A discourse analysis of First Corinthians

Terry utilizes principles of discourse analysis, cultural anthropology, and biblical studies to investigate this New Testament text. He is well qualified for this task having extensive formal training in biblical studies and discourse analysis, and several years experience among the Navajos. Taking important concepts of text organization from the work of Robert E. Longacre and Kenneth L. Pike, Terry utilizes computational methods to efficiently investigate a vast array of possible correlations. Regarding the conclusions drawn in his text, Terry says, "[T]here is a statistically significant stylistic difference between peak and nonpeak sections of 1 Corinthians and between those sections written in response to oral reports and those sections written in response to the Corinthians' letter, even though all scholars agree that the entire letter was written by one person.". Of particular significance is Terry's discovery that, while it is commonly stated that Greek word order is VSO, in this non-narrative text SVO and SOV ordering predominate, with the object-final ordering limited to objects of particular significant lexical and grammatical complexity. This study demonstrates that discourse analysis proves to be an important tool for the study of texts, even ancient texts such as 1 Corinthians. Students of the Bible can benefit from Terry's work on a variety of levels, especially from his study of the cultural background of glossalalia and the status of women in the church.