RE: [asa] The Barr quote

I don't know about Barr's personal opinion or motives, but there seems to be
a logical disconnect or two between the statement and the conclusions drawn
from it.

Barr doesn't say that all professors are YEC or that they believe the three
points listed. All he said was that all professors BELIEVE THE WRITERS
INTENDED to convey those ideas. I believe there are many on this list who
would agree that those three points appear to be the straightforward
understanding of the original writers, even though they simultaneously argue
for (1) concordism to scientific principles that were not understood by the
original writers, but which still make the Bible literally true, (2) errors
in scientific or historical fact which were not understood by the ancients
but which don't affect the substantial reliability of the text as inspired,
or (3) literary understandings which remove the Biblical text from having to
be precisely accurate, while still conveying depth of meaning to their time
and our own. The fact that professors believe the original writers meant it
to be straightforward history doesn't mean that that understanding was
correct, or even that the professors in fact believe it.

Further, the statement itself seems to me a fallacy of generalization,
because how does Barr know every single professor of Hebrew or OT
scholarship? Given that we've had over a century of evangelical and
Catholic scholars accommodating Christian thought to Darwinian science and
modernist Biblical interpretations, I find it very difficult to believe that
it's even close to being true, at least of their personal opinions.
Further, I believe it is a matter of fact that there are reputable Hebrew
scholars who question even the supposed original meaning of the text (I'm
thinking of John Walton, and you may be more familiar with others of
repute), whether they are "professors at world-class universities" or not.
It seems to me that both Barr's statement and AIG's use of it are a sham.

Jon Tandy

From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On
Behalf Of Randy Isaac
Sent: Friday, May 16, 2008 3:41 PM
To: asa@calvin.edu
Subject: [asa] The Barr quote

I believe this quote from James Barr was discussed some time ago but I can't
seem to find it or remember what the conclusion was. Can some of you please
refresh my memory and give me the right perspective. A YEC'er who is in
dialog with me brought up that quote as follows:

"As for what competent Hebrew scholars think about chronological information
in the Bible, here's a quote from James Barr, who at the time was Regius
Professor of Hebrew at Oxford University:

     "... probably, so far as I know, there is no professor of Hebrew or Old
Testament at any world-class university who does not believe that the
writer(s) of Genesis 1-11 intended to convey to their readers the ideas
that:

     "(a) creation took place in a series of six days which were the same as
the days of 24 we now experience,

     "(b) the figures contained in the Genesis genealogies provided by
simple addition a chronology from the beginning of the world up to later
stages in the biblical story,

     "(c) Noah's flood was understood to be worldwide and extinguish all
human and animal life except for those in the ark." **"

Obviously, the argument he was raising against me was that all OT scholars
of repute are YEC.

Randy

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Received on Fri May 16 18:30:17 2008