Today I wanna introduce someone to you from my neck of the woods (ethnically speaking that is).
His name is David Toshio Tsumura.
He’s currently the Old Testament professor at Japan Bible Seminary…
He’s also the chairman of the Tokyo Museum of Biblical Archaeology and editor of Exegetica: Studies in Biblical Exegesis.
Earlier, he served at Harvard University, Divinity School as a visiting scholar between 1973 to 1974.
His degrees are M.Div., M.A., Ph.D.
So what’s all the fuss about this guy?
And why am I bringing him up?
Well homies, Dr. Tsumura is widely considered to be one of the most formidable “Old” Testament scholars of our times.
And one of his most notable contributions to the Biblical world was his commentary on the First Book of Samuel.
His work was considered so groundbreaking and authoritative that it was added to the “New International Commentary on the Old Testament”.
Now normally I’m not a big fan of scholars…especially those from the liberal camp who like to promote their latest theories of Scripture research we know today as “literary” or “textual” criticism.
These folks decked to the hilt with all their academic degrees just love to poke holes at the “Old” Testament and say the text is corrupt because of blah, blah, blah.
And when I say “blah, blah, blah”, I mean just that.
Their theories are nothing more than unintelligible garble.
Yet what they say is considered valid not because they have any proof supporting their assertions…
But simply because they’ve got a bunch of degrees hanging on their wall…
Thus, no one challenges them
But Dr. Tsumura is different.
Not only does he possess the academic muscle to wipe the floor with anyone in the world in the area of OT Biblical studies…
But he’s done an awesome job of debunking all of those liberal scholars who say 1 Samuel is corrupt because of BLAH, BLAH, BLAH.
In other words, this homie is on OUR side.
Thanks to Dr. Tsumura, literary theories about the corruption of the Biblical text that were once considered beyond reproof have been taken down to the ground baby!
See, here’s the problem in a nutshell:
Whenever your average modern scholar comes across a word or phrase in the original Biblical text they don’t understand, their knee jerk reaction is that it’s gotta be a mistake.
They assume that because they possess such an advanced understanding of the Biblical Hebrew, if they come across something that’s unusual or difficult to grasp, their quick conclusion is that it’s gotta be a corruption due to misspelling, additions or whatever.
Keep in mind they’ve got zero evidence to support what they’re saying.
None whatsoever.
But because of their credentials and their peer support, their ideas are considered untouchable.
However, Dr. Tsumura ain’t having any of it.
He says what they’re doing is opening a “very dangerous door”.
So specifically what kind of fallacious theories has Dr. Tsumura been successful in shooting down to the ground?
Well, that’s what we’ll get into the next time we meet.
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