What is Redaction Criticism?
A recent critical method for the study of the Bible, especially the Gospels and other books whose contents have overlap, is redaction criticism. Redaction criticism is a historical discipline which is concerned to discover the intended purpose of the final author or editor of a book. Unlike its parent discipline, Form Criticism, redaction criticism does not look at the various parts of a narrative to discover the original form. Instead, it focuses on how the author or editor has shaped and molded the material in his sources to express his literary goals for the work, i.e., the reasons he is writing his work. Redaction criticism sees the author or editor not as a mere “cut-and-paste” collector of stories, but as a theologian who is trying to meet his theological agenda by shaping the sources he uses. This Gutenberg Bible is displayed by the United States Library of Congress. … For the genre of Christian-themed music, see gospel music. … Form criticism is a method of biblical critici
