Overview

The neglected contexts for biblical interpretation Context is king, so the maxim goes. Sensitivity to context--of a verse, chapter, or book--is essential for proper biblical interpretation. Yet the Bible contains another set of key clues that readers rarely consider. In Text and Paratext, Gregory Goswell explores paratext and its implications for biblical interpretation. Paratextual features are the parts of a text that surround the main text itself, such as a book's canonical location, title, and internal divisions. These features have been intentionally added to support the text and direct readers. Different arrangements of the Old and New Testaments reveal connections and associations. A book's title announces the focus of its content. Book divisions create breaks and form units of text. Commentary is baked into paratextual features, making every Bible a study Bible. Rather than veiling the text's meaning, paratext highlights interpretive possibilities both ancient and fresh. While often overlooked, paratextual features guided interpretation throughout church history and should inform our study of Scripture today. With the help of glossaries and study questions, Goswell's study equips readers to understand paratext and its implications and become better interpreters of the Bible.

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9781683596110

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Reviews

Greg Goswell's book is an extremely fascinating read, bringing together many issues that interpreters simply take for granted but shouldn't. He clearly shows that the company that books keep matters, and that the titles of books--as well as chapter divisions and verses--are not just decorations but provide hermeneutical guidance. Widely read and well-versed in biblical scholarship, Goswell writes in clear and direct prose. While I demur about some of his conclusions, I highly recommend this book for biblical students to add to their exegetical toolbox. --Stephen G. Dempster, emeritus professor of religious studies, Crandall University Goswell has collated years of research and writing into this helpful and accessible volume that clearly demonstrates the importance of the Bible's paratextual features and their significance for interpretation. Text and Paratext is the perfect starting point for further study in this important area of biblical studies. --Miles V. Van Pelt, Alan Hayes Belcher, Jr. Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Languages and director of Summer Institute for Biblical Languages, Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson For years Goswell has been reflecting on the Christian canon and its significance for interpretation, and in this helpful primer, he shares a storehouse of canonical insights that aid our understanding of the Bible's meaning. In Text and Paratext, he focuses on the shape of the canon (rather than the process by which it developed), and in each chapter, he offers hermeneutical implications arising from the collection, ordering, titles, and divisions within books found in the final form of the text. These textual characteristics, Goswell argues, are paratextual features which assist in interpretation because they function as a kind of implicit commentary upon the text of Scripture. Goswell's work offers expert guidance for and generous invitation to appreciating the hermeneutical difference canon makes in hearing the Bible as the church's book. --Darian Lockett, professor of New Testament, Talbot School of Theology, Biola University Greg Goswell has provided us with an excellent introduction to a paratextual approach of the two-testament Bible's final form--an interpretive approach that he has helped pioneer in biblical studies. This is a clearly written and engaging book with pedagogical aids that are exceptionally student (and teacher) friendly. I am confident that his work will introduce readers to a fresh way of understanding the rhetorical design of the entire biblical canon by more carefully considering what is typically overlooked: the text's paratextual elements--book titles, chapter divisions, the sequence of books within their canonical collections, and the intracanonical relations between them. This new learning will surely excite and inspire a deeper understanding of the Bible for use in the church's worship and the academy's instruction. I strongly encourage its use by clergy and faculty alike. --Robert W. Wall, Paul T. Walls Professor Emeritus of Scripture and Wesleyan Studies, Seattle Pacific University and Seminary Most biblical readers value resources that help them understand the Scriptures but often take for granted the various interpretive aids that are already embedded in the Bibles they are reading. In this volume, Goswell explains the meaning and function of paratextual features such as the ordering of books in canonical collections, the titles given to individual works, and the subtle ways manuscripts and print editions mark and divide sections within biblical texts. Far from being beside the point, these features that are physically 'beside the text' have the potential to influence the way a reader approaches and navigates a passage of Scripture or a biblical book. Drawing on Goswell's extensive scholarly work on these features, this volume is rich with analysis of ancient evidence, synthesis of contemporary scholarship, and reflective connections to biblical theology. Because of these factors, this volume itself would be an excellent paratextual resource to come alongside your study of God's word. --Ched Spellman, associate professor of biblical and theological studies, Cedarville University; author, Toward a Canon‐Conscious Reading of the Bible What Goswell has done for biblical studies here amounts to the little child pointing out that the emperor is not wearing any clothes. For all the centuries of careful scholarship on the text of the Bible, the obvious but easily overlooked fact is that there are factors not in the text per se that pre-shape how we read and interpret the text before us. Kudos to Goswell for not only drawing our attention to these shaping factors but also how and why these influence our interpretations of the Bible: unnoticed but ubiquitous, unrecognized but crucially important. --Ray Lubeck, professor of Old Testament, Multnomah University When we read the Bible we are generally not conscious of how we are influenced by features other than the text itself. Greg Goswell over many years has researched with much detail matters such as the order of the books of the Bible, the titles they are given, and the divisions into verses, paragraphs, and chapters--the paratextual elements. The breadth and depth of his careful research covering centuries of the Bible and its readership, both Jewish and Christian, makes him the right person to write this most helpful work. At last there is one book that brings the details together so clearly, respecting diverse understandings, along with questions encouraging further exploration. --John Olley, research fellow, Morling College

