Featured What Is Scholarship?

On another thread, someone mentioned that the founder of the JWs, Charles Taze Russel, had translated the Bible for himself. Here's the thing. To come up with what this heretic did means that one is not seeking for truth, as per my definition of scholarship. If one is seeking for truth, one does not deny the deity of "The way, the truth, and the life."

I once interacted with a translator of the JW version of their Bible translation. The Japanese version translates πιστεύω (pisteuo, I believe) as 信仰を働かせる, "to make one's faith work." That flies in the face of all lexical evidence for the Greek word, and is nonsense. Later, I shared that rendering on a Bible translation email group, and a so-called scholar of the JWs defended that nonsense rendering.

Heresy and cultic religion deny truth, and can therefore not be scholarly.

 

When I read this, what I read was, "Spending many thousands of hours and dollars to get genuine grad degrees and learn to be accurate in one's research should end."

 

I think I've been saying something similar.

There are genuine scholars without the degrees, but I have to admit they are few.

 

Here are some things I tell my students about writing a research paper (and thus learning scholarship) that may be relevant here. I'll add relevant notes after what I post.

The paper must be on a subject relevant to the course. For example, a paper on prophecy that does not reference dispensationalism in the course “Dispensational Theology” would not fulfill the assignment. Note: So many posts on the BB are irrelevant to the OP.

Be careful of spelling, grammar, capitalization, paragraph breaks, pagination, and other format issues. These will all affect your grade. Note: The BB is full of bad grammar and wrong spelling. If you are trying to make a point in atrocious grammar, you distract from the point you are trying to make. It's not hard to proofread.... (I admit I sometimes fail here too.)

Include a bibliography and footnotes. Be sure to use proper Turabian format for your footnotes and bibliography, or you will lose points on your paper. Note: It is simply unethical (and against BB rules) to quote from someone and not source your quote.

Cite in the paper at least four sources in addition to your textbook. (The first edition of Ryrie’s textbook (Dispensationalism Today) may not be used.) That comes to five sources in your bibliography as a minimum. (Even with this minimum you are not guaranteed an “A.”) One source should be from a scholarly journal, preferably a peer-reviewed one. Note: One source does not prove much. Several sources (for example on premil by church fathers) can be persuasive, though.

The sources may only include an Internet source if it is written by a recognized scholar. Do not use an Internet article with no author listed! We aim for high standards in the area of academics. We do not seek accreditation since we are part of a local church. However, true scholarship is a search for truth. A Christian should be one who searches for truth not only from God’s revelation, but in other factual matters. Sloppiness in research does not glorify God.

Wikipedia and like sources are therefore not permissible, though they may be helpful in finding a direction. Since anyone can contribute to Wikipedia and similar Internet sources, inaccurate information is often recorded there. (In an article on textual criticism on Wikipedia, I once saw the same manuscript listed twice with different content.) Also, on Wikipedia the work of a recognized scholar on the subject may be rewritten by a completely uneducated amateur.

 

We don't have a specific rule about second hand sources, but I think they know that we want first hand sources.

We don't have theses for our MA degrees, but instead they have to do an internship and report on it. I reserve approval right for any research papers in undergrad or grad courses that I teach, though there is no set rule for that here.

 

Sorry I missed that.

I certainly did not mean things this way.

Absolutely nothing wrong with it unless you are a liberal who rejects the blood atonement, like Bratcher was. In fact, the Greek word absolutely must be translated "blood" or an extremely important theological point is missed.