In this book Vernon K. Robbins provides an accessible introduction to socio-rhetorical criticism, illustrating the method by guiding the reader through the study of specific New Testament texts and stories. An opening chapter outlines this new approach and its focus on values, convictions, and beliefs both in the text we read and in the world in which we live. Then follow studies and exercises dealing with specific textural features: inner texture, intertexture, social and cultural texture, ideological texture, and sacred texture.

In this original study, Vernon Robbins expounds and develops his system of socio-rhetorical criticism, bringing together social-scientific and literary-critical approaches to explore early Christianity.

Texture - the quality that makes a text 'hang together' as a text - is a key focus of investigation in discourse analysis. This volume provides a systematic overview of recent research on textual resources that are used to construct texture, and on the ways in which these resources are deployed differently in different text types. Theme is the major resource that is explored in the first part of the book. The opening papers set out the current understanding of Theme and explore aspects of the concept which remain controversial in the field. This is followed by an examination of thematic choices in a range of text types. Issues raised include the different kinds of meanings appearing in Theme which are particularly significant for each genre, the ways in which these relate to the broader socio-cultural context, and the ways in which thematic choices interact with other kinds of texturing. In the second part of the collection, the scope widens to include an examination of other resources, particularly the contribution to texture made by patterns of interpersonal choices, in Theme and more broadly across texts as a whole. The volume closes with an overview and illustration of a methodological approach by which our understanding of texturing can be further extended.

Honors the great range and penetrating insights of Vernon Robbins' work.

New Testament Interpretation through Rhetorical Criticism 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, George Kennedy'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 the first 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. Kennedy 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). In the opening chapter Kennedy 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. He provides in succeeding chapters examples of rhetorical analysis, looking closely at the Sermon on the Mount, the Sermon on the Plain, Jesus' farewell to the disciples in John's Gospel, the distinctive rhetoric of Jesus, the speeches in Acts, and the approach of Saint Paul in Second Corinthians, Thessalonians, Galatians, and Romans.

Biblical Hermeneutics is a textbook for introductory courses in hermeneutics. It takes an interdisciplinary approach that is both balanced and practical with six major areas of focus: the history of biblical interpretation, philosophical presuppositions, biblical genre, the uniqueness of Scripture, the practice of exegesis, and use of exegetical insights that will be lived and communicated in preaching and teaching. Biblical Hermeneutics is designed for students who have little or no knowledge of biblical interpretation. It provides, in one volume, resources for gaining a working knowledge of the multi-faceted nature of biblical interpretation and for supporting the practice of exegesis on the part of the student. The first chapter "A Student's Primer for Exegesis" by Bruce Corley gives the student a bird's eye view of the entire process. It becomes for the student a kind of template to which they will return again and again as they engage in the process of exegesis. This revised edition of Biblical Hermeneutics contains seven new chapter that deal with the major literary genre of Scripture: law, narrative, poetry, wisdom, prophecy, Gospels and Acts, epistles, and apocalyptic. The unique nature of Scripture is presented in part three that addresses the authority, inspiration, and language of Scripture. The book contains two extensive appendices, "A Student's Glossary for Biblical Studies" and an updated and expanded version of "A Student's Guide to Reference Books and Biblical Commentaries.