Why should one participate in the Biblical Hermeneutics site (is it a viable site)?

Question

I just found your site yesterday [years ago now, note the date of initial posting], and have been looking around at various meta discussions on distinctions between it and C.SE, or how much doctrine should be allowed, etc. And I came to the question I have posed here.

A Bit About Me (so you know where I am coming from)

Here are some relevant points to which I will later reference.

• (A) I am a Christian.
• (B) I am of the independent fundamental Baptist persuasion (but consider myself a kinder, gentler version than some of my fellows).
• (C) I am [at the time of initially posting this] a PhD student studying Systematic Theology [now graduated].
• (D) I believe the Bible is verbally, plenary inspired by God--so every word matters.
• (E) I believe we have those words preserved for us in the original languages.
• (F) I believe there is a single right interpretation of each passage of Scripture (though there can be many implications and connections related to that).
• (G) I believe there is objective truth.
• (H) I believe the Bible is wholly true (this does not prevent it from truthfully relating untruths).

Things that Seem to Need an Answer for Site Viability

So as I am looking at the few discussions on what this site is trying to be, apparently some type of "neutral" ground (no or little doctrine) for Biblical interpreters to meet and discuss the text of the Bible and what it may mean. But the following come to my mind that seem to be against the whole viability of the idea (numbers in parenthesis below indicate a reference to the about me points above):

1. If we don't agree at least on the broad scope of the correct religion (A), then at least assuming (F) and/or (G) are held, we each already believes the other one is wrong to a large extent about what the broad point (meaning) of the Bible is. So why would one want to interact to any significant extent with another deemed to be so far off in error?
2. There are numerous in my camp (B) who would deem this a definite matter of separation, in which to participate with such diverse views on something related to the foundations of what we believe would be going against the teaching of the Bible itself. At the very least, this is going to create a skewed set of contributors who do not represent the diversity it appears you seek.
3. Coming from the field I do (C), and as other questions here on meta contemplate, how exactly can one keep doctrine from both affecting interpretation (truth builds upon truth (G)), and also how can one truly separate the meaning of a text from the doctrine (teaching) of that text? The meaning is the teaching; it is the doctrine. So the goal seems untenable.
4. If there is no agreement on (D), which probably means no agreement on (H), then discussion about the text is essentially irrelevant. Who cares what some men wrote a few thousand years ago, and especially who cares with respect to exactly what it means (the point of Biblical Hermeneutics). Why would I want to interact with anyone about the text of the Bible if that person does not consider there to be anything ultimately significant about it? In other words, if the Bible is just stories, or just other ancient people's opinions, then it really has little ultimate value if I know exactly what is meant. So it seems having contributors who do not hold to (D) affects the viability of the site.
5. Similar to the point above, if (E) is not held, then do we even have the right words to be looking at to be interpreting? That is not to say there cannot be some discussion about which words belong (when more than one variant in a text is there), but there are many who would say we don't have or know what the original words were (of course, if (D) was not held, no big deal). Well, if we don't have them, why try figuring out what the meaning is of what we have? Again, there is no ultimate significance to the endeavor of hermeneutics if the words are deemed all wrong. So having contributors who do not hold to (E) would seem to affect viability of the site.
6. If one holds to (F), then all answers but one (or none, if the right one is not given) are wrong. Of course, there can be partial truths contained in various answers. Unfortunately, sometimes the best presenters or arguers for an interpretation are not giving the correct interpretation. Further, truth (G) is not determined by consensus, so votes really help little in the matter. And if one does not hold to (F), then either (A) all answers are equally valid, so why have this site, or (B) some subset of answers are all valid, but who decides? In other words, if (F) is not held, then every question here would be subjective, and one could never arrive at (G). If one cannot arrive at (G), what the text actually is saying, then why have this site?

It seems to me that the viability of this site is compromised more by these issues than the numbers of expert people participating.

