| The Apostle Paul expected the vast majority of the recipients of his letters to hear, not read, them. He structured his compositions for the ear rather than the eye. Pauline audiences would hear clues to meaning and structure because they had learned to communicate in a world where those clues were essential to understanding. Recognizable structures and patterns were essential for listeners to organize what they heard, to follow, to predict and to remember the flow of the communication. These patterns were as much a part of oral communication in the first century Greco-Roman culture as periods and paragraph indentations are in modern literature.;Step one of the method is to analyze the author's rhetorical style. Criteria include the development of ethos and pathos, and the use of rhetorical figures of speech, repetition, rare words, oral formulas and oral themes.;Step two is to identify and analyze units. Criteria consist of concentric and parallel structure, introductory and concluding formulas, changes in genre, logical relationships, grammatical consistency, sound, word and topic grouping, temporal and spatial frames, and climax.;The final step is to analyze the method of progression from unit to unit. This is done by examining logical relationships, changes in location, time, characters or referents, transitional techniques and the development of a previously stated theme.;Oral Biblical criticism focuses on principles of composition and interpretation in an oral culture or a literate culture with a high degree of residual orality. It adds insight from oral theory to methodology developed in classical rhetorical criticism, Biblical rhetorical criticism and modern linguistic analysis.;The arena of study is the Epistle to the Philippians. The letter is determined to be an integral work centering on unity and disunity in the Philippian church. Verses 3:2-4:3 comprise one unit with three sub-units. It is a repetition of previous Pauline teaching adapted to the present situation. The three sub-units focus on unity with each containing a command to the entire audience, a negative example and a positive example. The negative examples focus the problem from a nebulous group of opponents to two specific members of the church. The unit is framed by a two part inclusio in 3:1 and 4:4-9. |
