Philosophy and Religious Studies Books Philosophy and Religious Studies 2007 The ndE of Biblical Studies Hector Avalos Iowa State University,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/philrs_books Part of the Biblical Studies Commons Recommended Citation Avalos, Hector, "The ndE of Biblical Studies" (2007). Philosophy and Religious Studies Books. 2. http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/philrs_books/2 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Philosophy and Religious Studies at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Philosophy and Religious Studies Books by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. CONTENTS ABBREVIATIONS 9 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 11 NOTES TO THE READERS 13 INTRODUCTION 15 Brief Statement of Our Thesis 16 Irrelevance Defined 17 Irrelevance by the Numbers 18 The Paradox of Biblical Scholarship 20 Canons and Professionalism 22 Anti-intellectualism and Our Thesis 24 The End of Everything? 25 Personal Background 26 Organization 28 Summary 29 PART 1: HOW THE MAIN SUBDISCIPLINES OF BIBLICAL STUDIES CONCEAL THE IRRELEVANCE OF THE BIBLE 35 CHAPTER 1: TRANSLATIONS: HIDING IN PLAIN SENSE 37 Basic Translation Theory 38 5 6 CONTENTS Dynamic/Functional Equivalence 40 Politically Correct Polytheism 43 Creating Mistranslations 44 Numerous Mistranslations 47 Dehumanizing Humanism 49 Sugarcoating Jesus 50 Engendering lnclusivity 53 Sanitizing Anti-Judaism 56 Summary 58 CHAPTER