John Hall and why we can’t have nice, biblical things (part 2)

John Hall and why we can’t have nice, biblical things (part 2) November 16, 2016

This may become a recurring series. Who knows. There is a mountain of material with more coming out each year it seems. Anyway, today’s installment comes from John F. Hall, a former professor of Classical Studies at BYU and self-styled scholar of the New Testament. In his 2002 monograph New Testament Witnesses of Christ: Peter, John, James, and Paul (Covenant) the reader finds this (p. 59):

“Modern critics resort to literary analysis and redaction criticism to dismiss the accounts of Mark and Matthew in favor of those of Luke or John because “the more complex circumstances which the stories in Luke and John suggest for the calling of Peter have a plausibility that the brief Markan account lacks.” (14) Nevertheless, for those who accept the historicity of all accounts, there is no reason to reject any of the treatments. Although they are not identical, they are likewise not mutually exclusive, but compatible and complementary, open to synthesis.”

Please clap.

Modern critics? Resort? Oh geez. No. They don’t resort to literary analysis and redaction criticism, they use these as tools to do the work of biblical scholarship. Also, isn’t it great that in the 21st century Hall is still playing the harmonization game? Of course, gospel harmonizations are the close cousin to Barker’s (last post) patchwork quilt of decontextualized sausage linking.


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