A Critique of The Biologos Forum interview of N. T.
Wright by Peter Enns,
"What Do You Mean by ‘Literal’?" (September 8, 2010).[1]
Anyone who has read or listened to N. T. Wright soon
develops an appreciation for his skill in communication, and for the high level
of scholarship that he is capable of.
That, along with his extensive sphere of influence, makes what he does
with the issues on the table here of critical importance.
N. T. Wright is very good on the difference between
literal and metaphorical, and will find broad agreement with where he goes with
the question right "out of the gate".
Notice, however, that he does not give a straightforward answer to the
question. Crediting him with the
assumption that he knows very well what
the issue is, the immediate impression is that he answers like a "slippery"
scholar! It certainly seems that he does
not want to be pinned down, knowing full well the implications of a clear answer
in either direction!
He asserts at the outset that the difference between
literal and metaphorical is not the issue.
By doing so he lays his foundation before proceeding to the implications of the question for the Genesis
account. He gives what appears to be a
very clear and straightforward answer to the exact same question when it comes
to the Crucifixion. The very fact that
he is unwilling to do so, or at least that he fails to do so, when it comes to
the Creation account should be seen as significant.
In the process of this initial development of the
difference between literal and metaphorical he makes an issue about the nature
of parabolic literature:
"The point is this is a
cheerfully fictitious story, but often the real meaning remains concrete. If they do not hear Moses and the prophets..."[2]
What is his point in doing so? He is going somewhere with this!
"So it is a much more
interesting and complicated question than your culture or mine has ever allowed
us to get into by this literal/non-literal split. When you get back to Genesis with all of that
I really want to know what did the writer of Genesis, or the people who wrote
the bits and pieces that came together as Genesis, what did they intend to do
by this story?"
It begins to be clear at this point that Wright's concern
is not with the words that God inspired, but with authorial intent.
Listen very carefully to the framework he casts the
Creation account into, to how he speaks about it. Wright makes it clear that in his
understanding this is all about the meta-narrative! The words, the explicit words of the
Scriptural narrative, are made secondary to a meta-narrative that gives every
appearance of being either preconceived, or brought to the passage from
subsequent exegetical conclusions. The
construction of a Temple (G. K. Beale?!?!) to be inhabited by God is the
primary thing.
"It's
a Temple story..."
This is the important issue. The rest of it, the "structure" is
secondary. The "formal
structure" is the words of the narrative itself.
"And suddenly Genesis 1
instead of it being were there six days or were there five or were there seven
or were there 24 hours, it's actually about God making heavens and the earth as
the place where He wants to dwell, and putting humans into that construct as a
way of both reflecting His own love into the world, and drawing out the praise
and glory from the world back to Himself."
Wright's final sentence is telling:
"And that's the literal
meaning of Genesis, and the question of the formal structure has to fit around
that as best it can."
At the end of the day, our understanding of
"literal", and the way Wright uses it in his conclusion appear to be
saying diametrically opposite things. Once
this is understood the issue is, on one level, semantic. However, on another level, we are back to the
age old problem of the "high-jacking" of theological and exegetical
terms via redefinition and obfuscation.
These terms then must be qualified to distinguish the Biblical truth
from error. This is precisely why we must
now speak of believing not just that the Bible is the Word of God, but that it
is the verbally, plenarily, inspired, infallible and inerrant Word of God
written.
Wright bemoans what he refers to as our cultures' "literal/non-literal
split", and then takes the word "literal" and embraces the
meta-narrative with it. He did not
hesitate to separate the Crucifixion from the Parables by employing literal and
metaphorical respectively. When he gets
to the Creation account, however, he not only avoids referring to the account
itself as metaphorical, i.e., as a figure of speech (non-literal), but actually
shunts the narrative itself aside so that he can use the word
"literal" to describe the authorial intent, i.e., the meta-narrative. Wright's "literal" is not
"literally" literal at all, rather the metaphorical of the Gospels is
now the literal, and the literal of the Gospel accounts, as he expressed it, is
either not to be found in Genesis, or at best, is not the "real
meaning" or "concrete" meaning (Wright's words). His purpose in stressing the need to
understand the metaphorical nature of the parabolic literature now becomes
clear. The metaphor found in the words
of Scripture is not the "real meaning", nor is it literal, or "concrete". The literal meaning, the real meaning must be
found elsewhere, and this elsewhere is sufficiently divorced from the figure of
speech that it only provides a "formal structure" that must fit the
"real meaning" as best it can.
