[lockeliberty]

No insult intended.

Just trying to ascertain when 'probability theory' is appropriate in hermeneutics and when it is not.

[BibChr]

Of course statistics alone never tell the FULL story. The quality of the evidence has to be weighed as well. Having, for instance, an entire chapter that details a resurrection, a thousand-year reign, then another resurrection, is very telling. But one would have to give heavy weight even to one verse that said,

"Somehow God is still faithful and true, yet He is backing off of His centuries of ironclad and emphatic promises and assurances to the nation of Israel, plus He is changing all the terms of His covenant so that only curses and no blessings apply, and finally He is also instituting a different standard of interpretation by which only his predictive words in the Old Testament are to be spiritualized and allegorized at will, while all other passage are still to be interpreted by normal canons of communication."

As I say, even one verse like that would have to be given heavy weight.

Dan