Reboot.....

For almost a year, I have been working on a paper concerning the proper exegesis of Matt. 15:1-9. At one point, I had thought that I had all of my research done and just had to sit down and write it. Foolishly, I went off half-cocked and said that the paper was almost done. However, once I actually started to write it, I found that while I could write a paper that might be considered by some to a proper treatment of the subject, in fact, it would be just another paper expounding a view point adding nothing new to the discussion pertaining to the role that tradition and Holy Scripture each should have in the formation, development and the shaping of our understanding of a fundamental Christian truth. To be honest, I wanted more than that. I truly felt (and still do) that the Holy Spirit is calling me to do more than that.

Thus, I am rewriting the work again.

You see, the problem with lay people trying to exegetical work is this~without a proper foundation in theology, hermeneutics, literary and Bible criticism, ancient history, ancient Greek, Hebrew and Latin languages, and plain inspiration, we are literally stuck with having to take the word of someone "more knowledgeable" to understand even a single verse of Scripture. As our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, once said, "The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak." In order to do this work properly, I have had to read and try to learn what I believe to be necessary for someone like me to write about a passage of Scripture. I pray that I will be up to the task. I pray that my work will provide some insight on a passage that amounts to be a proof text (particularly in Reformed and fundamentalist circles) for the Protestant doctrine of sola fide and offer an explanation of why the Catholic teaching on Tradition is a necessary aid for any Christian to understand what God is saying to us in His Scriptures. Even if the reader ultimately disagree with my conclusions, if nothing else, the reader will be able to use the sources that I used and draw his own conclusions.