Answer 1

I've noticed you're refuting everyone's answers - which makes me think you already have the answer(s) you're looking for ;)

This site and the entire Stack Exchange network has a doctrinal statement. From the FAQs for this site:

Biblical Hermeneutics—Stack Exchange is for anyone who wants to know what a Biblical text means (exegesis) using the techniques or rules of interpretation (hermeneutics).

We welcome Jewish, Christian, Atheist and other viewpoints as long as they take seriously the process of understanding the Biblical texts.

Under the section describing site etiquette, it says,

Civility is required at all times; rudeness will not be tolerated.

Be nice. Treat others with the same respect you’d want them to treat you. We’re all here to learn together. Be tolerant of others who may not know everything you know. Bring your sense of humor.

Be honest. Above all, be honest. If you see misinformation, vote it down. Add comments indicating what, specifically, is wrong. Provide better answers of your own. Best of all — edit and improve the existing questions and answers!

You apparently already know this, but you seem to be trying to get someone to admit it, so I'm going to just spell it out (although I think it's obvious). The doctrinal stance of this site is postmodern relativism. We are not a Christian website. Perspectives here have "no absolute truth or validity, having only relative, subjective value according to differences in perception and consideration."¹

For Christians, this worldview is unacceptable. And yet it is practically unavoidable in Western culture. We benefit from many sources of information that have adopted this doctrinal statement - to include almost all of our news sources and educational systems. Yet we generally don't retreat into private communities and close ourselves off from the world (with the exception of some Anabaptists - modern day Amish and Mennonites). We engage the world and its systems.

In the same way, some of us choose to participate despite this doctrinal statement, playing by the rules to some extent in order to glean linguistic, philological, cultural, and historical insights from the text that we would otherwise possibly never encounter. Some don't abide by the rules at all, and for the most part, they're still accepted in the community.

But I certainly don't just run with an 'accepted answer' as if it is the truth or even as if it resolves the question. For me, the answers here are a great start. I learn a lot from the community and hopefully they've also benefited from my insights and research. But for the most part, it's just one piece of the textual puzzle in my tradition. For my tradition, personal holiness is also a factor in interpreting scripture, as is Patristic consensus. So I don't ask questions looking to find "truth," I'm just looking to glean some insights along the way to truth. Also, as an Eastern Christian, I don't view Truth as an abstract concept as it seems to be presented in Western thought. For me, truth is a person. Seeking Him on a Q&A site would be silly. But the Q&A site often teaches me some great things that help me along the way as I continue to journey.

A Point-By-Point Response

1. I want to interact with someone who I may deem to be in error for the purposes I stated above, namely that I may glean linguistic, philological, cultural, and historical insights from the text that I would otherwise possibly never encounter. I taught as an adjunct professor at a state university for a few semesters, and my students were often dead wrong about a great many things. And yet I still learned a lot from them. The danger when we close ourselves off from outside opinions is groupthink.² Evangelicalism is historically notorious for its anti-intellectualism and groupthink tendencies. This is often reinforced when universities formulate along doctrinal lines and students are essentially indoctrinated rather than taught to think and critically evaluate research.

2. Consider the flip-side of this point. By refusing to participate, a particular way of interpreting and understanding the scriptures will never be shared with many in the outside world. Remember, most people don't get their biblical answers from seminary (most will never attend), they get them from Google. And this site ranks near the top for the questions and texts it addresses (we average 1,134 visits per day currently). By withdrawing from a site such as this, your voice and perspective won't be heard by many who may never set foot in one of your churches or seminaries. Consequently, they may never realize an alternate way of interpreting the text exists apart from the answers they find here.

