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How credible is Simon Greenleaf?
Posted on: May 14, 2009 - 6:55pm
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How credible is Simon Greenleaf?
I keep hearing this guys name thrown around. And it seems like every Christian uses him as proof of the existence of Christ. So I am just curious what you all thought of this. Thanks.
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Never heard of him until this post. You might check out the wiki on his work: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testimony_of_the_Evangelist
It appears that some of the legalist Christian apologists derive a lot of their ideas from his.
All that is necessary for the triumph of good is that evil men do nothing.
So the answer to the question in the OP is 'Not very.'
Hard to say. He's referenced by some of the better known Christian apologists, like Josh McDowell. Perhaps there is some resurgence in Evangelical interest in him. Looking up "simon greenleaf" in google, however, nets only a fraction of the hits as someone like Josh.
All that is necessary for the triumph of good is that evil men do nothing.
Well... yeah, that kinda goes without saying, in terms of apologetics, anyway. I mean, William Lane Craig is a major apologist, probably gets used his 'proofs' and 'evidence' used all the time. Regardless, his arguments are utter shit. I meant, if you took this guy Greenleaf out of his element, he'd probably seem pretty pathetic as a philosopher.
*edit* It's kind of like how lots more people know who Bart Erhman is than Bruce Metzger- mostly because the latter is retired (deceased?), and regardless of the fact that Metzger has done more than Erhman (and in fact is a direct-line scholarly 'father' to Erhman) in terms of Biblical scholarship.
Standing on the shoulders of giants, and all that.
Likely. It's nice to know where the next barrage of idiocy might be coming from, though.
All that is necessary for the triumph of good is that evil men do nothing.
Very true, very true.
Yes, Bruce Metzger is deceased. But I know of him because of the popularizing stuff by Bart Ehrman. As a lay person, I can hardly go in and really digest biblical scholarship, I need someone to dumb it down for me. Bart Ehrman does a good job at aiming for my level. But can biblical scholarship really be compared to apologetics? Apologetics is an exercise in bullshitting for the gullible. Which would make WLC the talled midget at the current circus (my sincere apologies to real circus midgets for that comparison).
I personally learned about Metzger about the same time as Ehrman, and didn't know Metzger was deceased, or basically one of Ehrman's mentors, until I read Ehrman's 'Lost Christianities.' I should actually be more specific: I'm currently reading through the book, and plan to read more of his, and Metzger's, works.
I'd say it's less about 'dumbing down' and more about just translating and making certain all the salient details, and the real meaning, don't get lost. Because, in all honesty, rare indeed is the person fluent in enough classical Greek to even attempt a coherent translation of 1st/2nd century Christian writings; rarer still is a scholar who understands the historical context of those works. It wasn't even until the 19th century, for fucks sake, that there was even an attempt to reasses the Gospels, Epistles and Acts as straightforward, completely correct history!
Sometimes, though, I have the desire to try to get a second BA- in classics, or maybe just classical Greek linguistics- and then go on to a Master's and/or doctorate in the same area. Though right now I'm just working at my MA in English Lit, and haven't done my degree plan yet, so I'm not sure just what my thesis work is going to be about. So I guess I'm in the 'penultimate bullshitter' category.
I'll freely admit that.