Quote for the Day: The Problem with Texts

"To become absorbed with the textual dimension of biblical works is not merely to mistake the medium for the message but to make a realistic understanding of that message all the more difficult by insufficient attention to the actual social context of its genesis. To valorize textuality in the interpretation of the New Testament documents is to interpret these ancient works in a manner that has only been possible since the invention of printing and which is indelibly stamped with the mark of modern origins." (Philip Esler, New Testament Theology, p 169)