According to whom?
It is quite obvious you use scholarship as a cloak, not that there is anything wrong with scholarship, per se. But to rely on erudition to the extent you do is to risk Ronald Reagan's dictum of "knowing so much that isn't so."
I'll note the case of Protestant exegesis on Matthew 16:18 as an example. Many a Protestant scholar bought into the petra/petras canard, not being actual scholars of koine greek. So much so, that in Protestant circles the "testimony" interpretation took on the status of Holy Writ itself.
Now as we've established even the most august of scholars "get it wrong" sometimes, what are we left with?
The answer is very simple: the text.
papertyger: According to whom?
According to The Holy Ghost, speaking through Levi, a somewhat literate Jew and government official, in his culture, in what we call mid-first century of our time framing. Do not filter it through religionists yet unborn. You've already fixated on that kind of coloration. Give it straight and unadulterated.
It is quite obvious you use scholarship as a cloak ...
You presume 'way beyond your level of reading minds. "Assume nothing" is the key to staying alive and credible.
I'll note the case of Protestant exegesis on Matthew 16:18 as an example. Many a Protestant scholar bought into the petra/petras canard, not being actual scholars of koine greek.
You have a solid foundation in the common languages of the "1st century" Roman Empire? Yes or no, please. If not, just get the extra help you need to precisely translate the sentence from Greek into my native language, so can get a grasp of what one of Levi's first readers thinking in Koine would have gathered. Keep your thoughts to yourself. Just show me Jesus' thoughts and meaning, and what He wanted understood.
Now as we've established even the most august of scholars "get it wrong" sometimes, what are we left with?
Why not? Justin Martyr got it wrong, and he was a scholar misquoting Beloved John, not being a Jew, and corrupting the text right away. Are you a real scholar or just engaging in reverse snobbishness? Do you regularly occupy yourself with exegeses, or is your forte eisegesis?
The answer is very simple: the text.
Stop dragging your feet. Do it. Give me the translation, particles for particles, word-for-word, case, tense, voice, mood, gender, number, pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions, syntax, diagramming, clauses, immediate context, thrust of passage, progress of revelation, cultural customs, etc.
I want to know it all. Your chance to shine. Go to it.