Exploring the Texture of Texts

by Vernon K. Robbins

Socio-rhetorical criticism has established itself as one of the promising new methods of biblical study today. Vernon K. Robbins here provides an accessible introduction to socio-rhetorical criticism, illustrating the method by guiding the reader through the study of specific New Testament texts and stories.

An opening chapter outlines this new approach and its focus on values, convictions, and beliefs both in the texts we read and in the world in which we live. Then follow chapters on getting inside a text (inner texture), that is, studying the internal aspects of words and meanings in the entering the interactive world of the test (intertexture,), that is relating the text being interpreted to a wide range of phenomena that lie outside the living with the text in the world (social and cultural texture), that is, examining the social and cultural locations in the world that the language of the text and shared interests in commentary and in the text (ideological texture), that is, looking at the way the text itself and interpreters of the text position themselves in relation to other individuals and groups.

Texts studied include the rich man and Jesus in Mark 10:17-22 (inner texture): the Pentecost event in Acts 2 (intertexture): the woman who anointed Jesus in Luke 7:36-50 and John 9 (social and cultural texture): the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8:26-40 and "women keep silent" in 1 Corinthians 14: 26-40 (ideological texture).

Vernon K. Robbins is Professor of Religion in the Department of Religion, Emory University, and the author of Ancient Quotes and From Crib to Crypt and The Rhetoric of Pronouncement.

158 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1996

About the author

Vernon K. Robbins is Professor of New Testament and Comparative Sacred Texts in the Department and Graduate Division of Religion at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. He was appointed Winship Distinguished Research Professor in the Humanities in 2001. In 1984, his Jesus the Teacher: A Socio-Rhetorical Interpretation of Mark launched socio-rhetorical criticism in New Testament studies. His two most recent books, The Tapestry of Early Christian Discourse and Exploring the Texture of Texts, present this approach in the form of programmatic strategies for interpreting the inner texture, intertexture, social and cultural texture, ideological texture, and sacred texture of texts. A Festschrift in his honor, Fabrics of Discourse, contains essays that apply insights of socio-rhetorical interpretation.

In 1983-84, Prof. Robbins was a Fulbright Professor at the University of Trondheim, Norway. During the summer of 1996, he was a Human Research Science Council Visiting Scholar in South Africa. Prof. Robbins is General Editor of Emory Studies in Early Christianity and co-chair of the Socio-Rhetorical Interpretation seminar in the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas. He is widely published in national and international journals.

Reviews

[Renee Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I understood more about this book than the last book I had to read for Biblical Hermeneutics at Trinity Bible College & Theological Seminary! The class begins in February!

[Anthony Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ugh. I hate to sound unkind. But this book struck me immediately as a linguistically ignorant and overly complicated and convoluted account of what would otherwise simply be considered grammatical-historical exegesis, literary criticism, and discourse analysis. By the time I finished the book that initial impression was confirmed. This book came highly recommended to my by a DMin student. I can see how the ideas of this book are exciting to those who aren’t familiar with the wider world of biblical criticism and linguistics. But for me, hard pass.

[Joshua Booher · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this in preparation for a fall seminary class. It is a concise presentation of one approach to understanding and interpreting scriptures.

[Tim Littleford · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some helpful tools, but that's all.

[Alan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Grinning wanko written by a cloying blowhard.

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reads a little too much into things in my opinion

[Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting text on Socio-Rhetorical Interpretation of ancient text. Required reading for Doctoral Studies.

[Philip Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of good stuff here, however, Robbins tends to over theorize socio-rhetorical criticism. He often creates new terms so keep a piece of paper close by to write down definitions.