Benjamin L. Merkle is professor of New Testament and Greek at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and Greek Editor of the Southeastern Theological Review.
Sunday, June 11, 2023
Benjamin Merkle's "Exegetical Gems" (A Discussion)-Intro
Starting this week, I'll begin discussing Benjamin L. Merkle's work, Exegetical Gems from Biblical Greek: A Refreshing Guide to Grammar and Interpretation. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2019. Time will not permit me to discuss the whole book, but I want to focus on parts that might be interesting to this blog's audience. There are some good features the book has. However, he's critical of Jehovah's Witnesses at some points and one also sees what I would call "Trinitarian bias" in this book.
Benjamin L. Merkle is professor of New Testament and Greek at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and Greek Editor of the Southeastern Theological Review.
Benjamin L. Merkle is professor of New Testament and Greek at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and Greek Editor of the Southeastern Theological Review.
"Trinitarian bias" - I have noticed that in a lot of scholars and anyone who does agree with the witnesses is said to be dishonest or not qualified enough (rubbish btw)
ReplyDeleteif anything the irony is the witnesses are probably the closest to what was intended by the writers.
Im more wary of ones who advocate for something never explicitly stated in the text.
Yes, this bias is prevalent and I'm not saying Witnesses should stay away from this book. Nevertheless, it's good to know that this writer (Merkle) assumes that Trinitarianism is biblical and he specifically calls out Witnesses in some parts of the book for not affirming Christ's deity.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with his construal of the biblical texts but think he does provide some help when it comes to Greek.