50 Key Concepts in Theology

Eisegesis: the interpretation of a text by ‘reading in’ or imposing a
particular meaning.
Exegesis: the interpretation of a text by drawing out its inherent meaning.
Form Criticism: a misleading translation of the original German term
Formgeschichte, which means ‘history of form’. Form Criticism is the
analysis of the history of the literary ‘forms’ out of which the Bible is
structured. Form Criticism identifies the ‘type’ or ‘form’ (Gattung) of a
biblical passage, and tries to determine the social and historical circumstances
(Stiz im Leben) which gave rise to that ‘type’ or ‘form’.
Genre Criticism analyses the literary genres of the biblical texts, and
what influence the genre of a specific text should have upon its interpretation.
Hexapla: the name given to
Origen’s
edition of the Old Testament in
Hebrew and Greek – the first work of Christian textual criticism (second
century ad).
Higher Criticism: the term coined by Eichhorn for the examination of the
themes, structures and meanings of Scripture.
The Jesus Seminar: convened in 1985 to determine, verse by verse
through the Gospels, which words of Jesus were historical.
Lower Criticism: another term for Textual Criticism.
The Principle of Accommodation: devised by Matthew Arnold, this
argued that an infinite and supreme being must ‘accommodate’ his message,
putting it into anthropological terms, in order for it to be understood by puny
human beings. Arnold said (in ‘On the Right Interpretation of the Scriptures’)
that terms such as the ‘hands’, ‘eyes’ and ‘ears’ of God are surely
‘accommodations’.
Q (or Quelle): a hypothetical book of sayings of Jesus that may have
been used by Matthew and Luke in the writing of their Gospels.
Redaction Criticism: analyses the work and beliefs of the editors of
Scripture, trying to discern their purposes, attitudes and concerns. Modern
New Testament Redaction Criticism has focused upon the Gospel writers as
editors of received sources and traditions.

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Source Criticism: the attempt to discern the sources of information,
stories and sayings which have been used in the writing of the biblical texts.
The classic Source-Critical study of the Old Testament is the spectacular
Graf-Wellhausen ‘document’ theory of the Pentateuch. This theory detected
four distinct sources which contributed to the Pentateuch as we have it.
The Synoptic Problem: the question of the historical and literary
relationship between the first three Gospels – the order and circumstances
under which each was written. The dominant theory is the ‘two-source
hypothesis’, which argues that the majority of the synoptic material derives
from Mark’s Gospel and a document called ‘Q’.
Textual Criticism: this undertakes a word-by-word analysis of the various
historical versions of the biblical texts. This involves a detailed knowledge of
biblical languages such as Hebrew, Greek and Syriac.
The Intentional Fallacy: the supposedly fallacious belief that the meaning
of a text is primarily that which the author intended.
Typology: this sees the persons, places and events of the Old Testament
as ‘types’ which re-occur in the New Testament. St Paul uses a typological
approach when he sees Adam as prefiguring Christ (Rom. 5:15–21) and when
he refers to the Red Sea and baptism (1 Cor. 10:1–6).
BOOKS
John Barton (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Biblical Interpretation
(CUP, 1998)
Steve Moyise, Introduction to Biblical Studies (Continuum, 1998)

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