3.14
Rhetorical Criticism
The focus of rhetorical criticism is on the strategies employed by the author of a work to achieve particular purposes. Aristotle formulated a theory that allowed for three “species” of rhetoric:1
judicial: accuses or defends
deliberative: offers advice
epideictic: praises or blames
Phyllis Trible has offered this helpful summary of these three types of rhetoric:2
|
|
Judicial |
Deliberative |
Epideictic |
|
focus |
justice |
expediency |
adulation/denunciation |
|
setting |
law court |
public assembly |
public ceremony |
|
purpose |
to persuade |
to persuade |
to please or inspire |
|
time |
past |
future |
present |
|
emphasis |
speech |
audience |
speaker |
Thus rhetorical critics are interested not only in the point that a work wishes to make but also in the basis on which that point is established (the types of arguments or proofs that are used): sometimes external evidence or documentation may be cited; sometimes the trustworthy character of the writer is invoked; at other times, an appeal is made to the readers’ emotions or sense of logic.
Trible identifies three primary “goals of communication”:
- intellectual goal of teaching
- emotional goal of touching the feelings
- aesthetic goal of pleasing so as to hold attention
In New Testament studies, rhetorical criticism has been used mainly in studies of epistles or of portions of the Gospels and Acts that may be isolated as distinctive units (e.g., speeches).
Two sample studies:
- Hans Dieter Betz interprets Paul’s letter to the Galatians as an instance of judicial rhetoric in which Paul defends his ministry and apostleship.3
- George Kennedy discusses the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel (Matt. 5–7) as a speech that employs deliberative rhetoric: it offers advice to disciples on how to live if they want to inherit the blessings of the kingdom of heaven.4
1. See Aristotle, The Art of Rhetoric 3.1.1358a; also The Poetics.
2. See Phyllis Trible, Rhetorical Criticism, GBS (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1994), 9.
3. See Hans Dieter Betz, Galatians: A Commentary on Paul’s Letter to the Churches in Galatia, Hermeneia (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1979).
4. See George Kennedy, New Testament Interpretation through Rhetorical Criticism (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1984), 39–72.