Southern Seminary Quote of the Day

This quote comes from Dr. Pennington during today's lecture in Matthew Exegesis:

"If you think about it, what Jesus actually said is irrelevant."

I have, of course, done Dr. Pennington a great discredit by taking this quote out of a 15 minute lecture context. Nevertheless, I figured it might turn a few heads. His ultimate point was the need for us as ministers/bible students and the laypeople in our pews to be confident in our bibles. Today's seemingly noble quest to "get behind the text" to discover what was really going on is not only impossible, but not helpful. Several of the students today in class expressed concern over the commentary we are reading for our discussions. It is heavy on "redaction criticism", which is just a fancy way to say how an author might place his own theology or ideas into the text. Pennington was reminding us that the bible, inspired by the Holy Spirit and breathed out by God, is given to us in the way God has providentially purposed. So, what we have is what we are supposed to have. To get bent out of shape because Jesus said something a little different in Luke's account than in Matthew's account is missing the point.