Old Testament theology

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The theology of the Old Testament is a concept of Christian theology . The theology of the Old Testament as a theological discipline tries to connect theological statements with the statements of the Old Testament . There are, however, different views on the exact task of an Old Testament theology.

Old Testament theology is also the title of numerous theological representations. Classical include: a. the works of Walther Eichrodt (three volumes; 1933–1939), Ludwig Köhler (1936) and Gerhard von Rad (two volumes; 1957/1967). In recent times, the works of Rolf Rendtorff (1999/2001), Bernd Janowski ( Contributions to the Theology of the Old Testament, five volumes; 1993–2014) or Jörg Jeremias (2015) have received particular attention.

Research history

Old Testament theology as a scientific discipline is quite young. It has its forerunners in JP Gabler's demand from the end of the 18th century to clearly distinguish exegesis and dogmatics . This step was perceived as a liberation blow that released many forces. Exegesis was now practiced more from a historical point of view. However, the time after the First World War can be seen as the real hour of birth, when a new interest in Old Testament theology awakens.

Walther Eichrodt

Eichrodt wrote three volumes:

  1. God and People (1933)
  2. God and World (1935)
  3. God and Man (1939)

He looked for a persistent basic tendency and a constant basic type, which he found in the conception of the covenant . The central issue is God's covenant with Israel and God's covenant with man.

One can criticize that only the 1st volume is really oriented towards the federal government. Another problem with the approach is that in different times the topic of the "federal government" played a different role. Deuteronomic and deuteronomistic drafts become particularly important . In addition, the "Bund" is filled very differently depending on the literary area ( priestly script or Deuteronomistic history).

Gerhard von Rad

Rad wrote two volumes:

  1. The Theology of Historical Traditions of Israel (1957)
  2. The theology of prophetic traditions of Israel (1960)

Rad would like to break radically with orienting the structure of a theology of the OT to dogmatics. Let the Old Testament speak its own word. In contrast to Eichrodt, he does not look for a "middle" of the OT, since in his opinion there is none. The most legitimate form of OT theology is therefore retelling .

It is important to understand that a systematic representation must take its system from the AT itself. The OT itself should be discussed. It is difficult, however, to restrict the story to the retelling mode, since the historical perspective is not considered enough. The various blocks of tradition must not stand side by side in isolation, but must be related to one another.

context

See also: Old Testament

The Old Testament, a collection of scriptures that has grown over centuries, is considered one of the foundations of Christian theology and is therefore the subject of theological reflection.

Christian theology has developed various disciplines in the course of its history , including the exegetical sciences , each related to the Old or New Testament . Initially, these disciplines work with historical and literary methods, but as sub-areas of theology they also have the task of hermeneutics and reflection on the content of the texts. In a “Theology of the Old Testament” this should be done in a large framework for the Old Testament.

task

Old Testament theology as the theology contained in the Old Testament

One possibility is to understand “theology of the Old Testament” as the theology contained in the Old Testament (in the sense of a genitivus subiectivus ). Accordingly, an Old Testament theology has to present the views and ideas encountered in the Old Testament about God and his relationships with people and the world . Also, Ethics and anthropology could thus be parts of a theology of the Old Testament.

Problems arise here from the diversity of theological statements in the Old Testament. Finding a “center of the Old Testament” seems at least a difficult task to solve.

Old Testament theology as the Old Testament contribution to Christian theology

“Theology of the Old Testament” can also be understood as a way of working that tries to make the Old Testament fruitful for current drafts of Christian theology (“of the Old Testament” as genitivus obiectivus ). Such undertakings can also result in Christian dogmatics based on the Old Testament.

Difficulties can arise here in the question of the connection between the normativity of Scripture and Christian dogmatics.

Old Testament theology as a bundling of results

J. Jeremias sees the fundamental task in bundling the results of scientific research for theology and the church. Its definition is as follows:

"A theology of the Old Testament (OT) aims to bundle the results of scientific endeavors to understand the Old Testament texts both for theology and for the church, and in particular to collect the central statements about God in the Old Testament."

As a Christian theology, in his opinion, one cannot read the OT without knowing the Christ testimony of the New Testament.

