NT scholar and missiologist Stephen Neill described a scholar (Mark Pattison) who “spent his whole life in the vain pursuit of a total erudition, like that of the great renaissance scholars, Casaubon and the Scaligers” (The Interpretation of the New Testament 1861–1986, p. 32). Like other volumes in the Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception, this one confirms that the notion of attainment of a total erudition in this subject matter is laughable. It is simply too vast, complex, and multifaceted for anyone even to claim a comprehensive general, let alone specialist, knowledge. These are no longer the times of Casaubon and the Scaligers.
Biblical books proper covered in this volume are Luke (along with Acts), Malachi, and Mark. It may be possible to amass some level of expertise in any of the three separately, but few would claim to be consummate experts in more than...
