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  • From: Rob Barrett <rcbarrett AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Doctorates or not
  • Date: Sat, 03 Sep 2005 22:45:39 +0100

Might I suggest that we separate the issues of doctoral training, time spent studying languages and texts, and (especially) personal issues such as laziness and arrogance (which seem to be in abundance in all walks of life)?

It might be more useful to focus on differences between working within the accredited academy and outside of it. One difference I find is that within the guild of biblical studies there is a "canon" of writings and ideas that must be reflected in one's work. For example, I was recently doing some work on the Song of Moses (Deut 32). I personally find the work done by form critics on this passage to be unenlightening at best and unfortunately very misleading in its interpretation (at least as far as the kind of interpretation I'm interested in doing). However, as one working within the academy (though somewhat a newbie, so please be kind) I am not permitted by the "rules" of the guild to ignore the form critics, to attack them personally, to dismiss them out-of-hand, etc. I must respond to them as part of the "canon" of biblical scholarship. I have to understand what they have done and why they do it, be able to express their work in a way they would agree with, and critique it fairly and convincingly. If my work gets published in some respectable academic place someday, it will be added to the "canon" and others will need to respond to it in their work. That's part of how the whole academic enterprise works.

Now this isn't the only way to work on Deut 32. I imagine there have been a good number of sermons preached on this text that have completely ignored previous scholarly work and yet have made profound interpretations of the text, discovered novel facts about it, which may have been the result of a lifetime of Hebrew study or may have just been lucky or inspired. In my academic work I am under no obligation to respond to this body of work (though it might be helpful to do so!), because it is not part of the "canon". The sermon is a different way of working with the biblical text and fits within a different system of evaluation, training, funding, audience expectations, etc. Neither the sermon nor my paper should be assumed to be better than the other because of its nature, nor should they necessarily be judged on the same criteria -- they're very different things! And I believe each has its place.

I could discuss the internet mailing list as a different scholarly environment with different rules, but I've gone on long enough and it would be more interesting to hear some of your own ideas for how scholarship works (or doesn't work) here, and how it is the same or different from other venues.

all the best,
Rob Barrett





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