General Information

 

Scholarly Methods in Biblical Studies

Modern scholars use the following methods in their study of the Bible in order to better understand the meaning of the text, the history of its composition, its relationship to the wider world of the ancient Near East, and the way that the text has functioned in various faith communities.

Canonical Criticism

• Study of the final, received (canonical) text rather than the smaller, individual traditions and sources that were joined together over time to make up the text. (Contrast with Form Criticism, below.)

• Because the Bible, like most religious texts, is the sacred scripture of an actual religious community (or communities), canonical criticism often focuses on the relationship between the ideas in the text and the theological and religious issues of the community.

Form Criticism

• Assumes the Bible is composed from older, often oral, literary units, and attempts to isolate those units.

• Units that make up the final text include prayers and psalms, aphorisms and proverbs, genealogies, narratives about ancient heroes, and legal codes.

• Tries to place these units into a specific Sitz im Leben (“setting-in-life”) in order to understand how they might originally have functioned.

Historical Criticism

• Considered by many the standard methodology of scholarly biblical studies.

• Attempts to recover the original setting and meaning of texts, using methods of historical inquiry common to other academic fields.

• Methods include study of questions such as “Who wrote the text?”, “When was the text written?”, and “What does the text reveal about the society in which it was written?”

Literary Criticism

Applies many of the standard tools of modern literary studies to the Bible, such as studies of plot, narrative devices, and character development.

Redaction Criticism

Attempts to uncover the work of the final editors (redactors) responsible for arranging the different sources into a single work in order to learn about their interests.

Source Criticism

Attempts to separate and analyze the different sources that were brought together to create a text.

Textual Criticism

• Attempts to establish the most reliable and logical biblical text by consulting different manuscripts and accounting for (and sometimes correcting) intentional and unintentional mistakes and obscurities.

• Sometimes called “lower criticism” to distinguish it from the “higher criticism” of interpreting the text.

Tradition Criticism

Attempts to analyze the smaller textual units that have been grouped together in order to understand traditions about important places or people, such as those about holy sites, great leaders, and ancestors.

 

Important Places

Ammon

• The region east of the Jordan River (modern-day Jordan)

• The Bible connects it with the incestuous offspring of Lot (Gen. 19)

• A traditional enemy of Israel (see Judg. 11; 1 Sam. 11)

• Conquered by David (2 Sam. 10–12)

Antioch (Pisidian)

• City in southwestern Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey)

• Site of Paul’s preaching (Acts 13:13–52)

Antioch (Syrian)

• One of the preeminent cities in the Roman Empire, with a good location along trade routes (modern-day Syria)

• Was a center for Paul’s missionary work

• Here, the word “Christian” was first applied to Jesus’ followers (Acts 11:26).

Bethlehem

• City just south of Jerusalem

• After her husband died, Ruth the Moabite came here with her mother-in-law.

• David’s hometown and the site of his anointing by Samuel (1 Sam. 16)

• Site of Jesus’ birth in Matthew (2:1) and Luke (2:4). This tradition confirms the promise made by the prophet Micah (5:2) that a ruler was to emerge in Bethlehem, though John records an entirely different tradition (7:42), casting doubt on Bethlehem as Jesus’ birthplace, and may be more authentic.

Colossae

• An inland city in Asia Minor, located near larger, more important cities such as Laodicea

• Though Paul may have written the letter addressed to the church in Colossae, he never visited the city, and it was probably the mission of others.

Corinth

• A large and economically important Greek city, on the Peloponnesus in Greece

• Paul founded the Corinthian church.

Decapolis (Greek for “ten cities”)

• Group of ten Greco-Roman cities visited by Jesus in the region south and east of the Sea of Galilee (Mark 5:20; 7:31)

• Includes Scythopolis, Pella, Hippo, Dion, Gerasa, Philadelphia, Raphana, Canatha, Gadara, and Damascus (though some ancient authors’ lists differ slightly)

Edom

• The region bordering Judah on the southeast

• The Bible connects it with Jacob’s brother Esau (Gen. 25:30).

• A traditional enemy of Israel

• Also called Idumea in Greek

Ephesus

• A large, wealthy city in western Asia Minor

• A near-riot breaks out when Ephesian artisans feel their business is threatened by the arrival of Paul and other Christian missionaries, who deny that God can be physically represented (Acts 19).

Ephraim

• An alternate name (along with Samaria) for the northern kingdom of Israel

• A region in the central hill country north of Jerusalem

• Contains the important cities of Shechem, Shiloh, and Bethel

Galatia

• A Roman province in Central Asia Minor

• It is not clear which part of this province (north or south) Paul addressed in his letter.

• The Galatian church was founded by Paul.