3. That really depends on the question. Some questions are purely linguistic/philological. Some are cultural/historical. Often these questions can be answered with no systematic theology in the response (I intentionally worded this statement like this rather than using the term 'doctrine'). Is this truth? It can be. Let's suppose someone asked, "Is 'anthropos' singular or plural?" Like it or not, anthropos is a nominative masculine singular noun, and anthropoi is the nominative masculine plural form. While you are arguing that even this assertion is doctrinal because it makes a truth assertion (and I do see your point), that is not the sense in which we use the term doctrine on this site. I will be operating with the community's definition of doctrine hereafter (which is more akin to systematic theology), and I have no interest in getting into a semantic debate about this point. I see the point you are making - but I'm telling you that this is what it means here. We don't consider an answer to a question about Greek grammar to be doctrinal. On the flip side, if someone were to answer the question by adding, "the reason that the word 'anthropos' rarely occurs in the singular is because it is not good for man to be alone," that would be doctrinal (and unrelated to the question).

4. I completely disagree with this point. You are making some big assumptions, namely that anyone who does not approach the text with the same view of inspiration as you has nothing relevant to say about it. History itself demonstrates this to be false. Many early Church Fathers challenged the authenticity of various phrases in scripture yet never considered the book to be irrelevant as a result. In fact, why would anyone bother debating potential inconsistencies, textual and scribal errors, and manuscript discrepancies if they didn't consider the contents of the Bible to be highly relevant? Take me for example. I believe that the Holy Spirit inspired the prophets, apostles, and other early Christians to write scripture. But I don't consider everything they wrote to be scripture - and I believe human error occurred in some places. Yet the pursuit of the best text and translation is still highly relevant to me. To assert otherwise is to make assumptions about my motivations, which would be fruitless.

5. I think this is a great question ("do we even have the right words to be looking at to be interpreting?"), but I don't agree that the entire exercise is futile if we don't have the right words. For instance, certain parts of the New Testament may have originally been written in Aramaic or Hebrew, and we no longer have copies of manuscripts in these languages.³ We also certainly don't have copies of most Old Testament books as they were originally written (the Masoretic text is newer than our New Testament manuscripts), and we don't even know what many of the words mean anymore in some of the ones we do have (have you ever attempted to translate Hosea?). So does that mean I should just disregard these books altogether? No! The Greek manuscripts make it clear to me that these books are of great importance to my faith. Not to mention, a whole bunch of the apostles made arguments from the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Old Testament) that cannot be supported by the Hebrew text. By modern standards, they were poor exegetes. And yet I believe that they were inspired by God. But by making this assertion, that means I must also consider the Septuagint to be scripture, even though it is a (potentially erroneous) Greek translation of the Old Testament (Western Christians rarely make that jump - they just translate the Hebrew incorrectly so it lines up with the New Testament quotations - which is dishonest in my opinion). An underlying point needs to be cleared up here before proceeding. You've described yourself as being "of the independent fundamental Baptist persuasion." I cannot speak for you, but you have presented some ideas in your arguments that are sometimes labeled as "bibliolatry," i.e. viewing Christians as "people of the Book." The Bible is made to be an end in and of itself, rather than a means to an end. To me, the Bible is important because it points me to Christ. But the Bible was not incarnated, nor did it die and rise from the dead for me. I cherish it because it points me to Jesus - not because of any abstract theological statement about its inspiration and role in my faith.

6. In reality, every question is subjective based upon the original poster (OP - the person who asked the question). They get to choose the 'accepted answer,' I agree that the accepted answer is not always the most true, nor is it necessarily right. You have acknowledged that "there can be partial truths contained in various answers," and there can also be partial falsehoods contained in mostly true answers. But answers are not evaluated as being true or false for most of us here. The community will often vote down and/or edit unsubstantiated claims (no sources), off-topic or tangential responses, and offensive statements ("all Christians are deceived fools," etc.). But at the same time, the community often up-votes responses with which they personally disagree, whether based on the quality of the answer, the amount of research that was clearly conducted, or the thoroughness of it. Some will also up-vote solely because they agree with an answer, and that's OK too. But the community does not determine truth. The community votes for what it considers to be good answers, and the OP accepts one of those answers. This is indeed a purely subjective process. But again, it does not determine truth. It just determines what types of answers the community deems to be helpful. Those who find these answers via search engines will make their own evaluations based on the answers themselves. This too is subjective. In my mind, I don't see why this would be a problem for anyone in Protestantism. If the meaning of each verse is so plain to see, why are there 23,000+ Protestant denominations all claiming to have the 'true' interpretation of scripture (often with no historical backing to their position prior to the 16th century)? It seems to me that really all of Protestant Christian Biblical interpretation is subjective anyways. Yes, I am being snide here, but the doctrinal position of 'Sola Scriptura' in some ways makes relativism part of Protestant theology.

