Re: Proffessor [sic] Blackwelder and participles

From: Paul S. Dixon (dixonps@juno.com)
Date: Sat Mar 14 1998 - 21:52:17 EST


On Sat, 14 Mar 1998 18:01:14 +0000 clayton stirling bartholomew
<c.s.bartholomew@worldnet.att.net> writes:
>Now that I have nitpicked unnecessarily at Dale Wheeler, I realize that
there
>is a more troubling issue raised by the original question in this
>thread which has not been addressed.
>
>Is it ever safe to hang a major component of your theology from the
>nuance of a verb form? This kind of dogmatic exegesis was quite in vogue
when >I was in graduate school (mid 70's). Is it still being practiced?
It always
>made me nervous to see people writing exegesis papers where they were
>subjecting the text to an analysis that was similar in scope to
sub-atomic >physics and then drawing all manner of sweeping theological
conclusions from >this analysis.
>
>I would like to wonder out loud if one really wants to support a major
>doctrine on such a weak thread as verb
aspect/aktionsart/tense/mood/voice. It
>seems like a precarious procedure at best. I guess that I would not
>want to put a lot of trust in a item of dogma that has *only* this kind
of
>support.

Clay, you have managed to keep this discussion general (I am not sure if
you are arguing for or against Dale's position here), which is just as
well. The point you raise is important, regardless. At what point does
or should our exegesis affect our theology? And, of course, at what
point should our theology affect our exegesis?

I would hope our exegesis could drive our theology. The beauty of
knowing the possibilities in the Greek is that this should cause us to be
more open to the possible theological implications. Probabilities,
dictated by usage and context, always come to bear, of course. To the
degree that one's theology is based upon exegetical improbabilities to
that degree does one's theology becomes suspect.

Ideally, one's theology should come to bear upon his exegesis only as a
last resort, that is, only if the interpretation is indecisive from an
exegesis apart from theology.

Paul Dixon

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