Galilee

• Northern region of Israel

• Site of much of Jesus’ early career

• Location of Jesus’ hometown, Nazareth (Luke 4:16; John 7:41)

Gethsemane

• Garden plot at the foot of the Mount of Olives, just east of Jerusalem

• Site where Jesus prayed prior to his arrest (Matt. 26; Mark 14)

Hebron

• City in Judah, south of Jerusalem

• Burial site of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, and Leah

• David’s first capital (2 Sam. 2)

Israel

• The northern kingdom of the 10 tribes, which was destroyed by Assyria in 722 BCE

• The name God gives Jacob (Gen. 32:28)

• The entire community—from both kingdoms—of those descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (i.e., Israelites) (Exod. 1:1)

Jericho

• Ancient city just west of the Jordan River and north of the Dead Sea

• Conquered by Joshua (Josh. 6)

• Visited by Elijah and Elisha (2 Kings 2)

Jerusalem

• The political, economic, and religious center of ancient Israel

• The capital of ancient Israel starting with David, around 1000 BCE (2 Sam. 5)

• Site of both Temples

  • First Temple built under Solomon (mid-10th c. BCE) (1 Kings 5)

  • Second Temple rebuilt by returning exiles (late 6th c. BCE); it was continually expanded, especially under King Herod (late 1st c. BCE)

• Site of the final events of Jesus’ life (John 2:13 says Jesus also visited it earlier)

• Destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE

Jordan River

• The major river in Israel

• Runs from the Sea of Galilee (a.k.a. the Kinneret) in the north to the Dead Sea in the south

• Crossed by the invading Israelites under Joshua

• Site where John baptized Jesus (Matt. 3 / Mark 1 / Luke 3 / John 1)

Judah

• The southern kingdom, containing the tribes Judah and Benjamin

• Conquered by the Babylonians in the early 6th c. BCE

• During the Second Temple period, the only all-Jewish region

Macedonia

• An important land route between Asia Minor and Europe, traversed by Paul (see Acts 16)

• On the Balkan peninsula, in modern-day northern Greece

Megiddo

• Hill city near the Mediterranean coast

• Lies at the intersection of important trade routes between Syria and Egypt

• Because of its strategic location, it was the site of many battles.

• Josiah killed in conflict with Pharaoh Neco here (2 Kings 23)

• The site of the great eschatological battle in Revelation 16:16, called “Harmagedon” (from the Hebrew “Har Megiddo,” or Mt. Megiddo)

Moab

• The region east of the Jordan River, north of Edom

• The Bible connects it with the incestuous offspring of Lot (Gen. 19).

• Occasionally an enemy of Israel

• Site where Moses is buried (Deut. 34)

• Conquered by David (2 Sam. 8)

• Ruth’s homeland (Ruth 1), where Elimelech and his family went during a famine in Judah

Patmos

• A small island in the Aegean Sea, off the coast of Asia Minor

• John is said to have written Revelation here (Rev. 1).

Philippi

• City in Macedonia (modern-day Greece)

• Site of the first European church founded by Paul (see Acts 16)

Rome

• Capital of the Roman empire

• Christian missionaries arrived here within a few decades of Jesus’ death, presumably going first to the local synagogues.

Samaria (residents called “Samaritans”)

• An alternate name (along with Ephraim) for the northern kingdom of Israel and an important northern city

• The city was appointed the northern capital under Omri (early 9th c. BCE) (1 Kings 16).

• Destroyed by the Assyrians in 722 BCE (2 Kings 17); its leading citizens were exiled and foreigners from Syria and Mesopotamia resettled there

• After 722, always seen as separate from Judah, and the two kingdoms’ relations were alternately friendly and hostile for centuries

• Because Samaria was only marginally Jewish, the decision of early Christians to preach there represents an early step in the movement of the Gospel beyond the Jewish world (see Acts 8; John 4).

Shechem

• An Israelite city in Ephraim, north of Shiloh

• Its non-Israelite inhabitants were killed by Jacob’s sons Simeon and Levi after their sister Dinah was raped by Shechem, son of Hamor (Gen. 34).

• Site of Joshua’s covenant renewal ceremony (Josh. 24)

• Capital of the northern kingdom after the split between Israel and Judah in 922 BCE (1 Kings 12)

Shiloh

• An Israelite city in Ephraim, north of Jerusalem

• The scene of an assembly under Joshua (Josh. 18)

• An important northern cult site, where Samuel grew up (1 Sam. 1)

• Housed the Ark of the Covenant at the time of Samuel (1 Sam. 4)

Sinai peninsula & Mount Sinai / Horeb

• Triangular peninsula between Israel and Egypt

• Crossed by the freed slaves

• Mount Sinai, alternately called Horeb in the E and D sources, is the site of the revelation of the Ten Commandments to Moses (its actual location is unknown).

Thessalonica

• Coastal city in Macedonia (in modern-day Greece)

• Paul founded a church here, presumably composed only of Gentiles.