ACPM010101QK001.qxd 6/29/05 1:52 PM Page 1
CHAPTER ONE
THE OLD TESTAMENT AS
THEOLOGICAL WITNESS
T
he Old Testament can be read from many different perspectives, and each contributes to the richness of meaning recognized in these texts by generations of readers. The Old
Testament is a collection of ancient literature. These texts reflect the
history of a people called Israel. Behind and beneath the texts lies a
wide variety of social contexts that gave rise to and shaped the text.
Current biblical studies have benefited from decades of generative
scholarship that has illumined the literary, historical, and sociological dimensions of our understanding of the Old Testament. This
book has been deeply informed by such scholarship and will reflect
it at many points. But this book will focus on the Old Testament as
a theological witness to the experience of ancient Israel.
What does it mean to read and interpret the text of the Old
Testament theologically? At its most fundamental level such reading
and interpretation means taking seriously the claim of the text that
it is speaking about encounter and relationship with God. Claims
are made by and for these ancient texts that make them more than
the literature, history, and sociology of an ancient people called
Israel. These texts were written, collected, and passed on through
generations as the witness of a community of faith shaped in relation
to the character and actions of the God of Israel.
To read and interpret the Old Testament theologically is, however,
a complex and multifaceted task. For us, such work means standing
within several sets of creative, interpretive tensions that we will discuss in the remainder of this chapter. Our intention here is both
1
© The United Methodist Publishing House. All rights reserved.
ACPM010101QK001.qxd 6/29/05 1:52 PM Page 2
A THEOLOGICAL INTRODUCTION TO THE OLD TESTAMENT
to illumine what is meant by theological perspectives on the Old
Testament and to clarify the perspectives at work in this volume.
Ancient Testimony, Enduring Scripture
The Old Testament is the collected faith testimony of ancient
Israel. Yet, at the same time, this collection is regarded in Judaism
and Christianity as scripture through which God’s word becomes a
reality and a resource to the modern synagogue and church.
1. Whose book is this anyway? On the one hand, we can answer
that this is obviously Israel’s book. The first community to which the
text of the Old Testament is addressed is the community out of
which the text arose. That community was ancient Israel. Voices
from different periods and social contexts of Israel’s life address the
wider community of which they were a part. Since the experience of
ancient Israel stretches over many centuries, the Old Testament is a
library that includes faith testimony, moral admonition, liturgical
remembrance, and religious story. The ancient communities decided
that these texts were the authoritative witness to their experience of
God and their life as the community of God’s people. The texts
of the Old Testament were initially words addressed to an audience
in Israel, but they have been judged by the community as worthy of
preservation and reading through subsequent generations.
2. Since ongoing communities of faith, Jewish and Christian, have
claimed these texts as scripture, there is a sense in which the Old
Testament is not just ancient Israel’s book but belongs to the church
and synagogue as well. To claim these texts as scripture is to
acknowledge authority in these texts for the ongoing life of the religious community and its individual members.
To read the Old Testament theologically is to recognize that when
we read as people of faith within a confessional community, we are
interested in more than conveying information about an ancient
community. The events of Israel’s history and the witnesses to
Israel’s experience of God contained in the Old Testament are of
interest because we read as a part of communities that still seek to
stand in the presence of that same God. To read the Old Testament
theologically is to seek in its texts wisdom on the ways of God that
allows us to submit ourselves and our actions to that same God in the
2
© The United Methodist Publishing House. All rights reserved.
ACPM010101QK001.qxd 6/29/05 1:52 PM Page 3
THE OLD TESTAMENT AS THEOLOGICAL WITNESS
effort to be faithful communities in the world. The Old Testament
as scripture gives us imaginative categories for discerning God’s
presence and will in the deeply troubling challenges of our own
time.1
Every reading of an Old Testament text involves at least two distinct audiences: the audience to whom the text was originally
addressed and the audience supplied by the reader and the context
that informs the reader. To read the Old Testament as scripture is to
suggest that the ancient story intersects our contemporary stories in
ways that inform and transform lives and communities. To read
these texts as scripture is to expect such informing and transforming power. To read these texts as scripture is to bring the multiple
voices and contexts of ancient Israel into dialogue with the complexities of our own reading communities and the world in which we
read.
