Reading the Old Testament : method in biblical study / John Barton.

Includes indexes.

Bibliography: pages 237-248.

Introduction : Methods of Old Testament study ; Methods in Old Testament study ; Using this book -- 1. 'Literary competence' and genre-recognition : What are critical methods for? ; A literary approach ; 'Literary competence' ; 'Genre' in the Old Testament study ; A perspective for understanding Old Testament methods -- 2. 'Literary' criticism : Source analysis ; Whose conventions? ; Form criticism: oral genres -- 3. Form criticism : The idea of genre in speech ; Sitz im Leben ; Form criticism and the Psalms: historical retrospect ; Form criticism and the Psalms: implications ; Form criticism and Deuteronomy ; Redaction criticism -- 4. Redaction criticism ; Rediscovering the redactor ; Genealogies ; 'Trivial' details rehabilitated ; Trivial details exaggerated? ; The disappearing redactor ; Is the Old Testament unreadable? -- 5. An example: Ecclesiastes : A sample study ; Literary criticism ; Form criticism ; Redaction criticism ; Beyond Redaction criticism.

10. The 'New Criticism' : The Bible and literary criticism ; Canon criticism and the 'New Critics' ; Texts as Artefacts ; The 'intentional fallacy' ; Canonical meaning ; New criticism and canon criticism ; Secular literary criticism and the historical-critical method -- 11. 'The text itself' : Difficulties in new criticism ; Texts as artefacts ; Intentionalism ; Canon ; New criticism and the Bible -- 12. The text and the reader : New critics and structuralists ; Objections to structuralism ; The uses of structuralism ; 'Poetry without a poet' -- Conclusion : A comparison of methods ; Old Testament study and literary criticism ; The pursuit of method.

6. The canonical approach : Back to the canon ; Reading the Bible as scripture: B.S. Childs ; Ecclesiastes as scripture ; Psalms 8: Man in the Bible ; Is the canonical approach anti-critical? ; The canonical approach and literary competence -- 7. Canon as context : Beyond historical criticism ; Which canon? ; Ecclesiastes: A case in point ; Criteria for canonicity ; Pre-critical or post-critical? ; A literary interpretation of the canonical method ; From canon criticism to structuralism -- 8. Structuralist criticism : The road to structuralism ; Structuralism and semiotics ; Structuralism and language ; Structuralism and systems ; Structuralism and literature ; The morphology of the folktale ; Jacob, the angel, and Roland Barthes -- 9. Biblical structuralism : Convention and constraint ; Genesis 1-2 ; Naturalization and 'Holistic' Reading ; Ecclesiastes for structuralists ; Structuralist dogma and structuralist style ; The Bible and 'secular' criticism ; Biblical structuralism: select bibliography.