I hope you now understand why I (and potentially others) find this site to be viable (whether or not you agree). I also hope you participate, even especially if you disagree with me. How can I grow and learn "the truth" if nobody from another perspective ever challenges me? :P

¹ _{cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativism}

² _{cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink}

³ _{cf. What portions of the New Testament are purported to have originally been written in Aramaic?}

Answer 2

Firstly: this is an excellent question to ask, thank you for introducing yourself this way and helping us to think through these issues. It's also a great idea to know what you are getting into before you leap in.

I am a PhD student studying Systematic Theology.

From our perspective that makes you just the kind of person we want to attract to the site. Of course we may not suit you, but that is for you to decide :)

apparently some type of "neutral" ground (no or little doctrine)

This is the subject of much debate: I'm one of those on record as asserting many times that "neutral" ground doesn't exist. My hope is that folk from a broad spectrum of traditions might contribute here, and that in some cases we might learn something from those who are very different from us (without necessarily embracing everything they say or stand for).

You are a Christian and so am I, but this is not a Christian site, nor is Stack Exchange a Christian network and of course it is good to bear that in mind. As a Christian I find some of the content here very valuable despite the gulf of tradition and theology between myself and the contributors; for example, Dan O'Day is Orthodox and Frank Luke is Classical Pentecostal: I encourage you to cast an eye over a few of their top answers and think about whether you agree with me!

I'll now try and briefly address your points:

1. "So why would one want to interact to any significant extent with another deemed to be so far off in error?": Because we have something wonderful in common: the Biblical texts themselves. An answer I disagree with or even think is spiritually harmful or dangerous is likely to make me look again more carefully at the text. It may also provoke me to post an answer I think is better :)

2. The faq says: "We welcome Jewish, Christian, Atheist and other viewpoints as long as they take seriously the process of understanding the Biblical texts". That is not a statement of diversity being our goal, rather it is a statement that our focus and scope is defined by Biblical Texts. Some will not feel able to contribute to a site that does not insist on a statement of faith beyond "I take seriously the process of understanding the Biblical texts": this site is regretfully not for them, so yes our scope skews our audience (any site definition would), but no that is not a problem because we are not aiming for diversity, but focus.

3. I understand the word 'doctrine' much as you do and have long argued against any effort to ban it here and there is no consensus on the site that doctrine is a bad thing in answers.

4. "...Who cares what some men wrote a few thousand years ago...": This kind of answers itself: if someone doesn't think the text matters, they are unlikely to be interested in this site. Most if not all contributors here believe it matters very much.

5. You don't even have to have a faith to understand the science of Textual Criticism? I don't think it is controversial to say it is generally accepted we have a pretty good idea of the content of the original text of the the Bible. Evidence from manuscripts, the DSS, etc is pretty solid.

6. I think you misunderstand the purpose of votes :) They have the same fundamental purpose here as on SO where you are active: noise reduction. They don't determine 'truth' any more than the 'accepted answer' tick does, but take any question here or on SO with a large number of answers and ask yourself whether you'd prefer to read from the top down or the bottom up?

Answer 3

Biblical Hermeneutics is not for everyone

I see you've gotten a bunch of responses from many of the other regulars on the site. I'm thrilled that so many of my colleagues have taken it on themselves to defend the work we do here. I also see that you are extremely active on Stack Overflow, which means you've probably learned all the ins and outs of our quirky system of peer review. Given your current course of study, you have more training to answer questions here than I will likely ever have. However, there's a good chance this site isn't for you.