This book is written from the perspective of the Christian church
and its reading of ancient Israel’s testimony. We write as those
engaged in teaching these biblical texts to those who will draw upon
them as a scriptural resource for Christian ministry. We are deeply
informed and grateful to the ongoing reading of these texts in the
Jewish community, and we are aware of the shaping influence of
Jewish tradition on the church, particularly its influence on Jesus
and the earliest church. Nevertheless, we cannot escape the particularity of our exposition of the biblical text as Christian interpreters.
We continue to use the term Old Testament, though we are aware of
its problematic character in interfaith contexts. Alternative terms
seem equally problematic in other ways and have achieved no wide
use or recognition in the church.2 We reject the destructive implications of any form of supercessionism and affirm the ongoing debt
and necessary interrelationship of the Christian church to Judaism,
both ancient and modern. We have tried to be open to contemporary Jewish interpretive voices and readings in our encounter
with these texts. We are convinced that commonalities between
Christians and Jews in reading these texts are more important than
differences. But Christians and Jews alike must allow for readings
that reflect the particularities of distinct religious traditions and
their communities. This is part of what it means to read these texts
as scripture for church and synagogue. The concerns we bring to our
dialogue with the Old Testament are the concerns that are provided
3
© The United Methodist Publishing House. All rights reserved.
ACPM010101QK001.qxd 6/29/05 1:52 PM Page 4
A THEOLOGICAL INTRODUCTION TO THE OLD TESTAMENT
by the Christian church and the challenges to its identity and mission in our world at the beginning of the twenty-first century. For us
this means there is a continuity between the texts of ancient Israel,
the person and work of Jesus, the formation of the early church, and
the ongoing history of the Christian churches with their diversity of
tradition. We reflect this trajectory in our discussions, but this is not
the only trajectory of these texts; and our discussions are also influenced by an ongoing conversation with Judaism, its claim on these
texts as scripture, and a trajectory in Judaism that moves from Tanak
to Talmud.
Critical Understandings
The Old Testament as the literature of ancient Israel must be
understood critically. Likewise, the claims of authority for the Old
Testament as scripture in the church must be critically assessed. In
both of these arenas a variety of critical approaches contributes to
the discussions in this volume, and this book is greatly informed by
generations of productive critical scholarship. These critical
approaches are not without tensions and competing claims, and it is
important to discuss some of our perspectives on these issues.
Historical Criticism and Beyond
Historical criticism rose to the height of its influence in the nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century as an effort to apply
Enlightenment epistemological assumptions to the biblical text and
to escape the dominance of church authority in biblical interpretation. Its various methods (e.g., source criticism, form criticism, traditio-historical criticism, redaction criticism) collectively assumed
the possibility of objective and scientific interpretive results that
would not be affected by prior dogmatic assumptions about the biblical text. The use of these methods allowed the development of a
more detailed understanding of the complex processes through
which our biblical texts developed into their present form. The rise
to dominance of historical criticism in biblical interpretation fit with
the spirit of modernity, which prevailed through the mid-twentieth
century, even though significant battles continued with those who
held to more restrictive views of ecclesial authority in interpreting
4
© The United Methodist Publishing House. All rights reserved.
ACPM010101QK001.qxd 6/29/05 1:52 PM Page 5
THE OLD TESTAMENT AS THEOLOGICAL WITNESS
the Bible. Much of the interpretive literature available and used in
the church still today is deeply influenced by historical-critical
approaches.
