CHAPTER XI REDACTION CRITICISM

New Testament critics in the last century were preoccupied with the sources of the Gospels, chiefly the synoptic Gospels. At the beginning of this century they turned their attention to the first stages in the history of the Gospel tradition, to the original form of the teaching of Jesus. 1 Tradition criticism, as we have seen, was a special case of form criticism. Today, in a relatively new approach to the analysis and study of the Gospels, the centre of interest in New Testament criticism is moving from source criticism and form criticism to an examination of what happened at the final stage in the composition of the Gospels. Redaction criticism (Redaktionsgeschichte) has come to birth. 2 These critical methods belong together, and any sharp distinctions drawn between them must necessarily therefore be artificial. They arise out of each other, and can be used to complement each other in the study of Gospel origins. It is important to recognize this as we consider redaction criticism on its own