Two Examples of Faulty Bible Scholarship (1999) Richard CarrierIn response to remarks by Douglas Wilson in a debate with Ted Drange (seeWilson's first rebuttal), I have written on two examples of how some Christians don't understand the importance of scholarship in truly understanding the New Testament, centering ar ound 1 Timothy. The first concerns the abuse of ancient Greek. The second concerns ignorance of the usefulness of textual criticism. These examples are relevant in themselves as typical cases which e xemplify many other errors or distortions of the same kind, and how one must always be cautious of a preacher's "scholarship," just as one cannot trust at all in any kind of biblical "infallibility." I. ON CALVINIST ABUSE OF GREEK Wilson wrote: [In] 1 Timothy 2:4 God wants "all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth." The Greek word for "all" here is "pas", which in this context can be accurately transla ted either as "all men" (distributively ), or as "all kinds of men." Because that passage begins with a reference to all kinds of men (1 Tim. 2:1-2), verse four cannot be lifted from its context to mean each and every man. This interpretation is groundless on the Greek. Indeed, the very notion that "pas" can alonemean "all kinds" in any restrictive sense like that is a complete untruth. But the passage does not even begin with a reference to "kinds" of men, but very clearly aims to include all men. Moreover, 2.4 is not grammatically related to 2.1-2. For 2.1-2 contains what Paul wants Christians to do, whereas 2.4 contains what god wants for the world. These are different contexts, and so one cannot import the context of 1-2 into 4. This is a classic baloney argument which violates all laws of grammar and logic, to get a passage to say precisely what it most definitely does not say. Yet it is a very common kind of argument, met with frequently. The complete passage is given here in Greek with literal interlinear English. I have transcribed omega as "w" and eta as "h" and aspiration as ' (rather than h, so ch is c' and th is t' and ph is p'): (1) parakalw oun(and so I [Paul] call upon) [you] prwton(first) pantwn(of all things) poieist'ai(to make) dehseis(petitions ) proseuc'as(prayers ) enteuxeis(intercessions ) euc'aristias(thanksgivings ) 'yper(on behalf of) pantwn(all) ant'rwpwn(people) (2) 'yper(on behalf of) basilewn(kings) kai(and) pantwn(all) twn(those) en(in) 'yperoc'hi(a prominent position) ontwn(being), 'ina(so that) hremon(a peaceful) kai(and) hsyc'ion(quiet) bion(life) diagwmen(we might spend), en(in) pashi(all) eusebeiai(piety) kai(and) semnothti(solemnity ). (3) touto(this) [is] kalon(beautiful ) kai(and) apodekton(acceptable) enwpion(in the presence) tou(of the) swthros(savior) 'hmwn(our) t'eou(god) (4) 'os(who) pantas(all) anthrwpous(people) t'elei(he wants) swt'hnai(to be saved) kai(and) to come(see last word) eis(to) epignwsin(a knowledge) alht'eias(of truth) elt'ein(to come).
