Source Criticism Were other documents used by the author of this document? What was the contents, the theology, the approach of those previous documents? How did the author of this document change what was in previous documents? So the JEDP of the Old Testament, the Q of the New are studied here. Sometimes the speculation outruns the data.

Form Criticism Classification of the text into literary forms or genre. This approach looks to the time between the event and the creation of the texts, a period of oral transmission of material. Material was placed into a series of 'forms' such as 'healing story', or 'miracle story.' The name of H. Gunkel is associated with this style of analysis.

Redaction Criticism (for the NT) How did the author put his own stamp on the material? What is the intention of the redactor? The term is attributed to W. Marxen. It can be associated with a perspective that implies that the editors/authors of the texts were not just compilers of traditional stories but intentionally shaped the narratives.

Tradition Criticism (for the OT) Roughly the same as Redaction criticism, but for the Old Testament with its much longer and more complicated history of transmition and redaction. The names of G. von Rad and M. Noth are associated with this form of analysis.