Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Samuel Payne" <sam AT sampayne.worldonline.co.uk>]

From: "Christine Bass" <christinebass AT home.com>

> A clarification is in order.
>
> My post was a satirical response---to the statement that Biblical
> scholarship begins with the belief that the scriptures were written by
men.
> This comes under the heading, in my mind anyway, of "biblical
> mythology"----the idea that men conceived and wrote scripture.
>
> As I interpret the scriptures to say, they are inspired by God----and were
> written down by men.
> Which is a bit of a different take on the subject. No?

Can I believe my own eyes?!! "Written down by MEN"?? - and from you!

Incidentally, as a further clarification, would you say the same for ALL
scriptures, oracles etc. - or only the Judaeo-Christian ones? Your reference
to 2 Peter is in some ways a little unfortunate. Almost all scholars outside
of the totally fundamentalist camp agree that 2 Peter is not by the disciple
Peter, both because of its clear literary dependence on the Letter of Jude,
and the completely Hellenistic outlook of the author. That it claims to be
by Peter while at the same time talking about prophetic inspiration does not
inspire confidence  in the standpoint. "Inspiration" anyway is a very
elastic word. Even secular poets are often described as "inspired", but from
the way you express yourself, I take it you mean it as a synonym for
"inerrant".

From the very uninspired

Samuel