“We” do not know

I have on a few occasions quoted a leading New Testament scholar, Dan Wallace, (e.g., here and here) on his doubts about ever knowing “exactly what the authors of the New Testament wrote” (see below). Many others have quoted him as well. I think this is so shocking because it comes from a person who conservative Christians in the United States usually perceive as an evangelical scholar at a conservative theological institution. Perhaps. However, the concept cannot be shocking because it is new. It is not new! It follows, and perhaps adapts, the views of noted scholars who came before him. A few quotations below (which might be multiplied exponentially if other text critics were cited) trace the same kind of view across the 20th century into the 21st. [I have used bold italics to emphasize portions of the quotes. This is not in the original texts.]

Frederick Cornwallis Conybeare (1856-1924), Professor of Theology at the University of Oxford

“[Burgon] would not—perhaps could not, so dense was the veil of prejudice with which the old theory of inspiration covered his eyes—see that prior to the collection of the gospels in a canon, about the year 180, and while they were still circulating singly in isolated churches, their text was less fixed and more liable to changes, doctrinal and transcriptional, than they ever were afterwards; and that the ultimate text, if there was ever one that deserves to be so called, is forever irrecoverable.” (History of New Testament Criticism, F. C. Conybeare. London: Watts and Co., 1910, p. 129.)

Kirsopp Lake (1872-1946), Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Harvard Divinity School

“In spite of the claims of Westcott and Hort and of von Soden, we do not know the original form of the Gospels, and it is quite likely that we never shall. We can, however, reconstruct many of the various states through which it has passed between the third century and the invention of printing. (“Preface,” Family 13 (The Ferrar Group): The Text According to Mark with a Collation of Codex 28 of the Gospels, Studies and Documents Edited by Kirsopp Lake and Silva Lake, XI, Kirsopp and Silva Lake. London: Christophers; Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1941, p. vii.)

Robert McQueen Grant (1917-2014), Professor of New Testament at the University of Chicago

“The primary goal of New Testament textual study remains the recovery of what the New Testament writers wrote. We have already suggested that to achieve this goal is wellnigh impossible. Therefore we must be content with what Reinhold Niebuhr and others have called, in other contexts, an ‘impossible possibility’.” (A Historical Introduction to the New Testament, R. M. Grant. New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1963, p. 51.)

Daniel Baird Wallace (1952-), Professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary

“We do not now have—in our critical Greek texts or any translations—exactly what the authors of the New Testament wrote. Even if we did, we would not know it. There are many, many places in which the text of the New Testament is uncertain.” (“Foreword,” Myths and Mistakes in New Testament Textual Criticism, Elijah Hixson & Peter Gurry. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2019, p. xii.)

Wallace recommends avoiding the extremes of “radical skepticism” and “absolute certainty” in order to “land between these two extremes.”

The extract from Conybeare easily identifies him as one who rejected the verbal inspiration of the Bible. Kirsopp Lake’s son notes that Lake was an early doubter of Christianity, writing, “It was, I believe at this point [the years of his curacy at St. Mary the Virgin, Oxford, 1897-1904; rlv] that my father began to doubt the teachings of the church and to think in terms of history and exegesis rather than theology and parish difficulties.” (Quantulacumque, Studies Presented to Kirsopp Lake by Pupils, Colleagues and Friends, Robert Pierce Casey; Silva Tipple Lake; Agnes K. Lake; editors. London: Christophers, 1937, p. vii) Lake himself describes Christianity as a synthesized religion and a “sacramental cult.”

“It is becoming increasingly certain that Christianity in the first century achieved a synthesis between the Greco-Oriental and the Jewish religions in the Roman Empire. The preaching of repentance, and of the Kingdom of God begun by Jesus passed into the sacramental cult of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the details are complex and obscure. What were the exact elements in this synthesis? How was it effected?” (The Beginnings of Christianity: Part I: the Acts of the Apostles, Vol. I, F. J. Foakes Jackson, Kirsopp Lake, editors. London, MacMillan and Co., Ltd., 1942, p. vii.)

I am not familiar with Grant and his theology. I do not know much about Wallace beyond his academic career. I saw on one web page that he was ordained a Baptist minister in 1986 – I do not know if that is accurate. He identifies as an evangelical, has served as president of the Evangelical Theological Society, and is involved in the NET and NIV translations of the Bible.