Greg Goswell's book is an extremely fascinating read, bringing together many issues that interpreters simply take for granted but shouldn't. He clearly shows that the company that books keep matters, and that the titles of books--as well as chapter divisions and verses--are not just decorations but provide hermeneutical guidance. Widely read and well-versed in biblical scholarship, Goswell writes in clear and direct prose. While I demur about some of his conclusions, I highly recommend this book for biblical students to add to their exegetical toolbox. --Stephen G. Dempster, emeritus professor of religious studies, Crandall University Goswell has collated years of research and writing into this helpful and accessible volume that clearly demonstrates the importance of the Bible's paratextual features and their significance for interpretation. Text and Paratext is the perfect starting point for further study in this important area of biblical studies. --Miles V. Van Pelt, Alan Hayes Belcher, Jr. Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Languages and director of Summer Institute for Biblical Languages, Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson For years Goswell has been reflecting on the Christian canon and its significance for interpretation, and in this helpful primer, he shares a storehouse of canonical insights that aid our understanding of the Bible's meaning. In Text and Paratext, he focuses on the shape of the canon (rather than the process by which it developed), and in each chapter, he offers hermeneutical implications arising from the collection, ordering, titles, and divisions within books found in the final form of the text. These textual characteristics, Goswell argues, are paratextual features which assist in interpretation because they function as a kind of implicit commentary upon the text of Scripture. Goswell's work offers expert guidance for and generous invitation to appreciating the hermeneutical difference canon makes in hearing the Bible as the church's book. --Darian Lockett, professor of New Testament, Talbot School of Theology, Biola University Greg Goswell has provided us with an excellent introduction to a paratextual approach of the two-testament Bible's final form--an interpretive approach that he has helped pioneer in biblical studies. This is a clearly written and engaging book with pedagogical aids that are exceptionally student (and teacher) friendly. I am confident that his work will introduce readers to a fresh way of understanding the rhetorical design of the entire biblical canon by more carefully considering what is typically overlooked: the text's paratextual elements--book titles, chapter divisions, the sequence of books within their canonical collections, and the intracanonical relations between them. This new learning will surely excite and inspire a deeper understanding of the Bible for use in the church's worship and the academy's instruction. I strongly encourage its use by clergy and faculty alike. --Robert W. Wall, Paul T. Walls Professor Emeritus of Scripture and Wesleyan Studies, Seattle Pacific University and Seminary Most biblical readers value resources that help them understand the Scriptures but often take for granted the various interpretive aids that are already embedded in the Bibles they are reading. In this volume, Goswell explains the meaning and function of paratextual features such as the ordering of books in canonical collections, the titles given to individual works, and the subtle ways manuscripts and print editions mark and divide sections within biblical texts. Far from being beside the point, these features that are physically 'beside the text' have the potential to influence the way a reader approaches and navigates a passage of Scripture or a biblical book. Drawing on Goswell's extensive scholarly work on these features, this volume is rich with analysis of ancient evidence, synthesis of contemporary scholarship, and reflective connections to biblical theology. Because of these factors, this volume itself would be an excellent paratextual resource to come alongside your study of God's word. --Ched Spellman, associate professor of biblical and theological studies, Cedarville University; author, Toward a Canon-Conscious Reading of the Bible What Goswell has done for biblical studies here amounts to the little child pointing out that the emperor is not wearing any clothes. For all the centuries of careful scholarship on the text of the Bible, the obvious but easily overlooked fact is that there are factors not in the text per se that pre-shape how we read and interpret the text before us. Kudos to Goswell for not only drawing our attention to these shaping factors but also how and why these influence our interpretations of the Bible: unnoticed but ubiquitous, unrecognized but crucially important. --Ray Lubeck, professor of Old Testament, Multnomah University When we read the Bible we are generally not conscious of how we are influenced by features other than the text itself. Greg Goswell over many years has researched with much detail matters such as the order of the books of the Bible, the titles they are given, and the divisions into verses, paragraphs, and chapters--the paratextual elements. The breadth and depth of his careful research covering centuries of the Bible and its readership, both Jewish and Christian, makes him the right person to write this most helpful work. At last there is one book that brings the details together so clearly, respecting diverse understandings, along with questions encouraging further exploration. --John Olley, research fellow, Morling College

Author Information

Gregory Goswell is academic dean and lecturer in Old Testament at Christ College in Sydney, Australia. He is coauthor (with Andrew Abernethy) of God's Messiah in the Old Testament: Expectations of a King Across the Old Testament and author of numerous academic articles on text and paratext.

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