Justin Taylor's Blog, page 312

An Interview with Peter J. Williams

A few years ago I interviewed Dr Peter J. Williams, warden of Tyndale House in the UK, the premiere research library for biblical studies. As a supporter of this work,  as a board member for American Friends of Tyndale House, and as one who deeply resonates with Pete's vision regarding the relationship of the church and the academy, I thought it might be helpful to reprint the original interview below.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself—how God brought you to himself, your education, family, etc?

I was born to Christian parents in London in 1970 and came to a personal faith around the age of 12, though it took a bit of time for it to show. I was blessed to be able to attend a good secondary school (= high school)—in Yorkshire, where I was given the opportunity to learn Latin (aged 12) and Greek (aged 14).

Having discovered aged 16 that I was never going to be a good enough pianist to make a career of it, I resolved to be a Bible translator and went to the University of Cambridge to take my first degree in the subjects I thought would be most useful for Bible translation: Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Aramaic. In my third year I first encountered serious academic study of the Bible and became perturbed by the fact that it seemed that so few who were studying the Bible held to its authority in a way that I recognized, and I soon felt drawn not to be a Bible translator but to be an evangelical scholar in order to play my part in advancing confessional scholarship. I steered towards OT study and took an MPhil in Hebrew Studies including study of various Northwest Semitic languages and thereafter a PhD on the Syriac version of 1 Kings.

I then had a one year postdoctoral position in the Divinity Faculty in Cambridge studying Hebrew terms for weapons and words for salvation (!) and thereafter was appointed Research Fellow in OT at Tyndale House (1998–2003) while teaching Hebrew and OT in the University's Faculty of Oriental Studies as an Affiliated (= Adjunct) Lecturer.

That job came to an end and I felt compelled to stay in Europe, yet the only job I could find was a temporary post in NT at the University of Aberdeen. I took the plunge and applied, was appointed, and was shortly thereafter made permanent. I had four wonderful years teaching NT alongside great colleagues in Aberdeen and becoming a Senior Lecturer before sensing that I should apply for the position of Warden of Tyndale House. I would have been perfectly happy to stay in Aberdeen, but I took the offer of the post as guidance that I should accept.

Looking back on all this I find it amazing how I was led through stages of thinking I was going to do something else (be a Bible translator, OT scholar, NT scholar) only to find that I am now responsible for a library and research community in which interests in both Testaments and in languages related to Bible study are highly useful.

In 1996 I married Kathryn, whom I had met on mission in Belgium, and who 'happened' also to be studying at Jesus College, Cambridge, at the same time as me. We've returned to do mission in Belgium every summer since then. We now have Magdalena (6) and Leo (2).

What are your current research interests?

I'm currently researching Tatian's Diatessaron and the structure of the opening of John's Gospel (whatever you do, don't talk about it having a prologue!). I should be giving papers on both at this November's Society of Biblical Literature congress.

You've taught both OT at Cambridge and NT at Aberdeen. What's your first academic love?

Well, I came to the Testaments in canonical order, but I find it impossible to say which I love more. I am fascinated by anything to do with the Bible, but think that within a few years I may well be doing more in OT than in NT (however, I've been wrong before now about my future).

Why did you want to leave teaching in order to be the warden of Tyndale House?

Giving up regular teaching was the hardest part of leaving Aberdeen. I love teaching. I've already had chances to teach in my first month down here and will be glad of the opportunities for itinerant teaching that being warden allows. Why did I consider applying for the position at Tyndale?—because I'm passionate about the future direction of evangelical biblical scholarship. By 1994 I wanted personally to devote myself to being an evangelical biblical scholar. Now, however, I have an opportunity to encourage others to do so.

Tell us a bit about Tyndale House—how it started and what it has accomplished.

