Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 30:3 (Sep 1987)
Article: Text As A Guide To Authorial Intention: An Introduction To Discourse Criticism
Author: Robert D. Bergen

JETS 30:3 (September 1987) p. 327

Text As A Guide To Authorial Intention:
An Introduction To Discourse Criticism

Robert D. Bergen*

Events of profound significance sometimes slip quietly onto the stage of history. The impact of such events is often felt only gradually, but when it is, the course of history is forever changed. One such event that has profound promise for Biblical studies occurred in the field of linguistics. In 1968 a paper entitled “Shipibo Paragraph Structure” was written. This work, so obscure that it was not finally published until 1970, is now considered to be the first of a rapidly expanding list of studies that have investigated the post-sentence-level surface structural features of human language.1 Prior to that work the focus of linguistics had been exclusively on the smallest units of language: syllables, phrases, clauses, sentences.

Within the past three decades, however, an ever-increasing amount of attention has been given to the study of the larger units of human communication, from paragraphs to entire genres.2 It is now recognized that human communication as it is normally practiced actually occurs only above the sentence level. Patterned expectations exist in every language for every communication task involving human language. These language-specific parameters exist with regard to the typical length of text in which a given task is to be performed (we often become impatient with the pastor who preaches “too long”), concerning the order of information presentation (sometimes we tell the punch line “too early” in a joke), and concerning the kind of structures that are to be used to perform a given task (young children in America are not to use imperatives when addressing their parents). These expectations are so fixed within a given language/culture for a given communication task as to amount to rules.

Research into the surface structural dynamics of text at higher organizational levels has opened up new insights into human language that promise to

*Robert Bergen is assistant professor of Old Testament at Hannibal-LaGrange College in Hannibal, Missouri.

JETS 30:3 (September 1987) p. 328

sharpen our abilities to analyze the Biblical text.3 These insights are now utilized in a new form of Biblical text analysis known as discourse criticism. Of special interest to the theological community is the fact that discourse criticism claims to be able to aid the researcher in the tricky business of making judgments concerning authorial intention within Biblical texts. As such it is establishing itself as another tool to be used a...