More recently some of the assumptions and results of historical
criticism have become widely viewed as problematic.3 Some have
claimed that historical criticism is bankrupt, and some have argued
that these critical methods have been superseded. We would agree
that there are significant issues to be raised about historical-critical
approaches to biblical interpretation, but these are often issues
posed by the more extreme claims made for historical-criticism. Or
these are sometimes issues that arise with the inability of some to
acknowledge the legitimacy of interpretive methods that go beyond
or build upon the historical critical method.
(a) Few would any longer defend the possibility of genuinely
“objective” interpretive readings of biblical texts. We agree with
those who would argue that there are no disinterested readings of
biblical texts. Every reader or reading community brings a set of
contextual assumptions, perspectives, and values into the interaction with the biblical text. Thus, interpretation must critically reflect
on the context of the reader as well as the text. In this volume, we
offer our theological interpretation of the Old Testament as a reading informed by our particular contexts, but also as aware of and in
conversation with interpretive voices from other contexts dissimilar
to our own. While we do not believe there are totally disinterested
“objective” readings of texts, we do not consider this an invitation to
uncritical relativism in reading the biblical text. We have attempted
to approach this theological introduction to the Old Testament with
a disciplined and critical awareness of the text, the context out of
which its witnesses arose and the context out of which we read it. To
do this we necessarily continue to gratefully use historical-critical
tools and methods.
(b) Historical criticism has also at times become problematic for
developmental assumptions that have regarded as valuable only
what resembled, moved toward, or could be reduced to the prevailing patterns and assumptions of twentieth-century Euro-American
intellectual life. Thus, for example, some scholars viewed the period
of second-temple Judaism as a degeneration into legalism from
the high watermark of the prophets—a view that fostered disregard
for the creative response of Judaism to the challenges of the time
5
© The United Methodist Publishing House. All rights reserved.
ACPM010101QK001.qxd 6/29/05 1:52 PM Page 6
A THEOLOGICAL INTRODUCTION TO THE OLD TESTAMENT
after the return from Babylonian exile. As a further example, the
developmental assumptions of some advocates of historical criticism, fearful of supernaturalism, relegated theological claims about
the activity of God in Israel’s story to a secondary level of importance less significant than the investigation of literary and social
processes at work in the formation of the text. Many of the theological claims of the text were, accordingly, explained away or regarded
as early, more primitive religious expressions. Such a perspective is,
of course, contrary to the claim of the text itself that the activity of
God—including all of God’s mysterious, hidden, and alien aspects—
is at the heart of any meaning ascribed to these texts. The movement beyond historical criticism in recent interpretation attempts to
read the text with attention to all of its claims, including those that
seem odd, alien, or difficult but are nevertheless part of the text that
is to be read as scripture by the church.
(c) Positivistic philosophical assumptions, operative in the exercise of much historical-critical work in the twentieth century, often
resulted in a search for the meaning of a biblical text. This led to a
tendency to value the discovery of underlying sources, and supposed
original intent, more highly than the completed text of many biblical books. In the approach of this volume we believe that critical
understanding of the development of a text through complex
processes may inform our understanding of the text, but never to
the exclusion of interest in the witness of the final form of the text
as we now have it.
Some of these criticisms of the way in which the historical-critical
method dominated previous generations of biblical scholarship are
justified. New methods of interpretive encounter with the text are
demanding and receiving attention, and our approach is influenced
by some of these as discussed further in this chapter. But historicalcritical methods cannot be set aside and are still an important part
of disciplined critical study of the Old Testament, even one that
stresses the theological address of the text.
If this volume reflects interpretation that moves beyond historical
criticism, it nevertheless cannot interpret as if we stood prior to
the contributions of historical criticism. We continue to use many
historical-critical tools of analysis and continue to be informed by
the contributions of historical criticism to our knowledge of the text
and the world out of which it came. In particular, historical criticism
6
© The United Methodist Publishing House. All rights reserved.
