Seth Ehorn on “What makes a good Biblical Scholar or Theologian?”

What makes a good biblical scholar? Well, many things, of course. But one thing I seek to embody in my own work and to impart to my students is fairness to others, especially when I disagree with them.

One ancient moralist saw this an essential part of his pedagogical program and I think this is still sound advice for students and scholars:

“I determined to record them like the rest, if for no other reason, at least to show persons who undertake to set others right that they must each study with care the arguments of those they impugn, and must not mislead the inexperienced by detaching expressions from different contexts and attacking mere words apart from the things to which they refer.” (Plutarch, Moralia 1086C).

~Seth Ehorn, Visiting Assistant Professor of Greek Language and New Testament, Wheaton College