Word (theological term) of the Week

Redaction Criticism

1. The critical study of how biblical authors/editors preserved and/or altered the text through history to present the text as we have it today.
2. This study can apply to any ancient document that was copied or transmitted orally.
3. This study has liberal connotations. When applied to a study of the gospels it assumes a few things: 1) Markan priority (thus the other gospelers were redacting what Mark wrote), 2) unhistorical accounts (anything supernatural carries no historicity; therefore accounts of anything supernatural were either made up by the redactor, or the redactor was convinced of it by people around him/her), 3) Redaction (the biblical texts were in fact changed as they progressed toward canonization)