A Theological Approach to the Old Testament

Major Themes and New Testament Connections

Allen

• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781630874636
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

The Old Testament has two great themes: creation and covenant. They embrace subthemes: wisdom in the case of creation; Israel's religion and the Davidic covenant under the general umbrella of covenant; and internationalism, which mostly develops the theme of covenant and partly the theme of creation.These topics cluster around a common center: Yahweh, the God of the Old Testament. This God is portrayed in different roles, which have attached to them role expectations for both Yahweh and those with whom he assumes relationship. Through contextual exegesis of key texts, we come to understand these roles and associated themes.While the Old Testament has its own distinctive contributions to make to divine revelation, much of its material is reused in the New Testament to explain and validate the New Testament message. By concentrating on the Old Testament, we learn to appreciate the enormous debt the New Testament owes to the Old in clarifying New Testament theological and moral perspectives.

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Introduction

“The task of the church is to hear the Old in the light of the New, and the New in the light of the Old.” So Christopher Seitz has well said.1 To fail to accomplish that double task is to ignore the truth for the Christian church that the Old Testament is incomplete without the New, and the New Testament incomplete without the Old. The title Old Testament that Christians give to the Jewish Hebrew Bible (a term short for Hebrew-Aramaic Bible) sends a clear signal.2 It indicates a perspective that finds adequate room for the New Testament as the sequel that depends on the contribution of the Old. To speak of the Old Testament is to utter an unfinished sentence. “‘Old’ is not a temporal term only, but a term pointing to a character understood only in relationship with a second witness.”3 Most Christian treatments of OT theology leave the NT on the edge of their discussion, if they discuss it at all. Indeed, the sheer mass of material in the OT pushes them toward that limited viewpoint. However, trying to take seriously Seitz’s comment obliges us to keep one eye on the NT as we go along, valuing the OT as an essential part of the Christian Bible, even while respecting it for its own sake and studying it on its own terms. There is an obvious tension between staying faithful to the OT’s own concerns and broaching NT developments, but both perspectives are equally necessary. “The use of the OT by the NT is not a substitute for Christian theological reflection on the OT in its own formal integrity.”4 Indeed, John Goldingay has observed that “only when the theologian is not concerned about the contemporary relevance of his study is he likely to do justice to the Bible itself.”5 At the close of the book, we will reverse the process of prioritizing the OT and examine the use of the OT in the NT by placing emphasis on the NT itself in some general conclusions. Overall, in turning from OT to NT, our aim is to show what the NT looks like from an OT perspective.

We should not make our study a purely academic exercise. We must never forget J. S. Whale’s challenge to respond to the Bible in a confessional spirit: “Instead of putting off the shoes from our feet because the place whereon we stand is holy ground, we are taking nice photographs of the burning bush from suitable angles.”6 Nor can we ignore the exhortation of the Victorian poet Alfred Tennyson in the prologue to his poem “In Memoriam”:

Let knowledge grow from more to more, But more of reverence in us dwell, That mind and soul, according well, May make one music.

Such an approach to the OT is vital, for pastors and laity alike. The way Elmer Martens has defined the importance of biblical theology is relevant: “Biblical theology poses for the church the question whether or not the church still adheres to its founding document and functions in keeping with it.”7 In focusing on the OT aspect of biblical theology, it is hoped that this book will especially encourage pastors to preach more from the OT in their services and give it more prominence in the teaching programs of their churches. Christians under their care should come to realize that they cannot live without the OT because they have discovered its depth of meaning and relevance for the life of faith. Over the years I have come to the conclusion that pastors, at least in the United Kingdom and the United States, do not know what to make of the OT and find it easier to stick to the NT, which has the advantage of directly addressing Christians. (I have noticed too that they tend to have an even smaller canon within the NT canon, by restricting themselves to those parts of the NT that accord with traditional faith and contemporary culture.) If I may give a personal testimony, in my early forties, as a lay preacher, I was so appalled by the blatant ignoring of the OT in the pulpits of the churches I knew that I made a vow to God to preach and teach in churches only from the OT as much as possible. When assigned a NT text, I decided I would use it as a window to a corresponding OT text and truth. If I, as an OT specialist, did not do so, who would?

Biblical Theology

Biblical theology is a strange, hybrid creature. It developed historically from Christian systematic or doctrinal theology, while in turn systematic theology was based on the Christian creeds rather than directly on the Bible. As John L. McKenzie provocatively stated, “most of the Bible is irrelevant to systematic theology.”8 Accordingly it does not get reflected there. The hybrid nature of biblical theology is that it presents a synthesis of systematic theology and biblical texts. James Barr has defined biblical theology as “a sort of intermediate activity between normal exegesis of the individual texts and the regulative decision-making of doctrinal theology.” He rightly affirmed that “biblical theology has to depend upon detailed exegesis and submit to its authority.”9 It will not do to subordinate the Bible to systematic theology by simply finding in the Bible proof texts for Christian theology. In fact, biblical theology is more a kind of historical theology than a systematic one.

The Part That Exegesis Plays

How does the synthesis between theology and exegesis work out in practice? The answer varies according to the particular biblical theologian. The two giants of OT theology in the twentieth century, Eichrodt and von Rad, gave different answers. Eichrodt adopted a systematizing approach to the OT and tended to relegate to footnotes lists of texts that backed up his careful conclusions. Von Rad, on the other hand, gave much more space to exegesis of texts in presenting his views and so was able to accommodate the diversity of those texts in his work. Rolf Rendtorff has written approvingly about von Rad’s approach: “The theological interpretation of the OT must not exempt itself from a scholarly examination of the texts; it must be developed and justified in the light of that examination, difficult though this venture may often be.”10 Von Rad himself wrote: “Theology’s interest in exegesis and the methods of understanding used there is a keen one, because it is here that the decisions which are important for it are taken. It cannot unfold itself without constantly referring to detailed exegesis and its results, and it only becomes trustworthy as it constantly allows the reader to see exegesis, which is its proper basis.”11 In turn, our own investigations will give prominence to key OT texts that push theology to the fore and will study them in the light of their contexts. This approach will be of especial benefit to pastors, who habitually use texts as the basis for their sermons, and who encourage their congregations to read and study the Bible for themselves.

Biblical Theology Defined

Robin Routledge has given a helpful definition of biblical theology as having four characteristics:

1. It seeks to engage with the biblical text in its own right, rather than forcing a structure on it.

2. It accepts the text as divine revelation.

3. It focuses on the canonical text as a whole, looking for synthesis a...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: God as Creator of the World
• Chapter 3: Wisdom
• Chapter 4: God in Covenant Relationship
• Chapter 5: Israel’s Religious Life
• Chapter 6: The Davidic Covenant
• Chapter 7: Internationalism
• Chapter 8: The Relation between Creation and Covenant
• Chapter 9: New Testament Factors
• Bibliography
• Author Index
• Scripture Index