One of my professors—who interacts with biblical literature, but is not primarily a biblical scholar—recently told me that he thought “biblical scholar” sounded funny. I was talking generally about “biblical scholars” and their interaction with social theory, or lack thereof. He suggested “Bible scholar” or “biblical studies scholar.” Both of those sound less desirable to me, but he’s right about the funniness about “biblical scholar.” The apparently adjectival use of the term “biblical” would seem to imbue such scholars with biblical characteristics—whatever those might be.

I have been trying to think of another field that labels their scholars in this sort of way and have come up empty. You wouldn’t say “religious scholar” for a scholar of religious studies, or “classical scholar” for a classicist, or “historical scholar” for historian. All of these would seem to describe a characteristic about the scholar, not an indication of her field.

So, what are the options? Based on an unscientific search through my Google reader posts (lots of scholars-of-biblical-texts bloggers in there), Google at large, and the SBL website, I have found the following terms used (in order of frequency):

1. biblical scholar (by FAR) [SBL site: 596x]
2. Bible scholar [SBL site: 85x]
3. biblicist (although, this is also often used to refer to those who read the Bible “literally”) [SBL site: 26x]
4. biblical studies scholar (VERY rare) [SBL site: 2x]

I hadn’t really thought about this previously, but the term “biblical scholar” (let alone “biblical scholarship”) appears confessional. The term by itself describes a scholar who is (or scholarship that is) “biblical.” I suppose other uses of the term “biblical” could apply: as in, knowing a scholar in the “biblical sense”; or a scholar of “biblical proportions.” Any way you slice it, though, our field’s preferred designator feels quite problematic.

Out of the four options above (did I miss any?), I think I would prefer “biblical studies scholar” over “Bible scholar.” The latter feels very isolated and narrow–as if just the texts of the biblical documents. It also lends some weight to the idea that the Bible is one monolithic entity. If we say “biblical studies,” that feels to me like the biblical documents are the focus but are subject to a variety of “studies” (however those are conceived). Perhaps even better would simply be “scholars of biblical texts” (or “documents” or “literature”), which does occasionally make an appearance. We do tend to be a rather isolated group on the whole, detached from other disciplines. But should we reinforce that? As I see it, this is quite connected to many of the conversations we “biblical scholars” have been having lately regarding the ideological foundations of our field.

What say you? Have you given thought to this business of academic labels? What’s your preferred titular identity? Does it matter?