Tyndale House was started in 1944 when a number of leading Christians in Britain felt that there was a dearth in serious evangelical biblical scholarship and they resolved to set up a residential study centre and library to encourage that. At first the work was fairly small, but over the years it has grown so that it is now one of the most significant libraries in Biblical Studies in the world. Since no one is allowed to take books out of the library everyone has to come to the community. Those carrying out academic research on the Bible can stay on site and rent a desk where they can stay for their sabbatical. Most of the students who do PhDs in Biblical Studies at Cambridge carry out the bulk of their research at Tyndale House, but students and senior scholars from many other institutions also spend varying lengths of time at Tyndale. The conviction behind Tyndale has always been that confessional scholarship is best carried out within a believing community. In recent years, under my predecessor Bruce Winter, Tyndale has forged a number of connections with the University of Cambridge, including some joint appointments, such as that of Dr Peter Head, who teaches NT in the Divinity Faculty, and a formal affiliation to St Edmund's College.

What has it achieved?—this is more a question for Judgment Day, but what we can say is that if you look at serious publications on the Bible (dictionaries, commentaries, translations, books) you will find that a large number of the authors have spent time at Tyndale House. I seem to remember the ESV translators working together at Tyndale! Moreover, it is clear that the number of evangelicals in University positions in the UK and elsewhere seems to have increased through the influence of Tyndale House. Many of the faculty at leading evangelical seminaries in the USA have studied at Tyndale.

What is your vision for Tyndale House?

I believe that Tyndale House exists to develop evangelical biblical scholars and evangelical biblical scholarship. I would like, quite simply, for Tyndale to play its part in increasing the number of bright, humble, sane, passionate, evangelical scholars who are deeply learned and contribute to the church and to the articulation of the faith in a wider culture.

More specifically, I'd like to see confessional scholarship clearly outstripping non-confessional scholarship in its quality and rigor. We should want evangelical scholars to be trained to a higher standard than other scholars. If others decide that one Masters degree is enough before the PhD, maybe we should require two (for instance, one in each Testament). It would be great to have the resources to be able to fund young scholars to study to a higher standard. I would also love to be in a position for us to have more post-doctoral research fellows (we currently have three) and to take on major publication projects such as a large-scale treatment of the NT canon, which is proving such fertile ground for contemporary myth-makers. Perhaps we could be involved in setting up more University appointments, not just in Cambridge, but also in other Universities in the UK.

How does the church fit into this vision? Or more broadly, what do you see as the proper relationship between the church and the academy?

All Christians in the academy must see themselves as serving the church and must make themselves accountable to the church. I don't think this means that all their writing should be aimed at typical church audiences. Ultimately we should aim for all the academy to become church!

Evangelicals are used to receiving financial appeals for ministries and missions. Why would—or should—they want to support an institution where dissertations are written that most of them will never read?

It may be disheartening for PhD students to learn, but it is not particularly likely nowadays that many people will read their dissertation. Their dissertation, I think, is primarily a chance for them to develop personally, to become learned, and then to put their learning at the disposal of others. Even a well-published scholar is generally more likely to influence people through their speaking and personal interaction than through their writing. However, in our information-overloaded society there is simply no way that we can afford not to have well-trained guides for the church in all areas of knowledge and especially in Biblical Studies. As thousands of people excavate in the Middle East each summer and as others work away in archives, masses of data come to light, and we need believing scholars to be in the midst of these discoveries in order that they should not be misinterpreted.

Christians accept that it may take vast sums of money to train a soldier or a doctor, and yet sometimes we are unwilling to accept that, if we want Bible scholars as well trained as our medical specialists, it is also going to involve serious investment. Investing in Christian scholarship is a long-term strategy and will usually seem less appealing than more obvious and apparently pressing needs. However, if the church does not have robust scholarship then it will be highly vulnerable to false ideas. Evangelicals need to divide up their giving in sensible proportions, giving some to urgent and immediate causes, but also making adequate provision for ministries that tend only to yield fruit in the longer term.

If people wanted to support Tyndale House financially or otherwise, how could they do so?

