Sitz im Leben

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In Biblical criticism, Sitz im Leben is a German phrase roughly translating to "setting in life". At its simplest, it describes what occasions certain passages in the Bible were written for, and is often called the "genres" of the Bible. Simple examples of Sitz im Leben include the classification of material into letters, poems of lament, parables, psalms, and songs. However, Sitz im Leben can also involve many other considerations; who the speaker of a passage was, their role in life, the nature of their audience, and so on. Taken out of its original context, the original meaning of a passage is often lost.

The term originated with the German Protestant theologian Hermann Gunkel. Today the term is also used outside theological research, when it is needed to examine a text for its sociologically relevant aspects. In linguistics the Sitz im Leben is determined by the text pragmatics.

For example: the Sitz im Leben of a counting rhyme like "eeny, meeny, miny, moe..." is a group of children deciding among themselves who will play in a game; when the children chant the song, we know that they are choosing who will play, but without knowing this context, the rhyme appears merely to be nonsense about tigers.