Smith DTh Thesis (final).pdf - South African Theological Seminary

Chapter 2: History of Psalms StudiesThe last specialised study on the shape of the Psalter deserving a mention isa series of articles published online (see www.labuschagne.nl/ psalms.htm) byProfessor Casper Labuschagne, formerly a senior lecturer in Old Testamentat the University of Pretoria in South Africa (1967-1991) and at the Universityof Groningen in the Netherlands. Professor Labuschagne applies a method hecalls “logotechnical analysis” to analyse the composition of the Psalter. Thecentral premise of logotechnical analysis is that biblical texts are carefullycrafted numerical compositions. 14 Labuschagne (2006e) describes themethod as follows:Logotechnique, or quantitative structural analysis, is asystematic formal investigation of the structure of biblical texts. Itis based upon the hypothesis that the biblical writings arenumerically structured—that is, that their composers arrangedverses, pericopes, sections, books, and perhaps even the entireBible according to patterns defined by number, much as poetry14 “Claus Schedl coined the term ‘logotechnique’ to describe the art of numerical composition,which he derived from the Greek term logotechnia meaning ‘literature,’ more particularly askillfully designed literary work of art conforming to certain laws governing its form. So‘logotechnique,’ denotes in fact ‘word-art,’ ‘language-art,’ ‘compositional art’” (Labuschagne2006e).59