Words are feeble…yet priceless things

Deadguy185_216068a Over at Euangelion, Mike Bird  has draw attention to the death of C. F. D. Moule, former Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Cambridge. I still remember  reading his book The Birth of the New Testament, and wondering why other writers of New Testament Introductions needed to write books two or three times as long, to say half as much that was important for understanding where the New testament came from and what it was about.

I also remember R E O White, former Principal of our College, coming to teach us NT Greek armed with Wenham’s Elements of NT Greek, Arndt and Gingrich’s Lexicon, and C F D Moule’s Idiom Book of NT Greek, to answer the more elusive questions about this or that text. Below is a revealing extract from Moule, a friendly caution to those of us who live by words, and written in Moule’s little book The Holy Spirit. The book was written in 1978, when a lot of words were written about the Holy Spirit, charismatic experience and renewal, much of it anecdotal, only some of it theologically grounded, and even less of it related through careful scholarship to the evidence of the NT documents. Moule offered neither comfort for charismatics, nor ammunition for anti-charismatics – instead, measured reflection refusing to rush to conclusions:

Words are feeble things – never adequate for the job; yet priceless things – seldom dispensable. They are dangerous things, for they are so fascinating that they tempt the user to linger with them and treat them as ends instead of means. But the Word became flesh; and a word that is not in some way implemented goes sour and becomes a liability instead of an asset.

Charles was an important name in 20th Century British New Testament scholarship – Charles H Dodd, Charles Kingsley Barrett and Charles Digby Moule. I think it would be a good idea to have an alternative to the calendars of saints – how about a calendar of biblical scholars when we celebrate through the year, the gift to the church of countless hours of labour and devotion, poured like precious nard, upon those ancient documents that together we call the Bible. And on their feast day, a reading from that part of Scripture on which they have shed the light of their learning? Open for suggestions…..

Comments

6 responses to “Words are feeble…yet priceless things”

  1. Jason Goroncy avatar

    ‘… a calendar of biblical scholars when we celebrate through the year, the gift to the church of countless hours of labour and devotion’. Great idea. I’m thinking Charles Cranfield, John Calvin, Andrew Murray, Leon Morris, Martin Buber, Walter Brueggemann, Kenneth Bailey, Richard Bauckham, Don Carson, John Chrysostom, Robert Dale, Gordon Fee, Adolf Schlatter, James Denney (of course), John Albrecht Bengel, Brooke Foss Westcott, David Clines, Matthew Henry, Gordon Wenham, Martin Hengel, John Owen, Rudolph Bultmann, Karl Delitzsch … it’s endless. (all men I notice). A great reminder of the abundant gifts graced to the Church – and so the world – by God.

  2. Jason Goroncy avatar

    ‘… a calendar of biblical scholars when we celebrate through the year, the gift to the church of countless hours of labour and devotion’. Great idea. I’m thinking Charles Cranfield, John Calvin, Andrew Murray, Leon Morris, Martin Buber, Walter Brueggemann, Kenneth Bailey, Richard Bauckham, Don Carson, John Chrysostom, Robert Dale, Gordon Fee, Adolf Schlatter, James Denney (of course), John Albrecht Bengel, Brooke Foss Westcott, David Clines, Matthew Henry, Gordon Wenham, Martin Hengel, John Owen, Rudolph Bultmann, Karl Delitzsch … it’s endless. (all men I notice). A great reminder of the abundant gifts graced to the Church – and so the world – by God.

  3. Michael Westmoreland-White avatar

    Well, some of those listed above are still alive! I’d add A. T. Robertson, George Beasley-Murray, F. F. Bruce, Joachim Jeremias, G. B. Caird, and Brevard Childs. If the alternative calendar is limited to those who have passed on, then it will be very male dominated and mostly white males. It will take a generation before the great African-American, Latino, and female biblical scholars start getting their due–simply because universities and seminaries were closed to them for so long.

  4. Michael Westmoreland-White avatar

    Well, some of those listed above are still alive! I’d add A. T. Robertson, George Beasley-Murray, F. F. Bruce, Joachim Jeremias, G. B. Caird, and Brevard Childs. If the alternative calendar is limited to those who have passed on, then it will be very male dominated and mostly white males. It will take a generation before the great African-American, Latino, and female biblical scholars start getting their due–simply because universities and seminaries were closed to them for so long.

  5. jim gordon avatar

    Thanks Jason and Michael. No, I didn’t only mean the dead scholars of the past – anyway C K Barrett is a nonogenarian still excavating texts. His commentary on John’s Gospel is still securely there, for me. So let’s have it also for those biblical scholars who aren’t north-Atlantic white males, dead or alive. A couple of my own inclusions would be Elsa Tamez (on Paul’s Amnesty of Grace and on James), Guttierez (on Job, and as a biblical theologian), Phyllis Trible for some of the most valuable gains in rhetorical approaches that expose the abuse of texts in the interests of social control. And for her brilliant work on Jonah. Other suggestions for under-appreciated, unfairly marginalised voices?

  6. jim gordon avatar

    Thanks Jason and Michael. No, I didn’t only mean the dead scholars of the past – anyway C K Barrett is a nonogenarian still excavating texts. His commentary on John’s Gospel is still securely there, for me. So let’s have it also for those biblical scholars who aren’t north-Atlantic white males, dead or alive. A couple of my own inclusions would be Elsa Tamez (on Paul’s Amnesty of Grace and on James), Guttierez (on Job, and as a biblical theologian), Phyllis Trible for some of the most valuable gains in rhetorical approaches that expose the abuse of texts in the interests of social control. And for her brilliant work on Jonah. Other suggestions for under-appreciated, unfairly marginalised voices?

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