{"id":94,"date":"2010-09-03T00:01:58","date_gmt":"2010-09-03T06:01:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/?p=94"},"modified":"2010-09-03T17:01:19","modified_gmt":"2010-09-03T22:01:19","slug":"can-you-tell-me-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/09\/03\/can-you-tell-me-why\/","title":{"rendered":"Can you tell me why?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

It is very common among biblical scholars and among informed pastors to modify our readings of the Bible, even theology, on the basis of sound scholarship. Sometimes it is by way of discoveries but more often than not it\u2019s just someone does some really good work on the texts and says, \u201cHey, we had this one more or less wrong and there\u2019s a better way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I begin with a simple one that few can contest. I begin with a simple report in Matthew 8.<\/p>\n

8:5\u00a0When he [Jesus] entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him asking for help:\u00a08:6\u00a0\u201cLord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, in terrible anguish.\u201d\u00a08:7\u00a0Jesus said to him, \u201cI will come and heal him.\u201d\u00a08:8\u00a0But the centurion replied \u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There it is: Jesus enters Capernaum and has a conversation [directly] with a centurion about the centurion\u2019s servant. Jesus has a conversation with him and then decides to go to the centurion\u2019s house to heal the servant.<\/p>\n

Now we turn to Luke 7\u2019s version of this event.<\/p>\n

7:1\u00a0After Jesus had finished teaching all this to the people, he entered Capernaum.\u00a07:2\u00a0A centurion there had a slave who was highly regarded, but who was sick and at the point of death.\u00a07:3\u00a0When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, asking him to come and heal his slave.\u00a07:4\u00a0When they came to Jesus, they urged him earnestly, \u201cHe is worthy to have you do this for him,\u00a07:5\u00a0because he loves our nation, and even built our synagogue.\u201d\u00a07:6\u00a0So Jesus went with them. <\/em>When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to say to him, \u201cLord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Luke shows us that the Matthean version was \u201ctruncated\u201d or \u201ccompressed\u201d (like a zip file) from a double encounter of a centurion and his elders friends, but it was the elders who talked to Jesus on behalf of the centurion<\/em>. In reading the first one we could easily contend that Jesus spoke to the centurion; in reading the second one we\u2019d say he did not. The second text doesn\u2019t \u201ccorrect\u201d the first text but clarifies a historical reality: those sent represent those who sent them. We have \u201clearned\u201d about the first text from the second text and the second text prevents us from saying things about the first one. More: if we had only the first text we\u2019d be mistaken sometimes. The second text keeps that from happening. The second text teaches us to modify our reading of the first text in light of historical information.<\/p>\n

I use this to illustrate how further study can enlighten former studies and alter them.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This happens all the time in biblical studies: we have learned oodles and oodles about Judea and the Galilee from archaeology<\/a><\/strong>, and some of it means we have learned to read the Bible differently. We have solid evidence for the time of David in Jerusalem; we have stuff about Megiddo etc. These discoveries lead us to reshape some of our interpretations and, quite frankly, sometimes they challenge traditional interpretations. [A standard read for this is: The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology\u2019s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts<\/a>\"\"<\/em><\/strong>.]<\/p>\n

The same applies to historical studies: the Dead Sea Scrolls changed (some would say revolutionized) our reading of the New Testament because we discovered so much concrete and tangible evidence about a first century Jewish sect. We found out things about John the Baptist and perhaps Jesus; we learned about terms that were being used. We discovered that a text like Matthew 11:5-6 was an expression also of what the Messiah would be like in other groups besides Christians, and that text led me to change my own view (I used to think \u201cthe one who was to come\u201d was Elijah from Mal 3\u20134 and not the Messiah, and I was not alone, but now this text makes \u201cthe one who was to come\u201d a cipher for \u201cMessiah\u201d). I also think of how Gilgamesh Epic and AtraHasis have helped us understand parts of Genesis, and changed what we are looking for when we read those texts.<\/p>\n

I bring up one major issue and drop it quickly: the New Perspective on Paul. This approach to Paul is nothing other than a revisioning of how we read the New Testament in light of what we have learned about Judaism.<\/p>\n

The same applies also to progress in social sciences and sociological studies. While a bit more tenuous at times, social scientific studies have informed us of how strong groups work; we have learned how apocalyptic sects think; we have learned how leadership works and how it shifts over a generation or two. And these insights help us understand how Jesus interacted with Judaism and its leaders; we learn more about Paul in his Roman\/Jewish world and we learn about how institutions like churches and elders and deacons function.<\/p>\n

So now our question:<\/p>\n

Can you tell me then why we can adjust our knowledge about the Bible from archaeology, historical studies, and social scientific studies, but the minute someone suggests that the empirical sciences, like evolutionary theories and the origins of life, are leading us to adjust how we read Genesis 1\u20133 they are accused of letting something other than the Bible determine what the Bible says and that such a procedure is wrong?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why is it OK to adjust our Bible readings to historical study but not to scientific study?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is very common among biblical scholars and among informed pastors to modify our readings of the Bible, even theology, on the basis of sound scholarship. Sometimes it is by way of discoveries but more often than not it\u2019s just someone does some really good work on the texts and says, \u201cHey, we had this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[456,1568],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-biblical-studies"],"yoast_head":"\nCan you tell me why?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It is very common among biblical scholars and among informed pastors to modify our readings of the Bible, even theology, on the basis of sound\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/09\/03\/can-you-tell-me-why\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can you tell me why?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It is very common among biblical scholars and among informed pastors to modify our readings of the Bible, even theology, on the basis of sound\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/09\/03\/can-you-tell-me-why\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-09-03T06:01:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2010-09-03T22:01:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/files\/2010\/08\/QumranCaves-300x240.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/09\/03\/can-you-tell-me-why\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/09\/03\/can-you-tell-me-why\/\",\"name\":\"Can you tell me why?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-09-03T06:01:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-09-03T22:01:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"It is very common among biblical scholars and among informed pastors to modify our readings of the Bible, even theology, on the basis of sound\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/09\/03\/can-you-tell-me-why\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/09\/03\/can-you-tell-me-why\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/09\/03\/can-you-tell-me-why\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Can you tell me why?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. 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