We need people—the right people—to be coming forward as biblical scholars. Perhaps some people even need to be pushed! It is easier to give someone with the right character the education than someone with the education the right character. However, we also need donations if we are to be able to support students and to create post-doctoral positions. At Tyndale House we also have the enormous challenge of needing to expand the library in the next couple of years (lack of space for new books is reaching a critical level) and to raise money for that. If anyone does feel led to give even a small sum then donations can be sent to

The Warden

Tyndale House

Cambridge, CB3 9BA, UK.

However, above all this we need prayer, especially for wisdom as we consider what publication projects might be taken on in the future. If the Lord is not building Tyndale House then 'tis all in vain.

* * *

JT: I'd love for the days ahead to be one of greater partnership between the academy and the church, advancing the cause of truth for the glory of God. I'd encourage individuals and churches to consider supporting Tyndale House and its vision for evangelical scholarship. What a great thing it would be if the Lord used small donations from average folks like you and me to help Tyndale House raise £2million for its next phase of ministry!

Donors in America can send contributions to

The American Friends of Tyndale House Cambridge, Inc.,

PO Box 1062, Wheaton, IL 60187-1062, USA

Bad and Good Ways to Read "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe"

Several years ago I read Leland Ryken and Marjorie Lamp Mead's A Reader's Guide Through the Wardrobe: Exploring C. S. Lewis's Classic Story. It was not only a helpful introduction to and analysis of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as literature, but a very helpful compendium in its own right of how to read fiction in general.

Here's an outline of an article by Leland Ryken on bad ways—and good ways—to read the book:

Bad:

Use The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe instead of receiving it.
Value The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe primarily as a collection of ideas.
Assume that when Lewis composed The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, he started with a set of ideas and then created fictional details to embody them.

Good:

Read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe first as an escape from the real world to an imagined world.
Enter into the particulars of the imagined world that a writer creates.

View the far-flung fantasies of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as a window to reality and truth.
Value the artistry and technique of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as a self-rewarding aesthetic experience.
Recognize and value the religious and moral viewpoints embodied in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Read the whole thing.

Why We Shouldn't Be Satisfied with "The Bible Says It, I Believe It"

I'm glad Kevin DeYoung is making this point:

It takes a certain courage to look at what the Bible teaches, not like it all that much, and still believe it. I am thankful for brothers and sisters who believe in hell or believe in complementarianism or believe in election and reprobation or believe homosexuality is a sin despite their internal protestations. It's a good sign when we take our stand on the Bible even when we'd prefer to take our stand somewhere else.

But it's a better sign when we take our stand on the Bible and learn to love where the Bible stands.

Kevin looks at hell as an example.

Getting to Know Conrad Mbewe

Puritan Treasures

A nice way to get introduced to the gospel insights of the Puritans:

A Letter to a Mother Thinking about Terminating a Baby with a Genetic Disorder

A letter from one mother to another who just found out her baby in the womb has ARPKD, a rare genetic disorder of the kidneys that has no cure. (HT: LJT)

Emma,

I am so sorry that you received this news. Please know there are hundreds around you who have been in this same or a very similar position. We know the pain that facing this decision brings you. Many others before you have followed the advice of doctors, family, and friends to terminate such a pregnancy. I understand that the decision they make is almost always out of the highest love for their child and a desire to prevent suffering. I want to be very sensitive to that, but to also encourage you to look from a different point of view.

It seems to be a foregone conclusion in our culture that preventing suffering is the highest goal, but I think we lose sight of the fact that sometimes in our lives the greatest blessings come to us after we have gone through the greatest suffering. I was advised to terminate with two of my ARPKD daughters after their 20 week ultrasounds. The following weeks, months, and years have been difficult and even terrifying, but I am so glad that I did not follow my doctors' advice. Yes, my daughters have suffered to some degree (though I know not as much as many other ARPKD kids do), but their pain and tears have grown them into strong little girls who do not take life or health for granted, and who know how to be thankful for the little things in life. They are more mature, more wise, more grateful, more loving, than so many other children their age who have always had "perfect" lives.

