Coherence criterion

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The coherence criterion also convergence criterion ( Latin : cohaerere "to be connected" and Gr. Κριτήριον "court of justice; legal matter; standard") represents a method of the historical-critical method that is mainly used in biblical and New Testament exegesis . The aim of the method is not only to understand and interpret a (biblical) text in its historical context at the time, but also to reconstruct the ' words of Jesus ' as such.

In the coherence criterion, a “match between word and deed” is sought, so the coherence criterion takes into account the fact that Jesus cannot be viewed in isolation from his social environment at that time. Results that meet the coherence criterion are texts that can be assumed to be authentic if it can be proven that they are related to texts that have been shown to be authentic with the help of the criterion of dissimilarity. Individual texts from the Jesus tradition are compared with other texts and the overall literary findings.

The (authentic) words and deeds of Jesus, which were ascertained in particular by means of the criterion of difference or dissimilarity, can claim a historical probability, for example sayings about the coming of the rule of God or disputes about the interpretation of the Torah .

This also includes the “criterion of the violent death of Jesus”, which was formulated by John Paul Meier (* 1942). Ingo Broer (2004) formulated the coherence criterion as follows: “[...] By carefully asking the rest of the Jesus tradition from Jesus, who was raised with the help of the difference criterion, which words from it correspond to this good, are related or have similarities but a number of further Jesus words assign themselves to the historical Jesus with a certain probability. [...] "

literature

  • Gerd Theißen , Dagmar Winter : The Criteria Question in Jesus Research. From the difference criterion to the plausibility criterion. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1997, ISBN 3-7278-1129-3 .
  • Stephanie Von Dobbeler: The assembly 'in my name' (Mt 18:20) as a criterion of identity and difference. Novum Testamentum Vol. 44, Fasc. 3 (Jul., 2002), pp. 209-230
  • Dagmar Winter: The Difference Criterion in Jesus Research. Dissertation, University of Heidelberg 1996

Web links

  • Peter Pilhofer , Julia Hager, Eva Schöniger, Andrea Reutter, Daniela Müller , Rebecca Weidinger: New Testament revision course. § Methodological considerations [2]
  • The criteria for inquiring about the historical Jesus [3]
  • Franz-Josef Ortkemper : What we (can) know about Jesus. The story of the life of Jesus research. [4]
  • Support frame on the subject: The historical question about Jesus of Nazareth as the absolute savior. [5]

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Pilhofer , Julia Hager, Eva Schöniger, Andrea Reutter, Daniela Müller , Rebecca Weidinger: New Testament Repetitorium. § Methodological considerations [1] , p. 35 f.
  2. ↑ Ingo Broer : The meaning of the historical inquiry about Jesus and the question of its method. In: Ludger Schenke: Jesus of Nazareth - traces and contours. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 978-3-1701-6978-4 , pp. 19-41; here for the methods p. 28–37.