ACPM010101QK001.qxd 6/29/05 1:52 PM Page 7
THE OLD TESTAMENT AS THEOLOGICAL WITNESS
has given us a respect for the complexity of the process that produced
the biblical writings of ancient Israel. It has made us aware of the
patterns and propensities of various genres of ancient literature. It
has heightened our awareness of the shaping influence of various
social, economic, and political factors that define the contexts out of
which biblical texts are formed. In short, even as we move beyond
historical criticism, we remain engaged in and indebted to its contributions and perspectives.
History, Language, Story, Song
There is increasing recognition that interpretation now takes
place in a postmodern context, one in which the previously settled
assumptions of the modern world have become unsettled and must,
therefore, be reassessed.4 One of those assumptions, closely allied
with the claims of historical criticism, was that history was the primary category for assessing the truth claims of the biblical text and
the reality assumed to “stand behind” the text. In our view, the
search for a historical reality behind the text sometimes did violence
to the imaginative and rhetorical integrity of the text itself. In particular the confessional speech of Israel about God was often judged
to be lacking a ground in historical reality, and much of this speech
about God was placed either to the side or on the margins of efforts
to describe biblical “truths.”
As a category for assessing the claim to authority for the texts of
ancient Israel, history has become a battleground. Only a generation ago, scholars were confidently writing histories of Israel using
the biblical text itself as a primary resource and supplementing that
with ancient Near Eastern and archaeological data. There was some
recognition that texts, particularly those telling the story of early
Israel, were shaped by confessional tradition. Nevertheless, Israel’s
testimonies were confidently believed to have a base in historical
reality, and this claim was considered important to the theological
authority of the text.5
For over thirty years this claim has been under serious attack. At
present there are many scholars who regard most of the texts of the
Old Testament as having no basis in historical reality. Most of these
scholars regard the bulk of the Old Testament narrative tradition as
a fiction generated by the community of post-exilic Judaism.6 For
7
© The United Methodist Publishing House. All rights reserved.
ACPM010101QK001.qxd 6/29/05 1:52 PM Page 8
A THEOLOGICAL INTRODUCTION TO THE OLD TESTAMENT
most making this argument, this lack of historical basis undermines
the authority of the theological claims of the text as well.
This is not the place to assess the poles of this debate in detail.
The Old Testament was not written and passed on primarily as historical record but exists as theological testimony. Thus, the use of
the text to reconstruct the history of ancient Israel does present serious critical problems. But the abandonment of all historical connection behind the texts of ancient Israel is itself a position with
assumptions that are not disinterested. Already serious challenges to
the extreme minimalist reading of Israel’s history have emerged to
challenge the notion that historians must choose between critical
and confessional perspectives. These voices argue that a history of
Israel that is more than a fiction can be written and the biblical texts
can contribute to such a critical history.7
In our view, the God of Israel and the claim that God may make
on the communities that continue to regard the Old Testament as
scripture can be known only by taking seriously the full reality of the
imaginative language through which that God is presented in the
biblical text. Thus, interpretation is as much a rhetorical as a historical enterprise.8 The recent explosion of literary approaches in biblical studies has significantly aided such interpretation. To encounter Israel’s God requires not the discovery of some hidden
history behind the text but serious entry into the world of biblical
testimony about this God with its claims and counterclaims.
Narrative (i.e., story) and poetry (i.e., song) are the central forms of
this testimony about God. Even the nonstory elements of the Old
Testament characteristically assume the framework and knowledge
of Israel’s story about encounter and relationship with God. We are
invited, indeed required, to enter the story and to hear the song and
to respond according to the shape of the story and the transactions
appropriate to the song. We are to value the imaginative power of
the narrative or poem more than its correspondence to some external, empirical reality. We are to discover in the world of Old
Testament texts tensions and struggles that challenge settled claims
about God and God’s community, Israel. It is the power of imaginative language to give rise to metaphor that allows us as modern readers to find our entry into the settled claims and the competing
witnesses of the Old Testament. In that encounter with Israel’s imaginative language we find perspectives on the claims and witnesses of
8
© The United Methodist Publishing House. All rights reserved.
