Uploaded July 2024 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Is it being properly cautious, if experts disagree about something, to choose some intermediate probability for that proposition and treat that as the best that you can do, as a non-expert, at estimating the probability on all the public evidence?
Not really. Such false caution can result in giving undue weight to opinions governed by faulty methodology and kept in place by merely sociological forces. In New Testament studies, such false caution also doesn't take due regard to the way that poor standards and methodology have become accepted even by some conservative-labeled scholars, as if they are objectively good standards of the discipline.
The anthology I have in mind at about minute 21 is Do Historical Matters Matter to Faith?
amazon.com/Historical-Matters-Matter-Faith-Postmodern/dp/1433525712
Craig Blomberg's contribution is titled "A Constructive Traditional Response to New Testament Criticism." My citing it is not intended to indicate that I agree with everything in it, though I do agree with Blomberg's harmonization on the day of the crucifixion. I also agree with his criticisms of arguments put forth against the possibility of two Temple cleansings.
One small correction: While Blomberg does address some arguments by Kenton Sparks in this essay, the bad argument that no single Gospel records two Temple cleansings is in fact made by Gerald Borchert, and Blomberg is criticizing Borchert when he discusses that claim.
Is it being properly cautious, if experts disagree about something, to choose some intermediate probability for that proposition and treat that as the best that you can do, as a non-expert, at estimating the probability on all the public evidence?
Not really. Such false caution can result in giving undue weight to opinions governed by faulty methodology and kept in place by merely sociological forces. In New Testament studies, such false caution also doesn't take due regard to the way that poor standards and methodology have become accepted even by some conservative-labeled scholars, as if they are objectively good standards of the discipline.
The anthology I have in mind at about minute 21 is Do Historical Matters Matter to Faith?
amazon.com/Historical-Matters-Matter-Faith-Postmodern/dp/1433525712
Craig Blomberg's contribution is titled "A Constructive Traditional Response to New Testament Criticism." My citing it is not intended to indicate that I agree with everything in it, though I do agree with Blomberg's harmonization on the day of the crucifixion. I also agree with his criticisms of arguments put forth against the possibility of two Temple cleansings.
One small correction: While Blomberg does address some arguments by Kenton Sparks in this essay, the bad argument that no single Gospel records two Temple cleansings is in fact made by Gerald Borchert, and Blomberg is criticizing Borchert when he discusses that claim.
