First of all, a detail that Emeritus
Professor Philip Davies fails to note in his recent (September 2009) op-ed. The op-ed is a Readers Digest version of an article he
wrote 15 years ago, “The Bible and the Old Testament” in The Bible in
Ethics: The Second Sheffield Colloquium (ed. John William Rogerson and
Margaret Davies; LHB/OTS; JSOTSup 207; London: Continuum, 1995) 164-173. The
article, of course, has more substance than the op-ed. Below the jump, a
commentated roundup of online discussion.
Jim
Linville (whatever bad you say about the Bible, I can say better; I did not
enjoy seeing a miscreant have so much fun, it makes me want to switch)
Chris
Brady (a smooth and gentle debunking)
Joel Hoffman (an
inconvenient question for the professor)
Darrell
Pursiful (who contrasts the point of view of Davies with that of Peter
Enns)
John
Hobbins (a critique that lays it on thick)
On a
related note:
Chris Heard (engagement
with the piece by Enns and with the “New Atheists”
Bruce Birch has an excellent overview of “Ethics
in the OT” in the New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible 2 (2007)
338-348. No mention of Davies in the entry, nor is Davies’ article cited
in the extensive bibliography. That ought to be a spur to the Sheffield crowd
to make their case more carefully, in more respectful dialogue with the rest of
the field. A future post: a starter bibliography on the entire subject.
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