To quote your question:

So why would one want to interact to any significant extent with another deemed to be so far off in error?

That is something you need to ask yourself and if you can't find an answer, then thank you for you interest and I hope you find what you are looking for.

We work without a safety net

The common theme with all six of your arguments against this site's viability seems to be that we can't have expert answers if we don't agree on a a series of a priori assumptions. Whether or not that's true (and I'd argue that it's not), the arguments fundamentally misunderstand the nature of our site. On Stack Overflow, answers can be judged for correctness by objective standards. Checking if a number is even is not the same as checking if it's prime. Take the code, apply a compiler/interpreter to it, supply some sample input, and check the output to see if it matches what you expect. If not, the answer is wrong.

Now it's possible to get something similar in Biblical Hermeneutics: compare an answer to some formal doctrine. If the answer disagrees with the well-defined set of established teachings, it's wrong. However, our site is a high-flying circus act without the benefit of a safety net for two important reasons:

1. There are already (at least in theory) sites for interpreting the Bible through the lens of a specific doctrine: Mi Yodeya, Christianity—Stack Exchange, and Islam—Stack Exchange. Now these sites also are pluralistic since it's very difficult to get a bunch of Jews, Christians or Muslims to agree on every detail of their faith. But if we picked one of those doctrines, we'd be no different than whichever site studies our chosen religious affiliation.

2. Getting the right answer is at best a secondary goal for us. Our primary goal is to study the philosophy of Biblical interpretation (hermeneutics) by exercising it (exegesis). Answers aren't so much judged by whether or not they are True as they are by whether or not they follow a consistent hermeneutic. While that requires more work than simply comparing answer to a catechism, we find that it actually helps sharpen our interpretive skills.

Everyone is their own doctrinal framework

I appreciate you letting us know about your background, but even though you've given us a lot to go on, I don't know what your doctrinal framework is, yet. Baptists believe a lot of different things. Are you a Calvinist or Arminian? Are you a Four-Point Calvinist, a Hyper-Calvinist, a Neo-Calvinist. a New Calvinist, or a Christian Reconstructionist? As we divide the doctrinal pie further and further, we eventually realize that each of us represents our own little doctrinal framework. In fact, the whole point of a statement of faith is to delineate doctrinal differences that matter to a community from those that don't. And we can't vote people off the island.

Personally, I find that this makes the site way better than if we all agreed on a list of premises we all followed. I'm delighted by the answer I got to my third ever question here because it comes from a hermeneutic tradition that I hadn't spent much time studying. Maybe that answer is wrong, but at least I learned something from it. I'm humble enough to admit I don't know everything and even the things I know might be wrong.

Our shared principles

As it happens, we do have a couple of points in our "confession of faith":

1. The Bible is worth studying.

2. If something is worth studying, it's worth studying systematically.

And that's about it. No, we don't include verbal and plenary inspiration. But if you want to bring your system of hermeneutics to bear on our questions, you are more than welcome to. I can understand why you might not find answers that come from other places very valuable; that shouldn't bother you unless you plan on asking questions. The peer review process can be valuable even if you disagree with the feedback you get. If nothing else, you can get your two cents in on our questions, which we hope will have a broad audience.

Conclusion

I'll let Paul have the final word:

For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.—1^st Corinthians 9:19-23 (ESV)

Answer 4

All you said strikes right to the core!

I am responding not so much as an answer to your question about site viability, but to interact with you concerning your activity or inactivity in a site that may fail.

I am here because I care about what Scripture says and what it means. I have appreciated the "non-doctrinal" stance of the community because, at least in theory, it avoids vain disputes over matters that have been debated for generations. I do not mind looking at peoples doctrines when it comes with the package of honestly seeking to know what Scripture says and what it means. When Q & A must begin with the text and must show all the steps and must support all assertions, it puts a check on mere opinions and musings of man. Moreover, it creates an environment, at least in theory, that is open to exploring the meaning of passages that may have been misinterpreted historically for various reasons.

