We’ve had him on theLAB before, but here is Matthew Bates again, this time as part of our series asking, “What makes a good biblical scholar or theologian?”
I think some of our best biblical scholars—Hays, Barclay, Wright, and others–act like crime-scene investigators. The truth is paramount! So they pore over Scripture and previous investigation reports again and again. They read broadly to crack open new horizons. Eventually, a set of questions and observable patterns are discovered that have eluded previous investigators. It is easy to be creative without being faithful to the Scripture, or faithful without being creative. The best manage both.
~Matthew W. Bates, Associate Professor of Theology, Quincy University
[…] via Matthew Bates on “What Makes a Good Biblical Scholar or Theologian?” — theLAB […]
Wow! How enlightening!
My one comment would be that it is also like a “Cold Case” investigation and the scholar is trying to construct the events declared in scripture.
I think the main difference between them and me is not a lack of willingness to pore over the text. It’s not being a F/T professor with the leisure to do so, not that I didn’t try.