Children with special needs have a way of blessing and inspiring those around them too, in a way that healthy children never could. I know greater suffering probably lies ahead for our girls as we face esophageal bleeds and organ transplantation, but we have talked these things through with our oldest, and if my seven year old daughter can face these things with courage, then perhaps she doesn't need to be shielded from the suffering, but only equipped to walk through it. Someday my girls will take the faith and the strength that they learned from their sufferings and use it to inspire and bless all those around them. It would have been great loss for all who know them to have ended their lives early.

I know that this is one of the most sensitive and personal topics. I pray that I do not sound judgmental in any way. I only mean to offer hope.

With love,

Katherine Eby

A Debate on Abortion

Randy Alcorn has posted a debate between Scott Klusendorf (President of Life Training Institute and author of The Case for Life) and Nadine Strossen (former President of the ACLU) held on April 15, 2011, at Westmont College:

Would the Apostle Peter Have Flunked Hermeneutics 101?

In his Pentecost sermon Peter says that "the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas," and then he quotes Psalm 65:25:

May his camp become desolate,

and let there be no one to dwell in it.

A reader wrote to the Gospel Coalition and essentially asked three questions:

Doesn't Psalm 69 sound anti-gospel, with its rhetoric of retaliation?
Doesn't Acts 1:20 rip Psalm 69:25 out of its context, since the psalm makes no mention of Judas Iscariot, and the writer does not appear to have him in view?
Does Peter have a bad hermeneutic? Is his reading of the Old Testament simply crazy?

D. A. Carson gives very helpful answers to these questions.

One snippet from his answer to the third question:

I have spent much of my adult life working through the way the New Testament quotes the Old, and the longer I ponder these texts, the more I begin to see how they "work," how rich and beautiful are the ways in which God ordained that his great plan of redemption would be prefigured in an extraordinarily rich, complex, and intertwined array of promises, types, trajectories, histories, institutions and persons, working together to point forward to Jesus and his gospel (see Luke 24:26-27, 45-48; John 5:46).

Who God Is and What He Will Do in the Day of Trouble

"May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble! May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!" (Ps. 20:1)

"For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock." (Ps. 27:5)

"In the day of trouble the Lord delivers him. . ." (Ps. 41:1)

"Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me." (Ps. 50:15)

"O Lord, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in the day of trouble . . ." (Jer. 16:19)

"The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him." (Nah. 1:7)

What Matters Most to Paul

The Apostle Paul:

Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will.

The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel.

The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment.

What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. (Philippians 1:15-18)

Writing from his own experience, he sees two groups with two very different sets of motives when preaching:

from envy
from good will


out of rivalry
out of love


to afflict
with sincerity


in pretense
in truth

Having godly motives is a huge deal for Paul. He would agree that without holiness no one will see the Lord (Heb. 12:14).

But his focus here is not on the eternal state of those who proclaim truth but without truth-in-love. Rather, I think he's taking to heart the powerful words of Jesus who shifting Peter's perspective by asking, "What is that to you? You follow me!"

In modern evangelicalism we tend to think that intention is more important that the truth. Paul would say that both are absolutely important—but in terms of how it affects him, he is simply going to rejoice that there is truth being proclaimed. At the end of the day, Paul cares more about the advancement of the gospel than how he is treated and what people think of him. And he can not only "live with" a proclamation of the gospel designed to increase the whip marks on his already lacerated back, but he is determined to "rejoice" in this (cf. Phil. 4:4).

Paul also applies this Christ-centered paradigm to the church when he expresses exasperation about the lawsuits in the church of Corinth. Without minimizing the importance of justice or the complex nuances sometimes involved with the ethics of lawsuits among Christians, I think it's a lamentable thing that more of us are at not least asking Paul's questions:

"Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?" (1 Cor. 6:7).

Protection of reputation is an important thing. But it's not an ultimate thing. I want to pray that my mindset reflects God in Christ, through the Holy Spirit, at the absolute center of my worldview—including how I am treated and perceived.