Anyway, I have been sadly disappointed to discover that 1) this is not a Christian site; 2) this site does not seek to know truth.

So, why am I still here?

On the one hand, I remain involved because , I do not have access to scholars, experts in Biblical studies who can see what I do not see and who are willing to interact with me on the text. If there is err in what I share, surely the atheist & scholar will point it out! I can exercise discernment here as well as anywhere else in the world. Disregard for popularity, Refusal to compromise on matters of faith, coupled with a healthy dose of humility on matters not regarding truth serves to make me stronger. Moses grew up in in the palace of a pagan pharaoh, not amongst his God-fearing Hebrew family.

On the other hand, because I care more about truth than about being right, perhaps in some small way I can be a doorkeeper of truth amongst any who do not care about truth. Joseph served in Pharaoh's court! Daniel served in Babylon!

All that said, I do not know if the site will be viable. The world itself is an unstable place; thus, here, as in the world, I consider myself in it, but not of it. If the site fails, it will undoubtedly be due to all the things you pointed out. What I do know, is that that I am always deeply grateful when I encounter people who sincerely seek to share or discover truth from a heart that loves the Lord. I was ever so thankful that you answered my post today. And so, perhaps you will stick around for those who are Christian, who do care about truth, who believe the word of God is preserved by Scripture in its original languages, who believe there is a single right interpretation of each passage of Scripture, who believe there is objective truth, and who believe the Bible--Old and New Testaments--is true.

Answer 5

I think if this site grows, it will form natural organic sub-groups, partially solving the diversity tension. Not to say on subjects where nothing is really at stake that we can’t all enjoy each other and learn from each other. What I mean is, if large number are present a question could be phrased seeking a specific desired answer, which essentially excludes other views. And a large numbers of posts under that hermeneutic could be provided.

For example, I might want to know a Pentecostal view of ‘such and such’ related to tongues and do not want to hear people try and debunk the gift. (I am not a Pentecostal I am just using this as an example).

Or, I may want to take advantage of some of the Jewish people on this site and ask a question about something in the Hebrew Scriptures that might refer to Jewish culture and they might be able to help? Personally I find it takes much more patience to hear Catholic answers on Christianity.SE than it does to here Jewish answers here (and I am sure some Jewish people loath a few of my answers). But this could be partly because I am genuinely more interested in Jewish culture having married into a Jewish family. I do not have much making me interested in Catholic culture. I am the last person on the world that would be seen as politically correct, I am just giving you a flavor of my own interest that is natural and which creates some commonality for me on this site. Who knows maybe one day a Muslim who studies the Bible will provide some exegeses on this site, wonder how that would play out? Would we all feel guilty making him feel less welcome by subtle down voting and requests for additional references? Would we all up vote when he happened to call something like it is? I don’t know, let’s wait and see.

I do not think a ‘Christian only’ site would solve the problem as GoneQuiet correctly pointed out. Even an evangelical site, would still have its problems. If the site does not grow, I think it could eventually become an evangelical dominated site, or a Jewish dominated site, but even if any lopsidedness does occur, there is nothing wrong with letting a secular vehicle be driven about by whoever wants to drive it the most. It is just a tool that can facilitate the discussion of many groups. If only one group predominantly uses it then that’s just life. You seem to be in my kind of group.

More practically, where else can you find people who can sharpen you own ideas and have similar interest to you? If you post an answer on your own church ministry site, I will probably never notice it, as the world is filled with sites like that. If you post one here, I will probably notice it. Why? Because SE is a good tool for enabling more than just amateur Q & A. I think this site in particular has much more going for it than its current membership size would indicate. I could see this site having future relevance in the world, twenty years from now as a commonly viewed location of serious controversial issues.

