[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by T@T

Question? what is a biblical scholar?

*oh.good.lord...*

Originally Posted by T@T

Is it someone who reads the bible for understanding with an unbiased attitude or just someone passing the word around threw explanation?

Closer to the former and most certainly, emphatically not the latter. Put most simply, a biblical scholar is an academic specialist in "biblical literature." Biblical literature may be loosely defined as any ancient literature that is either contained within the Bible, is closely related to the Bible, or contains relevant information about the history and production of biblical books.

The currently largest professional organisation of biblical scholars is the Society of Biblical Literature. The documented mission of the SBL reads as follows:

Originally Posted by The SBL

Strategic Vision Statement:
Founded in 1880, the Society of Biblical Literature is the oldest and largest learned society devoted to the critical investigation of the Bible from a variety of academic disciplines.* As an international organization, the Society offers its members opportunities for mutual support, intellectual growth, and professional development through the following:

· Advancing academic study of biblical texts and their contexts as well as of the traditions and contexts of biblical interpretation
· Collaborating with educational institutions and other appropriate organizations to support biblical scholarship and teaching
· Developing resources for diverse audiences, including students, religious communities, and the general public
· Facilitating broad and open discussion from a variety of critical perspectives
· Organizing congresses for scholarly exchange
· Publishing biblical scholarship
· Promoting cooperation across global boundaries

*SBL has been a member of the American Council of Learned Societies since 1929.

Some of the most recent publications from the SBL include:

· Postcolonial Perspectives in African Biblical Interpretations, by Musa W. Dube, Andrew M. Mbuvi, and Dora R. Mbuwayesango, eds.
· Editing the Bible: Assessing the Task Past and Present, by John S. Kloppenborg and Judith H. Newman, eds.
· Predicting the Past in the Ancient Near East: Mantic Historiography in Ancient Mesopotamia, Judah, and the Mediterranean World, by Matthew Neujahr
· The Politics of Pessimism in Ecclesiastes: A Social-Science Perspective, by Mark R. Sneed
· Social Theory and the Study of Israelite Religion: Essays in Retrospect and Prospect, by Saul M. Olyan, ed.
· Levites and Priests in Biblical history and Tradition, by Mark Leuchter and Jeremy M. Hutton, eds.

Biblical scholars are primarily academics who are employed at the university and college level in religion faculties across the world. I am personally a faculty member of the Institutt for religion, filosofi og historie in the Fakultet for Humaniora og Pedagogikk at the Universitetet i Agder, a public university in Kristiansand Norway. Biblical scholars spend dozens of years in university training at the graduate and post-graduate level in order to develop expertise in ancient languages (including but not limited to Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, Latin, Syriac, Ugaritic, Akkadian, Ethiopic), modern, scholarly languages (German, French, Dutch), in ancient Near Eastern history and culture, Graeco Roman civilization, in literary criticism, archaeology, linguistics, philosophy, comparative religions and sociology. They are Ph.D. trained and undergo the standard examination by way of peer and tenure review as all other professional academics.

FYI, there is really no such thing as an "unbiased attitude" in the study of any of the disciplines in the humanities or social sciences. Some would even argue that bias is unavoidable, even in the natural sciences. In any case, many (probably most) biblical scholars are personally "religious" to varying degrees, but the long established standards of intellectual honesty and academic integrity that are promoted by the SBL demand an "a-religious" approach. This means that as a Christian, studying the emergence of Christianity from within early Judaism, I am professionally bound to conduct my research according to naturalistic presuppositions and constraints, and to publish only findings that conform to a naturalistic, scientific worldview that is historically and culturally plausible, and which are rigorously supported by all the available evidence.

Originally Posted by T@T

Christopher Hitchens studied the Bible,Book of Mormon and Koran inside out but is known as a famous athiest, he picked those books apart so much he made Priests and Pastors squirm.

"Priests" and "pastors" are not always—or even often—"biblical scholars". There are a few, but by far most within the field are professionally attached to university faculties, and not employed clergymen and clergywomen. Hitchens may have "read" the Bible, but he could never be confused with someone who was actually a serious and competent student of the Bible.

Originally Posted by T@T

Was Hitchens a scholar?

Hitchens's academic credentials were not at a high enough standard to legitimately qualify him as a "scholar"—at least not in the common understanding of the term. He was a brilliant writer and an excellent rhetoricist and publicist, but do not misconstrue these skills for actual, scholarly training and ability.

He most certainly was not a biblical scholar, and his frequent happy trouncing of clergy members notwithstanding, he would have found himself badly outmatched in any exchange about the Bible with any actual biblical expert. To my knowledge, he never engaged in an exchange with an actual biblical scholar in any of his debates or panels. The closest he likely came were debates with Frank Turek, William Lane Craig, and Shmuley Boteach. None of these men are professionally trained biblical scholars. Frank Turek likes to bill himself as a credentialed Ph.D., but he exhibits such an unsophisticated perspective of the Bible that he is easily confused with a diploma-mill recipient. Bill Craig holds a Ph.D. from the University of Birmingham, but his training is not in biblical studies.

I liked Hitchens, but his grasp of issues pertaining to the Bible, the history of religion, philosophy, ancient cultures, and many of the social disciplines was rudimentary at best.