Redaction Criticism

Redaction criticism (Redaktionsgeschichte) studies the biblical authors not as passive collectors of tradition but as genuine authors and theologians who shaped their inherited material to make a point. Where form criticism dissolved the Gospels into independent oral units, redaction criticism puts the spotlight back on the evangelist who selected, arranged, and edited those units. By comparing the final text with the sources and traditions behind it, the critic isolates the changes the author made, looks for a consistent pattern in those changes, and reads off the theological program that motivated them. Hans Conzelmann's 1953 study of Luke is the classic example, and Norman Perrin's 1969 primer What Is Redaction Criticism? introduced the method to English readers and articulated its logic.