As an evangelical I admit it would be obviously better that everyone is an evangelical, but for those who are not yet, or who never will be, it does not mean they have no use, as though everything written by people that did not agree with me was fully useless. If that were so I should not be allowed to search the Jewish Library online, or the Catholic Encyclopedia should be disallowed. I should throw newspapers away and become a hermit. We are living in the world; why not enjoy those aspects in it that do not contradict our own faith in God? Almost all my family is not Christian, does that mean I should not miss my mother and father when I have not seen them in a long time? Does that mean I should never want to know their opinion, as it is useless in terms of my eternal salvation?

Bottom line, of course you are the right type of person for this site. So are many others that will really dislike your views. That said, it takes effort to post quality answers, so you do not have to join if you don’t want to.

Answer 6

Since I've been rather active on this site for a while now, I thought I should answer my own questions, based on my own perspective (which is not to disparage the answers given, since they originally helped me decide to participate).

1. "So why would one want to interact to any significant extent with another deemed to be so far off in error?" Because:

   • There is still opportunity to present my view.
   • There is much to be learned about making a good argument through the interaction with those of a different perspective.
   • There are errors in everyone's perspectives, so having others point out our own improves us; while looking for the errors in theirs also improves us.

2. Of those viewing it as a matter of separation to not participate and then perhaps creating "a skewed set of contributors who do not represent the diversity it appears you seek." This can still threaten viability, but diversity cannot be legislated. I chose to participate. Yet one very prominent user in reputation and quality of posts at the time I posted this question originally later backed out in a big way because she felt it unwise in her opinion to continue based on grounds of separation (I speak of Monica Cellio, a.k.a. at points known as GoneQuiet, but now known as deleted user3457 on BH.SE; her posts and comments have largely been purged from active view to all but those with the rep to see deleted posts). She was a great loss to the quality diversity of the site. So this issue can still threaten viability, but long term, I believe diversity will come anyway, as not all will hold positions of separation on this matter, even from those of us (Christian, Jewish, or otherwise) who do tend to a separatist leaning. My resolution for this matter came in viewing the site as a public forum of academic discussion, not a place of worship.

3. "How exactly can one keep doctrine from both affecting interpretation ..., and also how can one truly separate the meaning of a text from the doctrine (teaching) of that text?" This has been partially resolved to a workable medium (I believe) through:

   • The more adamant view against theology has softened.
   • One is allowed to bring theological presuppositions to an interpretation, but one must (a) state those and (b) not rely fully upon those for an answer. That is, if they are part of "showing your work" on how you come to an interpretation, that is fine; but they cannot be dogmatically asserted as the answer, only how they may relate to the answer one gives.

4. "Why would I want to interact with anyone about the text of the Bible if that person does not consider there to be anything ultimately significant about it?" Because:

   • If they are here and participating, they see something significant about the text.
   • My interaction may help them to see (what I believe to be) the larger significance of the text.

5. "Do we even have the right words to be looking at to be interpreting? ... There are many who would say we don't have or know what the original words were .... Well, if we don't have them, why try figuring out what the meaning is of what we have?" My answer here:

   • This is a forum for academic discussion of the wording, so such contention actually adds to the viability of the site on that level.
   • Variants that do occur are largely not significant to the meaning.
   • Those variants that are significant allows for discussion of the meaning still, including variant meanings, which also adds to viability.

6. I'll only repeat my final question here: "If one cannot arrive at [the objective truth], what the text actually is saying, then why have this site?" Because I believe there is an objective truth, then my answer to that is that "one can arrive" at it. Voters may not vote for the answer I would deem the best answer conveying a truth, but again, the "truth" can be put forth, whether it is recognized as such or not.

I did not re-review the many previous answers to this. Perhaps my later reflection now matches some of what was originally said back then, but at least for anyone interested, this is my "take" on answering my own original challenge.

The site, largely, seems viable—assuming one treats it as it is, a public space, not a private space for Christians, Jews, Atheists, or otherwise only.