Literary Criticism of Van Wyk: Methodological considerations 

by koot van wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)

Kyungpook National University

Sangju Campus

South Korea

conjoint lecturer of Avondale College

Australia

23 October 2009

In my home library there are many of my unpublished manuscripts.

Manuscripts or sources

a. There are notebooks with diagrams and summary notes from reading books over the years.

b. Notebooks are bound together in groups of 25. There are 8 volumes.

c. Notebooks cover a variety of subjects: chronology, monthnames, Esther, Nehemia, literally anything in ANE studies.

d. Articles written over the years since 1975 are bound together in cloth volumes of about 30 articles in one volume. There are about 15 volumes.

e. One manuscript was written when I was 14 years old. It is a commentary on Genesis 1.

Genres

1. Eschatology and prophecy interpretation

2. Poems (my own poems I wrote through the years)

3. Prayers I have composed

4. Lyrics I have composed for the purpose of singing

5. Philosophical discussions

6. Educational analysis

7. Letters

8. Law analysis

9. Didactic articles to be used for beginners, pre-intermediate or intermediate levels and even advanced levels.

10. Iconographical descriptions

11. Textual criticism

12. Translations from many languages

13. History

14. Children story books or narratives (I wrote 10).

15. Apologetic writings

16. Discourse

17. Theological analysis and description

18. Maps or Chronological charts.

19. Diagrams to explain concepts or periods or events.

20. Linguistic discussions and grammar analysis.

21. Research dissertations.

22. Paraphrases.

etc.

Combis

Some articles I have written, was composed by using one or many of the above sources that I have written myself. I combined the sources into one article by writing and as I remember something I know there is a notebook with some info on it or a map with a chronological chart or a paraphrase that will explain it better.

Periods

The sources for such combinational writing in one final product, are selected over a period between 1975-2009 when these notes or manuscripts were written.

Doublets

From some of the earlier articles, paragraphs are copied verbatim, others paraphrased and others slightly upgraded due to more information lately available. Thus, when a doublet appears, it may or may not exactly be the same. I lived in four continents for more than five years in each and some of their culture or language expressions have entered the notes or manuscripts I used for the combis.

Bilingualism and multi-lingualism

Writing an article I sometimes think in Afrikaans but write in English and find myself writing a letter to my father writing in Afrikaans but writing a word in English. I write [the] but I am thinking and should write [die]. Such slips of the mind are not another redactor or author or composer but the very same one.

Style differences

The style of my writing is different in the early morning and late night than in the afternoon. In the late night there are more spelling and grammar errors. In the morning less. I sometimes write without knowing exactly what I am writing but hours later when I read it, it is teaching me first before others even read it. I write smoothly about something and then go for lunch, meet someone, talked about side-issues related to the topic and returned almost "answering" the person I talked to in the rest of the writing. There is thus a clean switch from one style to another, not by a different hand or author or redactor, but by the same writer.

Translation

My work is written in different languages by myself. Thus, I have to translate my own writings when I cut and paste from different languages as source in my product of writing. Sometimes my translation of my own writings in another language is literal and sometimes free or paraphrase. Again, no other author or redactor worked on it but myself.

Liberal and Conservative

One of my Notebooks written in 1974 upset me the other day in 2009 since I was too liberal in my outlook there. I studied on the issue whether Ezra came before Nehemiah or Nehemiah before Ezra and wrote an essay for a non-SDA university with SDA and non-SDA books trying to present the truth as accurately as possible. My arguments were feeble and in great need of rectification. I actually feel ashamed that I have even made certain suggestions to the professor as solution since it supports liberalism of a serious kind. From my position now, my arguments rested on very shaky evidence and thus cannot uphold. The same author and same writer wrote on the same subject with two scenarios. It was not two different authors.

Place name changes

I was born in Natal but since 1994 it is called Kwa-Zulu Natal. There is a change of place-name but my updating of the name change is done by myself and not a second or later writer or author. There is a chronological separation in the transition of the name but it does not necessarily calls for a second person that is chronologically separated from the time zone of the change or knowledge of the change.

Genre mixture

In one Poem I am describing the 911 disaster but use eschatological language from Revelation 18 to describe it. A real event is thus clothed in a biblical eschatological milieu which means prophetic interpretation is found in a poem related to a historical event.

Textual criticism before Literary criticism

Some scholars wish to see literary criticism as textual criticism but that is not correct. Textual criticism precedes literary criticism by necessity. Sometimes I photo-copy cut and paste texts from my notes or manuscripts and compile an article from it. Or I redraw a diagram better than one 20 years ago that I drew with clearer and better descriptions using new current jargon. Did two different people drew the diagrams? No. Just because there is an addition, omission, vocabulary change, does not mean that two different people worked on the diagram.

Spellings

Sometimes the spellings in doublets cited differ. That is when I realized I made a spelling error that should be corrected, or the spelling by my grandfather of the word was that way but these days we are using another word. Sometimes, while citing from my own manuscripts 20 years ago, I substitute synonyms for some words because I felt it would express the situation easier for our modern audience. Again, no two authors or writers or redactors needed for these changes.

Two different translations of the same verse in the Bible

Sometimes I select the translation of the NIV for a text and present it in an article and then later on in the article I translate the Hebrew myself more literal and it differs with the NIV that I cited. Again, two different translation of the same verse does not necessarily point to a different hand.

Conclusions

1. Anyone who is utilizing contemporary literary criticism without a knowledge of genre changes within one author or poet, need to investigate the issue first by studying a modern poet in all his stages before they embark on a study of literary criticism of the Book of Revelation or other book of the Bible.

2. Anyone who want to study literary criticism needs to know something about bilingualism or multi-lingualism.

3. A knowledge of youth, teenager, adult, geronti and their products is needed since each will have its own constraints.

4. Unless the person has a proper understanding of the correct view of textual-criticism, the literary criticism will be prone for many pitfalls and misperceptions. Modern conventional textual criticism is unfit for a proper description of the status quo of the Biblical text, simply because it was designed by scholars operating with a hermeneutics of suspicion and not a hermeneutics of affirmation.

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