|
|
1. What is Redaction Criticism
Have you ever noticed how the same story can be told differently within scripture? Redaction criticism studies differences and attempts to understand what is being said through the differences. Editorial differences , i.e. redactive differences, are perhaps most evident within the gospels. Since the gospels utilize much common literary material, differences in how the event is described or which elements are emphasized within the telling of the story are easy to pinpoint. Consider the event of Jesus’ death on the cross each told in each gospel (citations taken from Hayes & Holladay, p 103):
Mark 15:33 - 41 |
Matthew 27:45 - 56 |
Luke 23:44 - 49 |
John 19:17 - 37 |
| When it was
noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. At three o'clock
Jesus cried out with a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which means,
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" When some of the bystanders heard
it, they said, "Listen, he is calling for Elijah." And someone ran, filled a
sponge with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink, saying, "Wait,
let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down." Then Jesus gave a loud cry and
breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. Now
when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he
said, "Truly this man was God's son!" There were also women looking on from a distance; among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. These used to follow him and provided for him when he was in Galilee; and there were many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem. |
From noon on,
darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And about three o'clock
Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is "My
God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" When some of the bystanders heard it, they
said, "This man is calling for Elijah." At once one of them ran and got a
sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink. But the
others said, "Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him." Then Jesus
cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last. At that moment the curtain of the
temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split. The
tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.
After his resurrection they came out of the tombs and enterred the holy city and appeared
to many. Now when the centurion and those with him, who were keeping watch over Jesus, saw
the earthquake and what took place, they were terrified and said, "Truly this
man was God's son." Many women were also there, looking on from a distance; they had followed Jesus from Galilee and had provided for him. Among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother os the sons of Zebedee. |
It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, while the sun's lioght failed; and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. The Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." Having said this, he breathed his last. When the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God and said, "Certainly this man was innocent." And when all the crwods who had agthered there for this spectacle saw what taken place, they returned home, beating their breasts. But all his acquaintances, including the women who had followed him form Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things. | So they took Jesus;
and carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull,
which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one
on either side, with Jesus between them. Pilate also had an inscription written and put on
the cross. It read, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." Many of the Jews
read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and
it was written in Hebreew, in Latin, and in Greek. Then the chief priests of the Jews said
to Pilate,"Do not write, 'The King of the Jews.' " Pilate answered, "What I
have written I have written." When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his
clothes and divided them into four parts, one for each soldier. They also took his tunic;
now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from teh top. So they said to one another,
"Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see who will get it." This was to
fulfill what the scripture says, "They divided my clothes among themselves, and for my clothing they cast lots." And that is what the soldiers did. Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, "Woman, here is your son." Then he said to the disciple, "Here is your mother." And from that hour the disciple took her into his own house. (27) |
Often the tendency is to harmonize the differences as found within scripture. I believe we fear that divine inspiration is evident if and only if the resulting Word is uniform in message and content. That is, each gospel should portray common events in identical manners. Much like we could see the same photograph of a given event in different newspapers, the description of each event throughout the various gospels must also be identical. It is possible, however, to have divine inspiration and non-uniformity at the same time. As tradition criticism and form criticism have illustrated, sometimes the Divine can articulate Itself quite poignantly through dissonance. Differences can be born of cultures, of literary genres, and, in the case of redaction, born of the difference of what is being said through scripture (versus what is being said in scripture). (Hayes & Holladay, p. 104) Each writer(s) seems to have a unique message – a unique "theological axe to grind!" Such a sentiment is conveyed in the title of each Gospel, i.e. the Gospel according to… (Hayes & Holladay, p. 105).The meaning of the whole is best understand after each perspective is understood. For instance, the Gospel according to Mark emphasizes Jesus as the Suffering Servant. The Gospel according to Luke teaches the reader about social justice while the Gospel according to John describes the divinity of Christ. The Gospel according to Matthew relates the faith tradition of Judiasm with the faith of Christianity. The richness of the Gospel message is enhanced – not harmed – by respecting the differences within each Gospel.
