It is funny how so many 'genius' Bible scholars wouldn't truth if it fell on top of them in the form of a 3000 pound elephant. 10,000 pages of witty babble, but zero understanding. Reminds me of this little story...
Elaine Pagels, the famous historian of early Christianity, once told a revealing story about the social world behind the scenes of high-powered biblical scholarship. As a young up-and-coming professor at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, she was invited to a closed-door, after-hours smoker. The men there (Pagels was the only woman) were all prominent Bible scholars. Many of them didn't even believe in God, and those who still called themselves Christian were anything but orthodox. The liquor flowed freely, and as these men got in their cups, they began to sing old gospel songs. To her astonishment, they knew all the tunes and words by heart. Then it dawned on herthese atheist and liberal Bible scholars must have grown up in evangelical churches.
Ever learning but unable to come to a knowledge of the truth...