Retorisk analys och Nya testamentet. En kort presentation

This article summarizes some main features which characterize New Testament scholarship with regard to rhetorical criticism/rhetorical analysis. The first part shows the background of rhetoric in Aristotle's basic observations of how communication between men is persuasive. The actualization and application of rhetorical analysis since Perelman's and Betz' work is also shortly sketched. The second part describes some distinctive features of rhetorical analyses as they have been used with regard to the gospels as well as to the epistles. The author argues that the genre-assignment plays an important role and has to be done very carefully. As a method of interpretation rhetorical analysis helps the interpreter to discover the overall meaning of a text and should therefore be utilized much more in the future - not only by scholars but even by pastors and teachers.