Contours of Old Testament Theology

Appendix 1. Biblical Theology of the Old Testament: A Course Précis

APPENDIX 1 BIBLICAL THEOLOGY OF T H E O L D TESTAMENT A COURSE PRECIS* The title oj this Study (echoing earlier formulations in the history of the disci­ pline) intends to emphasize that "Old Testament theology" belongs within the larger framework of biblical theology. This, of course, is a Christian formulation, just as "Old Testament" is Christian language for the Scriptures of Israel. Yet within the Christian Bible the Old Testament has its own integrity in relation to the New. Various approaches to Old Testament theology have been used: Heilsgeschkbte (in the sense of Oscar Cullmann), "cross-sectional" study of the covenantal struc­ ture of Israel's faith (Eichrodt), history of traditions (Heihgeschichte in the sense of Gerhard von Rad), thematic, doctrinal, and so on. The approach used in this work is different from all, though influenced somewhat by von Rad and Eichrodt. The work begins with an exposition of Israel's experience of the holy (the revelation of the Holy One), not just as impersonal power but as personal power of concern and ethical demand, that is, the "root experiences" (Emil Fackenheim) of exodus and Sinai. This fundamental experience, which comes to expression in the symbolism of language and cultic practice, is seen against the background of, and in the con­ text of, the religions of the ancient Near East. Israel's experience of "the Holy One in our midst" is expressed in and refracted through major patterns of covenant symbolization, associated with Abraham, Moses, and David, respectively. Each attempts to bring to expression the funda­ mental confession that Yahweh (the personal name of the Deity) is the Holy One who has entered into the human world and is present in the midst of Israel. Each covenant symbolization is related to particular sociological circumstances in which the original formulation was socially meaningful (e.g., Mosaic covenant theology in the social setting of the tribal confederacy, Davidic covenant theology in the time of the rise of the monarchy), but the power of the symbolization out­ lasted the social setting and formed a major "trajectory" that became meaningful in other social settings and persisted into the New Testament. These covenant symbolizations ("theologies" is too abstract a term), however, did not do full justice to the "dialectical contradictions" in the root experiences of the Holy Cod in the midst of a people and in the world. These polarities (e.g., universalism and particularism, divine sovereignty and human freedom, divine tran­ scendence and immanence), treated differently in each of the covenant symbol­ izations, exploded the various covenant formulations, especially under the impact of the gravity and enormity of the problem of evil as experienced at the fall of the *Presented April 2, 1982 at Princeton Theological Seminary. 343 344 Contours oj Old Testament Theology nation and the exile of the people. Various attempts were made to synthesize covenant theologies (e.g., in the Deuteronomistic history, Second Isaiah, the Chronicler's history). In general the postexilic period was dominated by two move­ ments: one torah and wisdom, the other apocalyptic ("prophecy in a new key"). The course ends by considering how these two major lines, torah/wisdom and prophecy/apocalyptic, lead into the New Testament, and how the covenant "the­ ologies" associated with Abraham, Moses, and David are picked up in the New Testament formulations of the gospel that centers in Jesus, the Christ (Messiah). The relation between the testaments is considered to be a dialectical continuity/ discontinuity. ...