Any of you who have been following my blog for long will probably notice that I frequently invoke the use of analysis of a Bible passage from the viewpoint of its literary structure. So I figured this would be a good time to review what literary analysis is all about, at least in the way I have been practicing it.
The whole process begins, as most scientific endeavors do, with a statement of all the assumptions that lie behind it. Here are the main ones:
God is a God of order and that is reflected in His written word.
We can best deal with the present biblical books as we now have them, rather than analyzing the various hypothetical sources that may have been used to compile each of them.
Just as God inspired human writers in the process of composing the books of the Bible, he also oversaw the process of determining those which would be in the Canon and the way in which the text was adequately preserved over the centuries.
With that background, one is now able to look for the inherent order that is in each book. And the process generally starts by breaking down the text into its individual paragraphs and sections. The first attempt to do that was in 1227 AD when Stephen Langton came up with our present chapter divisions. But scholars agree that these divisions are not always reliable. For example, just look at the first chapter division in the Bible. Verses 1-3 of Genesis 2 really belong at the end of Chapter 1 instead. Drilling down to smaller paragraph divisions, you will find even more confusion in trying to rely on English translations or commentaries. That can be illustrated even with the tiny book of Philemon.
Most, but not all, scholars are agreed that the first seven verses serve as an introduction and the final three verses constitute the conclusion. But what about the body of this short letter?
Outlines for the Body of Philemon
Divisions Ref.
Phm. 8-10, 11-16, 17-20, 21-22 NEB
Phm. 8-11, 12-14, 15-16, 17-20, 21-22 TEV
Phm. 8-11, 12-16, 17-21, 22 NIV
Phm. 8-14, 15-16, 17-22 R. Melick
Phm. 8-14, 15-20 Barth & Blanke
Phm. 8-14, 15-20, 21-22 RSV
Phm. 8-16, 17-21 22 NRSV
Phm. 8-16, 17-22 N. T. Wright
Phm. 8-12,17, 13-16, 18-21 E. Deibler
You can see that no two of these nine sources agree entirely on how to represent the author's intent through paragraph divisions. What are needed are some more objective criteria to go by, and fortunately the Bible provides them right within the text.
Inclusio
In the first place, the limits of a given section are often clearly marked by the use of an inclusio: repeated words or phrases at the start and conclusion of a given passage that serve as bookends for it. And they often contain elements within them listed in mirror-image order. For example:
The blessings and the curses
I have set before you (Deuteronomy 30:1)
--------
I have set before you...
blessings and curses (Deuteronomy 30:19)
Note that in this particular case, our present chapter divisions do coincide with the intended limits to the section. We will get back to Deuteronomy 30 in a minute.
A typical New Testament example of an inclusio is Paul's use of “grace and peace” to begin a letter, with the same two elements often given in the reverse order at the end.
Inclusios also occur in the historical narratives. For example, the whole account of Saul's pursuit of David is bounded by these two passages.
“Saul was sitting at Gibeah, under the tamarisk tree on the height, with his spear in his hand.” (I Samuel 22:6)
“They took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and fasted seven days. (I Samuel 31:13)
In the first incident, Saul has the priests of God killed with the sword for aiding David's escape, and in the last passage Saul himself falls on his sword and is killed and buried with his sons, as a form of divine retribution. These represent two of the only three times in the whole OT that a tamarisk tree is mentioned. The implication for apologetics is that God not only ordered how the Bible was written, but also built in order and symmetry to the actual events of history.
Symbolic Numbers
If you want a slightly more mathematical criteria for section divisions, it is well recognized that the number seven has particular symbolic significance within the Bible, standing for perfection or completion. Thus, the limits of a given section in the Bible can often be determined by noting repetition of a given Hebrew or Greek word or phrase within that section exactly seven times or multiples of seven. Looking again at Deuteronomy 30, the opening paragraph in this chapter can first be approximated by a marked change of subject after v. 10, and this is confirmed by two objective criteria. In the first place, there is an inclusio formed from the repeated phrase “return to the LORD your God...with all your heart and with all your soul” in verses 2 and 10. In addition, the first 10 verses contain exactly seven appearances of the Hebrew word shub (again, return, bring back, etc.), each time appearing with a slightly different meaning.
Similar Opening Words
Sometimes a new section in a book can be identified by its opening words. As an example, the most common way of dividing Genesis is to look for the phrase ellah toledot (“These are the generations of”) as an indicator that a new section is beginning. Note that the units recognized using this criterion alternate between narratives and genealogies, demonstrating an overall structural unity to the whole book.
