From Biblical Exegesis to Reception History

The following article offers an analysis of the relation of reception history to the established academic approaches to biblical interpretation. Tracking the main turning points in the development of the Forschungsgeschichte of biblical studies over the past two hundred years-from source criticism to history of religions approaches to tradition history to redaction criticism-shows how reception history emerges naturally out of the interests and concerns of academic biblical interpretation. Biblical criticism should not only be concerned with the emergence and development of the biblical text up to the point of canonization but also with tracking its post-canonical interpretation. In this way reception criticism takes up the uncompleted task of biblical interpretation.