[All-American]

I bought Erhman's Misquoting Jesus on Wednesday. It is indeed a quick read-- I brushed through the first third of it in less than an hour. By the time I finished with that third, I was so dissapointed that I had spent twenty five American dollars on it that I returned it the next day.

My overall impression is one of dissapointment. I had hoped for a more solid academic work than this one, which was toned down considerably in order to appeal to a more general audience. I can't speak for everybody else, of course, but the result for me was a book with considerably less intellectual muscle. What kind of a book claims to evaluate the claims and objects of New Testament textual criticism and has not so much as a iota of Greek in it?

There were also some minor details that weren't quite accurate-- largely, they were ones that were outside of the scope of his main focus, and thus much less relevant to the overall book, but their presence was dissapointing nonetheless. The bottom line for me was this: there has been nothing in the book that one will not hear while attending Religion 211 with Thomas E. Wayment at BYU. I will order a copy of the book from Amazon, where the price I pay will more accurately reflect its value, and finish it soon, but so far, I don't feel that Erhman has said anything truly substantial.

I get a feel for the ultimate claims he is going to try to make, though. My prediction is that he either doesn't get to them, and contents himself with demonstrating the fallacy of considering the Bible inerrent; he makes a flying leap of judgement in saying that since the Bible is inerrent, it is entirely unreliable and good for nothing but to be trodden under the foot of men; or he pulls off a literary marvel by masterfully composing the remainder of the work. My money is on the second one, unfortunately.