Subject: Re: tc-list re: barrett's response

From: Jim West <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 16 Jul 1999 21:38:59 -0400

At 04:10 PM 7/16/99 -0500, you wrote:

>The one thing I would say is that, given the uncertainty about the book,
>I would not risk buying it until the real reviews (not preliminary
>reviews) are in.

This is simply astonishing.  Do you mean to say that you let reviewers do
your thinking for you?  You will buy no book until it has been reviewed?
Reviewed by whom?  Who's word do you take for such things?  Why bother ever
buying a book then- just read what some reviewer has written- a reviewer who
may or may not be biased against the author or authors, and who may know
absolutely nothing of the subject- but who reviewed the book because his
buddy at the JBL staff or Novum Testamentum sent it to him (or her).  Such
an approach to reading books, and TC scholarship in particular, does not
bode well for the state of critical thinking among some.

Best,

Jim

+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Jim West, ThD
email- [email-masked]
web page-  http://web.infoave.net/~jwest

---

From: "Robert B. Waltz" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 17 Jul 1999 09:52:08 -0500

On 7/16/99, Jim West <[email-masked]> wrote, in part:

>your thinking for you?

Improbable as this may sound, coming from me :-), the answer in this case
is assuredly "yes."

I don't have the resources to judge the transcriptions. I don't have the
time to fully examine the book. In other words, I am not competent to
judge it.

I don't understand how anyone can feel otherwise. Suppose someone
came forward with a "mathematical proof of the existence of God,"
but it required the use of tensors. Would you content yourself with
judging its truth or falsity? Surely not -- you would ask someone
who knows tensors to review the mathematics. Similarly, I would
want someone who has access to reliable editions or photos of the
papyri to judge a book of transcription of papyri.

I'm tempted to say that no one who has use for this book is
competent to judge it. :-)

The whole purpose of reviews is to discover for us that which we do
not have the time or knowledge to learn for ourselves!

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

                        Robert B. Waltz
                     [email-masked]

Want more loudmouthed opinions about textual criticism?
Try my web page: http://www.skypoint.com/~waltzmn
(A site inspired by the Encyclopedia of NT Textual Criticism)