TY - CHAP

T1 - Building a House on Sand

T2 - What Do Evangelicals Do When They Do Textual Criticism of the Old Testament?

AU - Rezetko, Robert Carl

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - Chapter 3 in Introducing Misusing Scripture: What Are Evangelicals Doing with the Bible? (2023a above). Robert Rezetko, “Building a House on Sand: What Do Evangelicals Do When They Do Textual Criticism of the Old Testament?” (Chapter 3), identifies the Westminster Confession of Faith and “The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy” as foundational documents to contemporary American evangelicalism. Prominent in both is their declaration of the divine revelation, inspiration, infallibility, and inerrancy of the original OT and NT texts. Rezetko explores the views of evangelical scholars on the OT text. He evaluates major evangelical publications on the topic, paying close attention to what they say about the original text and what they aim to accomplish with their text-critical principles and practices. He argues evangelical scholars find themselves caught between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, informed evangelical OT textual critics have rightfully accepted the scholarly consensus view and abandoned the search for the original text. On the other hand, their presuppositions and beliefs compel them to still try to defend the text’s accuracy and reliability, and indirectly its originality and inerrancy. Consequently, evangelical scholarship on the OT text is marked by conflict of interests, mutually inconsistent beliefs, problematic tactics, and ultimately uncritical and marginal views.

AB - Chapter 3 in Introducing Misusing Scripture: What Are Evangelicals Doing with the Bible? (2023a above). Robert Rezetko, “Building a House on Sand: What Do Evangelicals Do When They Do Textual Criticism of the Old Testament?” (Chapter 3), identifies the Westminster Confession of Faith and “The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy” as foundational documents to contemporary American evangelicalism. Prominent in both is their declaration of the divine revelation, inspiration, infallibility, and inerrancy of the original OT and NT texts. Rezetko explores the views of evangelical scholars on the OT text. He evaluates major evangelical publications on the topic, paying close attention to what they say about the original text and what they aim to accomplish with their text-critical principles and practices. He argues evangelical scholars find themselves caught between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, informed evangelical OT textual critics have rightfully accepted the scholarly consensus view and abandoned the search for the original text. On the other hand, their presuppositions and beliefs compel them to still try to defend the text’s accuracy and reliability, and indirectly its originality and inerrancy. Consequently, evangelical scholarship on the OT text is marked by conflict of interests, mutually inconsistent beliefs, problematic tactics, and ultimately uncritical and marginal views.

U2 - 10.4324/9781003126416-5

DO - 10.4324/9781003126416-5

M3 - Book chapter

SN - 9780367648138

T3 - Routledge New Critical Thinking in Religion, Theology and Biblical Studies

SP - 95

EP - 127

BT - Misusing Scripture

A2 - Elliott, Mark

A2 - Atkinson, Kenneth

A2 - Rezetko, Robert

PB - Routledge

ER -