Sunday, August 30, 2020
Texts Before Tosh
Alan Watson, Jesus and the Jews: The Pharisaic Tradition in John (Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1995), p. xiv:
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I owe the aphorism "Texts before tosh" immediately to Calum Carmichael, but it goes back to a lesson inculcated by our common master, Daube, who insists that in interpreting a text one must always proceed from the text, not from preconceptions and notions about what must have been. My tool is close textual analysis. John is noted for its realistic details as much as for its ecstatic tone. Theologians concentrate on the latter and St. John's spiritual message. I want to give back the realism to the realistic details.
