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Once again—the "center" of the Old Testament - Old Testament theology
Biblical Theology Bulletin, Fall, 2001 by Roland E. Murphy
Abstract
The search for the "middle" of the Old Testament is ongoing, as it were a quest for the holy grail. Two more solutions have been proposed recently: Shekinah, a post-biblical term for divine dwelling or immanence, and "steadfast love" (hesed). This article critiques both and points to the paradox: the search fails, but it produces fruitful, if partial, insights.
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The center has formed an interesting pivot of discussion in biblical circles over the last thirty years, especially in German scholarship. There seems to have been little or no concern over the Mitre ("middle" or "center") of the New Testament. Rather, one spoke freely about the theology of Paul or of John, etc. The discussion has concentrated on the Old Testament, die Mitre des Alten Testaments, where it became a favorite subject for books and articles.
It is not immediately obvious why the question of the center should be raised specifically for the Old Testament, unless it is ultimately due to the dichotomy of Law and Gospel. The tripartite division of Jewish tradition into Law, Prophets, and Writings does not favor a midpoint, or at least has not led to a discussion of center, despite the importance of the Torah. The question becomes very complicated because it is addressed to a literature composed over several centuries and under significantly differing historical circumstances. A convenient recent summary of the situation is to be found by consulting the many references for "Centre for OT theology" in the index of the CONCEPT by J. Barr (1999: 708). There is no corresponding entry for the New Testament or for the entire Bible. This suggests that the search for the center is a particularly Christian issue. On the one hand, Jon Levenson (1993) has pointed to several reasons why Jews are not interested in a center, or specifically "biblical theology," at least in the form it assumed in the last century. On the other, it was implicit in the Christian canon of the Bible from the beginning, once the Testaments were joined together in Christian belief. The problem was really at the heart of Marcion's attempt to realign the Bible according to his view of Christian belief. But it was also felt by the patristic and medieval writers. Their preference for the allegorical and typological was one way of unifying the Testaments for themselves. This was never formulated as a search for the "center," but it approaches the idea, and it came to be expressed in the famous medieval distich of Littera gesta docet (Murphy 1998:116). A sharper expression derived from Martin Luther: was Christum treibet.
I do not know who was the first to use the term center, but it is safe to say that the idea became dominant among both scholars and popularizers in the aftermath of the publication of W. Eichrodt's THEOLOGY (1961-1967) with its emphasis on the covenant. Several "theologies" appeared, all of them proposing a center (or its equivalent) that differed from covenant, as can be seen usually in the title or subtitle of their works. For example, S. Terrien centered his interpretation on the idea of presence (1978), W. Zimmerli, on the name of God (1978), H.-D. Preuss on election/obligation (1991-1992), and many others chose various themes.
These few examples at least suggest how captivating the question of the center has been, even though it has not received an accepted answer. If the term quest is usually used to designate New Testament studies concerning Jesus, it can be easily transferred to the effort of scholars to determine the center of the Old Testament and its theology. The search has recently been continued by two scholars whose studies were quickly published in English. B. Janowski (2000) is explicit in his discussion of the center. H. Spieckermann (2000) approaches the question only indirectly by pursuing a well known Old Testament theme from a Christian point of view--a total biblical theology, embracing both Testaments.
The Shekinah
Bernd Janowski (Tubingen University professor and editor of the prestigious JAHRBUCH FUR BIBLISCHE THEOLOGIE) offers new factors to the discussion of biblical theology, especially the notion of divine indwelling or Shekinah (2000). He admits the ambiguity of "biblical theology"; does the phrase mean theology contained in the Bible (theology of the Bible) or theology that agrees with the Bible? He finds the views of J. Levenson (1993) fruitful, and he intends to propose a foundation for a dialogue with Judaism, mindful that the Tanakh or Old Testament remains the Bible of Judaism. First he makes the point that different trajectories have been followed in Judaism and Christianity. The Jewish canon found its "center" in the Torah (304), interpreted by the Prophets and the Writings, and its trajectory led to the Mishnah and Talmud. Christianity did not "christianize" the Old Testament; it simply placed it alongside its own Scripture. The Christian trajectory led to a continuation of the Old Testament into the New. He finds a "canonical continuity," defined as "the entirety of all divine revelations that have, until now, been disclosed" (306). Such continuity is exemplified by the use of Isaiah 52:13-53:12 in Acts 8, and the use of the Psalms in the Passion narrative (Mark). He does not use the phrase, but this view seems to be very close to the traditional sensus plenior, or the meaning derived from reading a biblical text in the light of later revelation.
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