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

Chapter 3Methodology3.1 IntroductionThe research on the biblical text of Psalms 3-8 is separated into three stages.The first stage (chapter 4) is a detailed analysis of each psalm in the chosencorpus using a variety of historical and literary exegetical methods. Thepurpose of this stage is to lay a foundation for an analysis of the links betweenPsalms 3-8. A thorough working knowledge of each psalm is a prerequisite foranalysing the links between the psalms.The next stage (chapter 5) analyses the relationships between each pair ofadjacent psalms in my corpus. The simplest type of arrangement is thestrategic placement of neighbouring psalms (i.e., concatenation). This chapterexamines each pair of neighbouring psalms in an attempt to understand what,if anything, prompted the editors to place them side by side.66