Handout on Barton Reading the Old Testament 61–76

Literary criticism – in the sense of restoring coherent literary structure (assuming “literature” has it)

• Developed into what is called source criticism in the sense of reconstructing original source or sources
• In the case of Ecclesiastes (unlike Genesis) no one claims more than one full-fledged literary source
• Reconstructs the original literary composition by deleting additions
• Attention to the method and intent of additions goes better under redaction criticism

Form criticism – oral compositions independent until collected by others

• Original context is a situation in life, not a document
• Consistency not expected in an anthology
• Ecclesiastes is not a random collection though, which brings us to the editors who, if they were working with a loose collection of oral observations, gave it more than a little structure

Redaction criticism – studies the work of editors in assembling existing material and adding only a little “glue” of their own

• Juxtapositions deliberately create new meanings in new contexts
• Small additions deliberately create new meanings by providing new context
• Can be blunt subversion or artful rendering

Canonical criticism – meaning in the context of other books with expectation of mutual illumination

• Meaning intended by persons who create the canon
  • Barton describes as accidental or unintended (by composers of Ecclesiastes) but it could be intentional and artful by composers of canon (e.g. Malachi)
  • In as much as it is reconstructing the intent of long-dead composers it is still modern
• Meaning experienced by reader of Ecclesiastes in context of a canon
  • This is what I have been calling postmodern, although here it is not far from premodern
• Meanings experienced by readers of Ecclesiastes in their own contexts
  • Fully postmodern
  • Meant ≠ means