Canons of Criticism

Farmer's Four Canons of Criticism

1. [Assuming that very early Christianity was Jewish in orientation and Palestinian in geography] That form of a particular found in the Gospels, which reflects an extra-Palestinian, or non-Jewish provenance is to be adjudged secondary to a form of the same tradition which reflects a Palestinian or Jewish provenance.
2. [Canon of "specificity" withdrawn by Farmer after Sanders's 1969 criticism.]
3. [Assuming the redactional tendency to add explanatory glosses and expand tradition] That form of a tradition which exhibits explanatory redactional glosses, and expansions aimed to make the tradition more applicable to the needs of the Church, is to be adjudged secondary to a form of the tradition which is free of such redactional glosses and expansions.
4. [Assuming writer's predilection for certain words] That form of a tradition which exhibits words or phrases characteristic of a redactor whose hand is clearly traceable elsewhere in the same Gospel is to be adjudged secondary to a form of the same tradition which is free of such words and phrases. And, as a corollary to this: That form of a tradition which exhibits words or phrases characteristic of a redactor whose hand is only traceable in another Gospel where the redactor's hand can be clearly traced, provided the characteristic word or phrase occurs in the former Gospel only in passages closely paralleled the latter, where the verbatim agreement indicates direct literary dependence.