Help from Professional Biblical Scholars

I'm still reading James Earl Massey's latest book on preaching entitled Stewards of the Story: The Task of Preaching, and I read the following regarding the need for skilled help in the preparation of sermons. Massey writes...

Our studies in seminary were at best only an initiation into readiness as interpreters of the Scriptures. Mature professional scholars in the biblical and historical disciplines can, through their work, help us to gain skill in hermeneutical procedures and to make reasonable judgments about the meaning of texts. Their published offerings about texts can help us to double-check our own thinking about specific texts. We all need help when some text stumps us. Acts 8:30-31 mentions a Nubian chamberlain who realized that he was stumped as he read a passage in Isaiah; it was a passage that could bless his life, but until Philip the evangelist came and answered his questions about that text, the blessing eluded him. We who preach need professional scholars as the Ethiopian eunuch needed Philip. Scholars and preachers need each other. Scholars and preachers hold varying combinations of talents, skills, outlooks, and interests. Both scholars and preachers are stewards of The Story, and both have a responsible assignment to serve and bless the church and world. (pp. 31-32)

Massey is "at home" with the Scriptures. He constantly amazes me with his ability to draw upon obscure phrases or statements from the Scriptures to illustrate his points. He does so in a puritan-like fashion. Also, lest someone might object that scholars are not needed, he properly qualifies the use of them as a means of "double-check[ing] our own thinking." I say, well said!

Help from Professional Biblical Scholars