Gregory K. Beale - The Erosion of Inerrancy in Evangelicalism: Responding to New Challenges to Biblical Authority

Confidence in the authority and inerrancy of Scripture is ebbing today, even in evangelicalism. Postmodernism and certain hermeneutical presuppositions threaten to undermine the foundations of evangelicalism. Greg Beales sturdy, convincing, and courageous defense of the accuracy and inerrancy of Scripture bolsters our assurance that Gods Word is true. Praise God for this scholarly and spirited defense of the truth of Scripture.

Thomas R. Schreiner, James Buchanan
Professor of New Testament Interpretation,
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

At last, a leading biblical scholar has produced a full-blown defense of biblical inerrancy in a user-friendly style. This is just what is needed in the current debate, and Beale has provided it magnificently.

Gerald Bray, Research Professor, Beeson Divinity School

The nature of Scripture has been an ongoing issue of controversy in evangelicalism for decades, yet today the orthodox position of inerrancy is under severe attack as in no other periodand the attack is coming from evangelicals themselves. Beale has done a great service in attempting to bring us back to the right way of thinking about the Scriptures. They are indeed fully inerrant and fully authoritative. This book is a must-read for our generation.

John D. Currid, Carl McMurray Professor of Old Testament,
Reformed Theological Seminary

As evangelical scholarship has come of age and evangelical scholars confidently take their place in the mainstream academy, a danger lurks that we might lose any sense of what makes us evangelical scholars. This book sounds a much-needed warning against abandoning our evangelical moorings. Beale provides a penetrating critique of Peter Ennss challenge to evangelical notions of inerrancy, leaning on reputable Old Testament and ancient Near Eastern scholarship in doing so. He also presents invaluable original analyses to bolster his case in areas of his specialtiesearly Judaism, hermeneutics, and the Old Testament in the New. I highly recommend this book.

David M. Howard Jr., Professor of Old Testament, Bethel Seminary

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my studentspast, present and futurewho live in a postmodern world in which conviction about anything is out of vogue. Even within significant sectors of the so-called evangelical church and its institutions, a conviction that all of Scripture is true has been eroding over past decades. This book is written with the hope that it may contribute in some small way to a conviction that the entire Bible is Gods truthful word.

The Erosion of Inerrancy in Evangelicalism: Responding to New Challenges to BiblicalAuthority

Copyright 2008 by G. K. Beale

Published by Crossway Books
a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers
1300 Crescent Street
Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law.

Cover design: Amy Bristow
First printing 2008

Unless otherwise indicated Scripture quotations marked NASB are from The New AmericanStandard Bible. Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-0203-3

PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-0557-7

Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-0558-4

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Beale, G. K. (Gregory K.)
The erosion of inerrancy in evangelicalism : responding to new challenges to
biblical authority / G. K. Beale.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4335-0203-3 (tpb)
1. BibleEvidences, authority, etc.History of doctrines. 2. Evangelicalism.
I. Title.

BS480.B43569 2008
220.1'32dc22 2008019146

MG 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

I am grateful to number of scholars across the country who have read and given me feedback on much of this manuscript, especially in some of the previously published articles that have been revised for inclusion in this book. I am particularly indebted to Dr. Gordon Hugenberger, pastor of Park Street Church in Boston, who was very helpful in commenting on parts of chapters 6 and 7.

I also want to thank the following journals for granting me permission to reprint (with minor revisions) the following articles:

Myth, History, and Inspiration: a Review Article of Peter Enns, Inspirationand Incarnation. Evangelicals and the Problem of the Old Testament, JETS 49 (2006), 287312.

Did Jesus and the Apostles Preach the Right Doctrine from the Wrong Texts? Revisiting the Debate Seventeen Years Later in the Light of Peter Enns Book, Inspiration and Incarnation, Themelios 32 (2006), 1843.

A Surrejoinder to Peter Enns on the Use of the Old Testament in the New, Themelios 32 (2007), 1425.

A Surrejoinder to Peter Ennss Response to G. K. Beales