OF TRADITION, HISTORY, AND STORY 115 IV THE CENTER OF THE OT AND OT THEOLOGY 139. The subject of OT theology remains the center of the most debated issues in the study of the OT. How do the shifts from a historical paradigm to a literary and/or structuralist paradigm in the study of the OT reflect on OT theology?
My appreciation and gratitude goes first and foremost to my seminary and university teachers who introduced me to the subject of Old Testament theology and Biblical theology. Zhre Geschichte und Problematik (1970) deals mainly with the European history of the discipline since 1770.' This indispensable article focuses broadly on problems central to the discipline of New Testament theology (pp. 307-395). Deissler presents his OT theology under the title The Basic Message of the Old Testament, which immediately reveals a theological position opposite to that of G.
Never in the history of OT has theology produced so many OT theologies in such a short time span as the years 1978-1981. Is OT theology or the theology of the Hebrew Bible an enterprise in which Jews and Christians can cooperate or join forces.
Biblical Literature.26 Such renaming of the discipline is in-
It is an excellent work for the advanced student or specialist with a special interest in the problem of "history" and how it has affected and continues to pose problems in the study of OT theology. But it hardly addresses the issue of current attempts at appropriation or "actualization" on the part of OT theologians, and it was published too long ago to pay much attention to the significant influence of the literary paradigms on the study of Scripture. Any discussion of the relationship between the OT and NT is excluded in this book.31.
The best history of the developments of OT theology, in the English language, was published by John H. The issues relating to the discipline of OT theology are numerous and, as we shall see, apparently becoming even more complex . Or is OT theology a 'neutral' and 'objective' scientific endeavor from which any religious belief is excluded.
Is it an enterprise built on the canonical form of the biblical witness or is it to penetrate under or behind the text as it is available. Reventlow published a second volume dealing with this subject and other matters under the title Problems of Biblical TheoZogv in the Nineteenth Century (Philadelphia, 1986).
The Question of History, History of Tradition, Salvation History,
The Center of the and OT Theology
- Die Mitfe des AT, p. 49
The importance of the covenant motif in the OT cannot be denied, but the crucial question remains: Is the concept of covenant broad. Here, Gerhard von Rad's absolute No to the question of the center of the OT in his connection with doing OT theology has a unique meaning. 3a: "What is actually meant by the almost universal question about the 'unity', the 'centre' of the OT.
4, seems to go astray when he suggests that von Rad can make Christ the center of the OT. On this basis, one could possibly argue with equal force for the Sabbath commandment as the center of the OT. The point is that this kind of argument in support of a center in OT has seemingly insurmountable flaws.
Not all OT theology and concepts find expression in Deuteronomy. Schmidt, "The Problem of the 'Center' of the OT in the Perspective of the Relationship between the History of Religion and Theology,". These and other scholars have responded to various objections to the center of the OT.
Walter Dietrich of the University of Bern published his inaugural lecture, "The Red Thread in 0T."14'j. 167 statistical approach and count in agreement how often a term is used and in which literature of the OT it appears. His contribution rests in the fact that he points to a painfully neglected aspect of the total testimony and reality of the OT.
See here the motif of the presence of God as expressed in the phrase. The question of the center of the OT most fundamentally affects the nature of the unity and continuity of the OT. The next chapter discusses main aspects of the relationship between the OT and NT in the current debate.
Some scholars have posed the problem of the relationship between the Testaments by essentially identifying the OT as a book of a non-Christian religion. That is to say, the question of the a posteriori character of the typological approach should not be suppressed. A prominent approach to coming to grips with the extremely complex question of the relationship between the OT and the NT is through the promise-fulfillment scheme, as developed by C.
However fundamental and fruitful the promise-fulfillment approach is, it cannot in itself capture the multiplex nature of the relationship between the Testaments. We must be aware of this decision, which always affects our doubts about the OT material. It has also all too often led to the Testaments being contrasted with a sharpness that does not do justice to the great hermeneutical flexibility of the mutual relationships.
The NT can then also clarify the content of the OT on the basis of this initial approach. It is not surprising that in the recent debate about the complex nature of the relationship between the Testaments, the question of proper context has become crucial. Wolff, who claims that “in the New Testament is found the context of the Old Testament, which, as a historical purpose, reveals the total meaning of the Old Testament.
In all this, the given context of the two Testaments has an influence on interpretation. The tendency towards Marcionism with its low estimation of the OT is present in full form in A. The impressive OT theology of Zimmerli contains a strange silence on the matter of the relationship between the Testaments.
181: "In the New Testament is found the context of the Old, which, as its historical purpose, reveals the total meaning of the Old Testament.". This interconnection is fundamental and decisive not only for inner OT unity and the understanding of the relationship of the OT to Jesus Christ, but also for the interconnection between the Testaments.ll*. As important as this category is, it is not exhaustive of the total relationship of OT to NT.