Source Criticism

Seite 1

Attempt to discover the source to understand the literary piece better

Evaluates and studies the books of the Bible to determine the sources it was created from

1. The source's Presence (source preceding it)

2. Source's Original Meaning

3. How the source was Used ( altered to his purpose or copied exactly? )

In ancient times people were NOT AS CAREFUL when Citing their sources. Many works were published anonymously

It complicates the task of Source Criticism

Luke is the ONLY AUTHOR who makes obvious claim to have widely used sources

He hints that a source is being used because his flow of thought is interrupted by unusual words or phrases

Vardy and Mills - 'scissor and paste approach'

Source criticism emerged out of work done on the Old Testament – particularly the book of Genesis – by French scholar Jean Anstruc

The most famous application of source criticism to the New Testament began with Streeter's 1924 "two-source hypothesis"