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

Chapter 3: Methodologyrepresent the most concrete type of links between psalms. Therefore,accurate analysis of vital motifs is crucial to the study.3.5 Analysis of links between adjacent psalmsAfter conducting an exegetical study of each psalm, attention turns to theobservable relationships between adjacent psalms. Editors are most likely tobe conscious of links when juxtaposing neighbouring psalms in a collection.The probability of shared terminology, in particular, being intentional asopposed to coincidental is highest when it is shared by adjacent psalms.Chapter 5 attempts to identify all meaningful relationships between pairs ofadjacent psalms that might have provided the editorial rationale for their sideby-sideplacement in the final form of the Psalter.The analysis of each pair of touching psalms is based on the exegeticalobservations made in chapter 4 and covers three major steps: (a) conduct anexhaustive analysis of shared terminology, (b) evaluate other kinds ofpotential links between psalms and (c) assess the primary basis ofconcatenation.79