ACPM010101QK001.qxd 6/29/05 1:52 PM Page 9
THE OLD TESTAMENT AS THEOLOGICAL WITNESS
our own experiences as persons and communities. Such entry into
the literary worlds of Israel and its subsequent impact on our own
lives has a power that no accumulation of historical data could ever
have. The reality of God cannot be disclosed, past or present, apart
from the boldness of those who speak that reality into the realm of
their own experience. Our treatment in this volume tries to honor
the boldness and creativity of that speech.
Social World and Theological Dynamics
Even as we have come to appreciate the theological value of
creative story and song, we have also become aware of the diverse
circumstances in which the people of Israel lived. Study of these
circumstances has had a profound impact upon our understanding
of the theological developments reflected in the Old Testament.
The past several decades of Old Testament scholarship have seen a
remarkable number of studies devoted to the social worlds of
ancient Israel. Issues such as gender, social status, political structure,
and ideology have become part of the discussion in an entirely new
way. Such analytical categories have provided new ways to reflect theologically about the Old Testament.
At the same time, biblical scholarship has grown in its awareness
of the social context of biblical reading and interpretation. The
community within which one reads and understands the meaning
of a biblical text has a profound impact. We are affected by the
perspectives of gender, ethnicity, religious tradition, and cultural
setting. A theological reading of Old Testament texts must be selfconscious and critical in its awareness of the effect of social context
within the world that produced the text and among the communities that read the text in our own time. Part of the power of these
texts as scripture affirmed by faith communities over generations
lies in their ability to speak meaningfully to multiple contexts and to
be interpreted helpfully from differing perspectives. To interpret
these texts theologically is to enter a dialogue with the many voices
that speak from the text and with the generations that have read the
text faithfully from their own times and places in the world.
Attention to social context, ancient and modern, has resulted in
scholarship aimed at calling our attention to perspectives that might
be overlooked or undervalued.
9
© The United Methodist Publishing House. All rights reserved.
ACPM010101QK001.qxd 6/29/05 1:52 PM Page 10
A THEOLOGICAL INTRODUCTION TO THE OLD TESTAMENT
Gender studies, as well exemplified by The Women’s Bible
Commentary,9 offer readings that emphasize how differently the stories and roles of men and women have been treated in the biblical
text and in the history of interpretation. In the patriarchal world of
ancient Israel, women were seldom the central focus in the stories.
Images of women in the stories and in non-narrative materials often
reflected social roles that were limited and sometimes harmful.
Interpreters, until recently almost entirely men, often overlooked
the importance of women in biblical stories or failed to consider
that the genders may have perceived divine reality and the relationship of God to the world differently. Gender-sensitive scholarship
has called our attention to previously ignored or undervalued elements of the Old Testament story. For example:
• Hagar, a slave to Sarah, mother of Abraham’s first son, and
outcast into the wilderness, becomes the recipient of a divine
theophany and promise.
• Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth, although women in marginal roles
and positions in their societies, become the mothers from
whose line comes David, Israel’s greatest king. These same
women, along with Bathsheba, become the mothers named
in the genealogy of Jesus in Matt 1.
• Prophets such as Hosea and Ezekiel regularly use images of
Israel as an unfaithful wife deserving abuse and humiliation
for her unfaithfulness. Although reflecting the treatment of
wives in ancient Israel, such images are not a part of the
prophetic message we want to uncritically affirm.10
• Women such as Miriam, Rahab, Deborah, Hannah, Abigail,
Huldah, and Esther do play important roles of leadership and
bold initiative that affect the future of Israel and advance
God’s purposes. Renewed attention to their stories often suggests alternative patterns of influence and leadership that
depart from customary styles and practices.
Socioeconomic status and class provide another important variable
for theological reflection. The Old Testament regularly depicts the
people of Israel on the move. At one key point, early on in the story,
God liberates the people from slavery in Egypt and, after a sojourn
in the wilderness, a later generation is able to move into the
10
© The United Methodist Publishing House. All rights reserved.