Uploaded June 2023 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Is a bias against miracles the only problem we need to guard against in biblical studies? By no means. Many problematic methodological assumptions have become entrenched in the field. Even if they may have originated due to an anti-supernatural bias long ago, they have become disconnected from that origin and have taken on a life of their own. Even Christian scholars often mistake these biases for legitimate professional norms.
One of the most common is an allergy to the possibility that events have happened on multiple occasions that are broadly similar to each other.
Here I discuss three ways in which that bias is passed down by sociological mechanisms having nothing to do with the evidence.
If you're interested in more on the Temple cleansing, that playlist is here:
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLe1tMOs8ARn0QhpT_JgxzoxmUolEg9d3K
Here is Allan Chapple's article on the Temple cleansing:
etsjets.org/files/JETS-PDFs/58/58-3/JETS_58-3_545-69_Chapple.pdf
Is a bias against miracles the only problem we need to guard against in biblical studies? By no means. Many problematic methodological assumptions have become entrenched in the field. Even if they may have originated due to an anti-supernatural bias long ago, they have become disconnected from that origin and have taken on a life of their own. Even Christian scholars often mistake these biases for legitimate professional norms.
One of the most common is an allergy to the possibility that events have happened on multiple occasions that are broadly similar to each other.
Here I discuss three ways in which that bias is passed down by sociological mechanisms having nothing to do with the evidence.
If you're interested in more on the Temple cleansing, that playlist is here:
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLe1tMOs8ARn0QhpT_JgxzoxmUolEg9d3K
Here is Allan Chapple's article on the Temple cleansing:
etsjets.org/files/JETS-PDFs/58/58-3/JETS_58-3_545-69_Chapple.pdf
