In regards to his writings in The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Studies, Michael W. Holmes has plenty of biblical expertise to count as a reliable author in that sense. He has degrees from both secular and religious institutions, including a BA in history. That being said, he has a variety of knowledge about the Bible and its history, from multiple perspectives (although it is important to consider that a great deal of his experience has to do with the New Testament and Greek language exclusively). He also teaches at a religious, Baptist university, so this is important to consider with his professional and educational experiences that can create bias.
After some brief Google research on New Testament experts, I found N. T. Wright listed as the “World’s Leading New Testament Scholar” on Forbes.com. (For basic research purposes, the questionable authority of Forbes on religious matters has been double-checked by some searching.Wright is indeed a New Testament scholar, even if he isn’t as widely acclaimed as Forbes claims.) He works at Oxford now, which isn’t as directly religious as Bethel University (where Holmes currently teaches), which may give him an interesting bias versus Holmes. He’s also British and has spent most of his academic time there, which may provide a different cultural perspective. Upon reading some of his works, Wright believes, in general, that the New Testament canon was not something that was later given authority but all of the books and scriptures have inherent authority. This is largely consistent with Holmes’ idea that the canon could mean a “guide” to which Christians were urged to conform. This idea hinges on Wright’s belief that the scriptures and thus the canon had automatic authority.
The fact that Oxford University Press published Holmes’ writing (which signals a lengthy fact-checking and researching process given the prestige of the college) and that Wright currently works at Oxford is an interesting connection. Especially in regards to each other, the level of confidence in these writings is high and similar between the two.
Overall, in this lesson, I learned how many factors go into a “reliable” source. Everyone has some form of bias, you just have to pick the right one for your project and cross-check your sources to find some sort of common ground. It was really difficult to find someone that multiple people found an “expert”, especially across denominations and parts of academia. We certainly rely on each other for their opinions and hard-earned research, and Wikipedia is no exception. I hope I can be someone trustworthy for these articles just like I would want the other editors to be.