At stake here is the issue of our age now subtly being
attacked and undermined once again - the issue of Bibliology, the doctrine of
the inscripturated Word of God including the hermeneutics utilized in
understanding Scripture. The conflicting
views of propositional versus potential revelation, verbal as opposed to
conceptual inspiration, and literal versus allegorical interpretation are once
again on the table (as if they ever left), and the ivory tower of Anglican
academia and American pseudo-science will not let it rest.
On the Biologos Institute and the Creation account in
Genesis see also the following:
John MacArthur with Phil Johnson, Evangelicals,
Evolution, and the Biologos Disaster, GTY136, on Grace to You at http://www.gty.org/products/audio-lessons/GTY136
[accessed 5 APR 2012]. MP3 available on Grace to You at http://webmedia.gty.org/sermons/High/GTY136.mp3
[accessed 5 APR 2012]. Transcript not
available as of 5 APR 2012.
Albert Mohler, "No
Pass from Theological Responsibility - The BioLogos Conundrum" (Nov.
9, 2010), on AlbertMohler.com http:/www.albertmohler.com/2010/11/09/no-pass-from-theological-responsibility-the-biologos-conundrum/
[accessed 5 APR 2012].
D.
A. Carson, "Three More Books on the Bible: A Critical Review", Trinity
Journal 27:1 (Spring 2006), pp. 1-62; reprinted in D. A. Carson, Collected
Writings on Scripture, compiled by Andrew David Naselli (Wheaton: Crossway,
2010), pp. 237-301. The original article
is available as a PDF file on The Gospel
Coalition at http://s3.amazonaws.com/tgc-documents/carson/2006_three_more_books.pdf
[accessed 11 APR 2012], and without footnotes on Reformation 21 at http://www.reformation21.org/shelf-life/three-books-on-the-bible-a-critical-review.php
[accessed 11 APR 2012]. This article and
chapter by Carson includes reviews both of Peter Enns, Inspiration and
Incarnation: Evangelicals and the Problem of the Old Testament (Grand
Rapids: Baker, 2005), pp. 18-45, pp. 255-283 respectively, and N. T. Wright, Scripture
and the Authority of God (London: SPCK, 2005);
also published as The Last Word: Beyond the Bible Wars to a New
Understanding of the Authority of Scripture (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco,
2005), pp. 45-62, and pp. 283-301 respectively.
John T. Jeffery
Pastor, Wayside Gospel Chapel
Greentown, PA
17 March 2012
N. T. Wright on the Literal Understanding of the Genesis Creation Narrative
by John T. Jeffery
Copyright 2012 by John T. Jeffery.
All rights reserved.
The use of excerpts or reproduction of this material is prohibited
without written permission from the author.
Contact the author at:
722 South Main Ave.
Scranton, PA 18504
Home phone: (570) 342-5787
Email: johntjeff@verizon.net
[1] The Biologos
Forum at http://biologos.org/blog/what-do-you-mean-by-literal [accessed 17 MAR 2012].
[2] Is he giving with one hand
while he takes away with the other? Does
he really believe that Moses authored the Pentateuch? Is multiple authorship part of where he
considers going with his authorial intent concern? Consider the very next quote! How can he knowingly cite this New Testament
passage concerning Moses when J-E-P-D redactors or something very similar is out there? Are we back to meta-narrative issues even
when it comes to the Scriptural documentation of authorship? Are men like O. T. Allis rolling over in
their graves?
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