There are two main challenges for him in this bundling task:

  1. diverse genera
  2. different times

Regarding 1) The AT is not just a uniform book, but a collection of different books, which in turn contain different genres and types of text. Therefore, not least from Jewish perspectives, there is mistrust of the discipline as such: Can thematic summaries be made without robbing the texts of their own intention?

Regarding 2) The times when the texts were created are sometimes very different. Some texts are up to 800 years apart. Due to this fact, the research area of ​​a "religious history of Israel" has developed. The relationship between the theology of OT and the history of religion in Israel is assessed quite differently depending on the author. The relationship between the two disciplines was mostly unequal. The primary interest in history and theology have alternated in wave movements. Both disciplines have the common task of examining important topics of the AT. However, the intentions are very different: The RG is interested in the origins and development of mostly theological topics in the early days, the theology in the core issues of the end product.

Outline options

There are different ways to structure a theology of OT. There are just a few possibilities:

  • according to biblical books (e.g. Georg Fischer: Theologies of the Old Testament or Gerhard von Rad: Theology of the Old Testament.)
  • according to systematic topics (e.g. Ludwig Köhler: Theology of the Old Testament or Feldmeier / Spieckermann: The God of the Living)
  • according to the canon / along the history of salvation (e.g. Gerhard von Rad: Theology of the Old Testament. or Rolf Rendtorff: Theology of the Old Testament. 1. Canonical foundation)
  • ...

In his theology of the OT, J. Jeremias combines a historical sorting with the subdivision according to text type (1), theological school (2) and main topics (3). There are three blocks which, to put it simply, are the following:

  1. pre-exilic
  2. exilic
  3. post-exilic

Within the first part there is a sorting according to the type of text, which he calls "forms of thought" following Smend. He developed the five categories of these forms of thought based on Ricouer:

  • Psalms
  • wisdom
  • Law and ethos
  • Original traditions
  • prophecy

In the second part, the various theological schools come into play, i.e. the drafts of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomistic theology, priestly scriptures, Deutero-Isaiah etc.

The third part is thematically arranged, since in his opinion the writings from the later period (Persian period, Hellenistic period) themselves contain a tendency towards systematization. It deals here with God's wrath and goodness, assurances, orientations, hopes and probing questions.

Criticism of the term "theology of the Old Testament"

The theologian Rainer Albertz made the following criticisms of the term "theology of the Old Testament":

  1. There is a multitude of “theologies” that can hardly be brought into conversation with one another.
  2. Whether “the Old Testament” is to be understood as genitivus subiectivus or obiectivus remains largely unclear.
  3. The standpoint from which theology of the Old Testament is viewed is thus not clearly defined.
  4. There are great difficulties in finding a systematic structure for an “Old Testament theology”.
  5. The author of an "Old Testament theology" is unnaturally compelled to unite contradicting viewpoints within the Old Testament.
  6. The theology concept narrows the focus on conceptual and intellectual history, but the Old Testament also deals with cult and tradition .
  7. In terms of religious history , there is no noticeable peculiarity of the cult of ancient Israel in relation to the other peoples of the ancient Orient .
  8. Since Christian theology is also based on the New Testament in a special way, there is a risk that the Old Testament will be appropriated by Christians.

Instead, Albertz suggests replacing the discipline “Theology of the Old Testament” with “The religious history of Israel”.

See also

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Jörg Jeremias: Theology of the Old Testament . Floor plans for the Old Testament 6. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2015, p. 3-5 .
  2. ↑ Ernst-Joachim Waschke: WiBiLex: Keyword "Theology of the Old Testament". German Bible Society, December 2014, accessed on August 5, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Jörg Jeremias: Theology of the OT . 2017, p. 1 .
  4. ↑ Jörg Jeremias: Theology of the OT . 2017, p. 10-21 .
  5. ↑ Jörg Jeremias: Theology of the OT . 2017, p. 9-10 .
  6. ^ Rainer Albertz: Religious history of Israel instead of theology of the Old Testament! Plea for a reorientation in research history . In: Ingo Baldermann, Ernst Dassmann, Ottmar Fuchs et al. (Hrsg.): Yearbook for Biblical Theology (JBTh) . tape 10 . Neukirchener Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1995, p. 3-24 .