Divisions in the Book of Genesis
I. Creation (1:1-2:3)
II. Eden and Beyond (2:4-4:26)
III. Genealogy (Salvation) (5:1-6:8)
IV. Destruction (6:9-9:28)
V. Genealogy (Salvation) (10:1-31)
VI. Babel and Beyond (10:32-11:9)
VII. Genealogy (Salvation) (11:10-26)
VIII. Narrative–Abraham (11:27-25:11)
IX. Genealogy (Divergent) (25:12-18)
X. Narrative–Isaac/Jacob (25:19-35:29)
XI. Genealogy (Divergent) (36:1-43)
XII. Narrative–Joseph (37:1-50:29)
Next, consider the Book of Ecclesiastes, which according to many critics, was written in two stages. An originally cynical and negative book was made somewhat acceptable to Jewish audiences by a later editor who inserted more conventional teachings into it at random places. Thus, they say, it is no surprise that the final product has no overall structure to it.
“...disjointed in construction...the book defies any logical analysis.” (G. S. Hendry)
“A prevalent view is that...its structure is an insoluble problem.” (Leland Ryken)
“The structure of Qoheleth remains elusive.” (Ardel Caneday)
“Structure is a problem throughout the book.” (Tremper Longman III)
“The entire book until the conclusion is a lengthy, at times almost rambling, discourse...” (Grant Osborne)
Now these comments are actually all from evangelical sources so you can only imagine what more critical scholars think of the book.
Similar Closing Words
By contrast, I have been able to show that the book is actually quite organized. But this reconstruction was only possible by realizing that the individual sections could be recognized by their similar conclusions, shown here in bold for one such section. In each conclusion, a traditional positive statement is qualified by a more skeptical one.
Eccles. 4:1-5:20
A. Observation (4:1-4a)
B. Conclusion: “This also is vanity and a striving after wind” (4:4b)
C. Proverbs (4:5-6)
A. Observation (4:7-8a)
B. Conclusion: “This also is vanity” (4:8b)
C. Proverbs (4:9-12)
A. Observation (4:13-16a)
B. Conclusion: “This also is vanity and a striving after wind” (4:16b)
C. Proverbs (5:1-7)
A. Observation (5:8-10a)
B. Conclusion: “This also is vanity” (5:10b)
C. Proverbs (5:11-12)
A. Observation (5:13-17)
B. Positive Conclusion (5:18-19)
C. Negative Qualifier (5:20)
This regularity in pattern indicates that rather than two authors being involved, both world views, positive and negative, were held in tension by a single author instead. As Robert Gordis humorously puts it, the Preacher has “doubts even with regard to his skepticism.”
Internal Structure
As a final clue to recognizing the limits to the particular divisions in a book, each major section will usually have some form of internal order such as possession of a common subject or theme. We can see this by returning to Deuteronomy 30. Unfortunately, verses 11-14 represent a sort of hiccup in the chapter in terms of subject and style. They don't concern prophecies like the rest of the chapter and almost read as if they belong in the wisdom or poetry books instead.
Form critics are always on the lookout for passages which do not exactly fit the standard literary pattern of the surrounding words and therefore would probably label these verses as latter additions which interrupt the text.
A. Consequences of obedience or disobedience explained (30:1-10)
[B. God's will is known to you (30:11-14)]
C. Consequences of obedience or disobedience explained (10:15-20)
By contrast, source critics are more suspicious of repeated language in the text as evidence of alternative versions of the same events that were available to the final editors. They might infer in this case that the editors couldn't determine which was the more accurate version of the two, so they just included them both. It is then the critic's job to identify the older story and discount the more recent one as being less reliable. In this particular case, Section A is more detailed in describing future events so that the NRSV Study Bible, for example, treats these verses as a later insertion into the text.
[A. Consequences of obedience or disobedience explained (30:1-10)]
B. God's will is known to you (30:11-14)
C. Consequences of obedience or disobedience explained (10:15-20)
But at least by following the steps outlined above, one can arrive at a rough table of contents for any book of the Bible. And that point is where most evangelical commentaries used to stop. But to proceed any further, we will first need to go one more step toward explaining a literary structure and how it differs from a mere table of contents. Part 2 of this series will be an introduction to that subject.
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