The Danger of Looking at Trees without Understanding the Forest: A Response to Book Review by Simon Chow

The Danger of Looking at Trees without Understanding the Forest: A Response to Book Review by Simon Chow

Sam TSANG

This is a response to Simon Chow's book review of the author's commentary, To the Ends of the Earth: An Exposition on Romans. In this review, the author answers some of Chow's criticisms regarding the overall purpose, the reading process, the rhetorical structure of Romans as well as the process of interpreting modern interpreters.

In answering Chow, the author explains in greater details the reason why he reads Romans in a certain way as opposed to other ways. His interpretive choices, especially regarding structural-grammatical issues, demonstrate that there are many different ways to divide Romans, with some being more likely than others. In so doing, the author explains why it is important to use pronoun changes, key conjunctions, and thematic changes to determine the dividing points of Romans. He focuses especially on the differentiation between thematic division and grammatical structure.

The author takes the opportunity not only to answer Chow, but also to analyze the way his critic reviews a book, whether it be academic or otherwise. In reviewing the reviewer, the author lays out the problem of missing the forest for the tree not only in Chow's book review but in many like it. The author reminds the readers that as New Testament interpreters, people are not only responsible for understanding the “intention” of the original author, but also that of the modern interpreter in terms of context and intended readership. The process of interpretation is the same whether it is for ancient or modern writings.