Posted by Illuminati on 6/2/2005, 8:11 am, in reply to "Re: Form Criticism" Eye witnesses always vary in their recollections of events. When individuals tell exactly the same story it is clear they are not relating independent recollections of an event. There were many eyewitness accounts preserved in the early church and therefore Matthew and Luke would have had a variety of sources to choose from in writing their books in addition to Mark's gospel. If Matthew was the author of the book under his name, and I know no reason to doubt it, he would also have had his own memories to draw from. John seems to have drawn almost exclusively from his own memory and seems to have attempted to fill information he felt was missing from the other gospels. As I have pointed out earlier, the theology found in John's gospel was also found in the synoptics but the emphasis by John was much different. Although the critics will naturally dwell on the differences in the various gospels, the unity in the theology, the morality and the world view which is found in the gospels is profound. By preserving the various accounts of the Jesus story the early church performed a great service to later Christians. My only regret is that more information about Jesus did not survive although I'm certain the early church preserved the essential elements of His story. Additional information might satisfy our curiosity but would not contribute much to our understanding and belief in God. My next posts will cover the basic assumptions of the Historical-critical method and evaluate them according to my understanding of science, philosophy and faith.
206.206.120.230
Redaction criticism is based on the assumption that we actually know the sources the synoptic writers used when they wrote the gospels. Since I accept the generally held belief that Luke and Matthew used Mark as one of their sources, I believe redaction criticism has some validity. Although skeptical critics might use it to try to disprove the inspiration of the Bible, I view it differently. All the gospels tell the same story with a slightly different slant. Some of the differences are probably due to difference in the authors theological orientation and some is because the author had additional information which Mark lacked which caused them to relate the information slightly differently.
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