What Is Structural Exegesis?

by Daniel Patte

Fortress' Guides to Biblical Scholarship are short monographs in which scholars discuss specific methods, issues & topics in biblical scholarship, with an emphasis on use for exegetical & hermeneutical analysis. These guides are useful to students. Sometimes they go beyond what average readers find helpful, but they're written with an eye toward accessibility to those at undergraduate level & above. Patte's text on structural exegesis is presented as a 6-step process. This isn't done in an exclusively theoretical fashion, but explained as it's used directly upon biblical texts. One cannot avoid theoretical & philosophical underpinnings, but this is kept to a minimum. He presents Saussure, Levi-Strauss, Greimas & the topics of metatheories & semiotics, but doesn't dwell on them. It merely gives background for the eager reader.
The 1st step in structural exegesis is the need for a complete discourse unit. This requires a prior textual critical step to determine best manuscripts etc. Pieces of texts aren't useful. A unit basically tells a story. Patte explains the criteria for choosing passages & identifying complete units. The 2nd step requires identification of oppositions to actions in the story. The 3rd step looks for identification of qualifications that contrast the opposing subjects. The 4th step involves identification of effects on those who receive or are affected by the opposing actions. The 5th step proceeds to the drawing of conclusions on the system of convictions operative in the story. The 6th step looks at ways the author expresses the system of convictions in given sociohistorical situations. This sounds rather technical. Steps 2-4 are methodologically fixed & formal. Parts almost look like algebraic problems.
What are the results of structural exegesis? For most doing exegesis & biblical studies of this kind, the result rather than the process is the important thing. Structural exegesis ultimately shows a diversity of Xian faith from the very beginning that was enshrined in the canon of scripture, as the faith convictions of the gospels & of Paul's letters have differences that nonetheless come together as a whole.
Foreword
The place of structural methods in the exegetical task
From structuralism to structural exegesis
Narrative structures & exegesis
Mythical structures & exegesis
Bibliography
Index

96 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1976

Reviews

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Guides to Biblical Scholarship in both their Old and New Testament series are generally excellent not only for students of biblical texts but for all who deal with ancient literatures. Patte's book was not the best of the many of these short volumes (form criticism, redaction criticism, source criticism, etc.) that I read despite the fact that the reading of it was directly related to the content of David Jobling's course on First & Second Samuel. My discontent with this method--a method which seems almost absurdly simplistic--may be a common one as structual criticism has pretty much gone out of vogue since I was in seminary.