Tuesday, September 26, 2006

The Happy Agnostic

Don't miss the interview with Bart Ehrman on the Evangelical Textual Criticism blog. I like this part:

P.J. Williams: "Do you think that anyone might ever come away from reading Misquoting Jesus with the impression that the state of the New Testament text is worse than it really is?"

Bart Ehrman: "Yes I think this is a real danger, and it is the aspect of the book that has apparently upset our modern day apologists who are concerned to make sure that no one thinks anything negative about the holy Bible. On the other hand, if people misread my book – I can’t really control that very well. Maybe ironically, this could show the fallacy of the view also held widely among evangelicals, that the intention of an author dictates the meaning of a text (since my intentions seem to have had little effect on how some people read my text)."

2 Comments:

Blogger Stephen C. Carlson said...

My favorite line was later in the answer to the same question: "If people can’t read what I say – well, what can I say??"

9/26/2006  
Blogger Jimmy Archer said...

Interesting.

I think Ehrman strawmans the hermeneutical view he mentions--anyone of the mildest sophistication will differentiate between intended meaning and perceived meaning. =\

9/26/2006  

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