasm.

What is the aim of canonical reading according to Brevard Childs?

Childs held that the proper object of interpretation is the final form of the book as received in the community of faith. He wanted historical study to serve the reading of the text as Scripture and did not wish to dismiss history.

Give one risk of literary reading and one of canonical reading.

Literary reading can find elaborate patterns that the author did not intend. Canonical reading can flatten differences among books by forcing them into harmony. In both cases the test is whether the reading respects what the text itself says.

How do Psalms 1 and 2 illustrate a canonical reading?

Many scholars hold that these two psalms were placed at the start to introduce the whole Psalter, with themes of delight in the law and the rule of the Lord’s anointed. Reading later psalms in that light is an example of reading a text in its place in the canon.

Think it through

  1. Why might close attention to how a story is told help a person who reads the Bible for prayer?
  2. What would be lost if a reader looked only at the sources behind a book and never at the book itself?
  3. What would be lost if a reader ignored the history altogether?
  4. How might the canon shape the way you read a short passage in the middle of a book?

Independent assignment

Read a short book as a whole

Read the book of Jonah or the book of Ruth at one sitting. In your notebook, list the main scenes, the repeated words, the characters and what each wants, and the turning point. Then write 300 to 450 words describing how the book is built and what its shape suggests about its point. Add a paragraph on how the book might be read within the whole Bible. Keep your work in your notebook.

Further study