The link below is a now-infamous TV confrontation. It took place on Fox News between an interviewer and a Muslim professor with degrees in religion who wrote a book about Jesus. He argues that Jesus was not the son of God; he argues that Jesus was a political revolutionary, and only that.
The interviewer went for the Big Kill. She wanted to ask a question that would make Dr. Aslan implode with his supposed inability to respond. It didn’t happen. It wasn’t going to.
Simply put, she lacked the tools she needed to do what she wanted to do. She couldn't equal this man's knowledge of history or the Greek language. So she kept focusing the interview on his Muslim faith as if that disqualified his opinion. (It doesn't.) And she seemed to assert that there is some scholarly consensus about the historical Jesus. (There isn't.)
1. Ego versus humility.
She should have remembered that a debate doesn't begin when the camera turns on; nor does it end when the camera shuts off. Any TV interview contributes to an on-going debate. Instead of imagining that at the end of her segment she, like a gladiator, was going to hold up the bloody head of her adversary, she should have shown some curiosity, probed his beliefs. She should have trusted that truth will emerge over time.
She should have tried to contribute to the debate, instead of trying to end it.
Her approach wasn’t humble, and it wasn’t effective.
2. Comparison with cross-examination.
Many lawyers will tell you that you don’t win your case in cross-examination. In real courtrooms, there are few Perry Mason moments. Instead of winning your case in cross-examination, you win it in argument. (I’d say you win it in jury selection – but that’s another blog post.) In cross-examination, instead of making a Big Kill, you score small points, which add up. And you reveal their importance when you argue to the jury at the close of evidence, before jury deliberation begins.
This interviewer wasn’t going to make an argument to a "jury" at the end of her show. But what Dr. Aslan said would enter the stream of public discussion, to rise or fall. His ideas would not rise or fall at that moment, on that show. His ideas would rise or fall as they were probed and tested as time goes by.
3. A little piece of that ongoing discussion.
Badly handled as the interview was, there were things that pricked my interest.
I'm no Greek scholar. Dr. Aslan asserts that he is. But I'm really really accustomed to people claiming that the standard definition of a word is wrong, and that the "real" definition supports their conclusion. That's what Dr. Aslan does here, in part, to support his argument that Jesus was some kind of political firebrand, not the son of God.
That kind of argument is standard stuff. It’s standard stuff especially if you’re dealing with language as used thousands of years ago. The more ancient the usage, the harder it is to prove someone’s interpretation is wrong.
Maybe he's right. But I have no reason to doubt the usual, time-tested definitions that he quarrels with. I suspect that his arguments are plausible. But often there is a gap between plausible and right.
4. Don’t care.
I believe that the man is wrong about Jesus Christ. I won't read his book to see if I can out-argue him. I'm sure that I can't. I don’t care.
Maybe that seems like capitulation. It’s not. It’s lack of interest.
Many many years ago, that debate occupied me. But I decided that as I circled myself in my mind, that circling kept me from moving forward. So I made a decision and started a journey.
5. What matters more.
And on that journey, I have benefitted from people who could parse Greek, or biblical Hebrew, or Aramaic, the language that Jesus spoke. I’m grateful for their help.
But the people who have helped me more are the people who have prayed for me -- the ones I know about, and the ones I don’t.
The people who have helped me more are the good and true people who make the same journey that I am making. I am refreshed in their company and encouraged by their examples.
Biblical scholarship definitely it has it’s place, purpose, and value. I’ve benefitted from it myself. But I once decided that I would rather learn about Jesus from a great man or a great woman than a great scholar. That remains true today.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwWbPpFZ31s
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