Lecture 1: Introduction to the Study of the Old Testament

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Lecture 1 Introduction to the Study of the Old
Testament

• APTS-BIB509

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What do we mean by Introduction?

• Einführung Survey of the biblical material.
• Einleitung Introduction as a technical word in
  Biblical Studies. Here, such issues as
  authorship, history of research, critical /
  analytical theories, structural analysis are
  dealt with.

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Introduction?

• The Greek term Eivsagwgh, was first used by a
  monk named Adrianus (ca. 440 AD) and the German
  technical term Einleitung was use by J. D.
  Michaelis (1750).
• Introductions have been used by the Christian
  and Jewish communities for early days.
• Eissfeldt, The Old Testament An Introduction,
  1

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Important Introductions

• R. K Harrison, Introduction to the Old Testament,
  1969.
• O. Eissfeldt, The Old Testament An Introduction,
  1965.
• S. R. Driver, An Introduction to the Literature
  of the Old Testament, 1891, 1913.
• B. S. Childs, Introduction to the Old Testament
  as Scripture, 1979.

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Why Study the O.T. Anyway?

• 1. Is the Canonicity and/or Authority of the OT
  negated by the existence of the NT?
• Rom 10.4 Gal 3.10-4.7
• 2 Tim 3.15-7 Matt 5.17

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Why Study the O.T. Anyway?

• 2. The Problem with Dispensationalism
• 2.1 Division of the Bible into eras in which God
  dealt differently with his people (5 in OT 2 in
  NT).
• 2.2 A 3 Fold Interpretative Keys
• 2.2.1 The distinction between Israel and the
  Church.
• 2.2.2 The usage of a system of literal
  hermeneutics.
• 2.2.3 The belief that the underlying purpose of
  God in the world is to produce His glory.
• Feinberg, J. S. "Salvation in the Old
  Testament," in Tradition Testament, 44-45

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Why Study the O.T. Anyway?

• 3. Problems with the Historical Critical
  Methodology
• 3.1 The method has a distancing effect.
• 3.2 Positivistic view of history.
• 3.3 Tends to oversimplify the difference between
  now and the ancient periods

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Why Study the O.T. Anyway?

• 3.4 The method produces conflicting results.
• 3.5 Does not always recover "original thought,"
  i.e., "Authorial Intent"!
• 3.6 Tends to be atomistic disintegrative.
• 3.7 Difficult communicate
• 3.8 Principle of Analogue is problematic
• Nations, A. L., Historical Criticism and the
  Current Methodological Crisis, SJT 36 (1983),
  59-71

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Problems to Overcome in OT Study

• 1. Seeing the OT as "Our Scripture," not just
  Israel's
• 1.1 The early Church lived by the OT scriptures,
  therefore it should not seen as the "Hebrew
  Scriptures", but the "Church's Bible."
• 1.2 It is Important to read the OT as scripture
  just as the NT.

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Problems to Overcome in OT Study

• 2. Two dangers
• 2.1 Avoiding Christianizing the OT especially
  Christologizing the OT.
• 2.2 Avoid the Idea of NT superceding the OT
• 2.2.1 Marcion who thought that the OT God was an
  inferior God.
• 2.2.2 Bultmann a modern version of Marcion
• 2.2.3 Dispensationalism

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Problems to Overcome in OT Study

• 3. Letting the OT have a quasi-independent status
  - independence in relationship
• 3.1 A Trinitarian faith does not have to be
  Christomonistic.
• 3.2 Two communities of faith co-exist in the
  mystery of God's Election. (Rom 9-11)
• See Anderson, Bernhard W., Contours of Old
  Testament Theology, 3-15 for the general ideas
  presented here.

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Problems to Overcome in OT Study

• 3.3 Theological witness of the OT can supplement
  those of the NT.
• 3.3.1 NT presupposes OT theology Theologies of
  Creation Ecology Expostulation with God
• 3.3.2 OT Supplements the NT Calvin
  governmental institutions the larger frame of
  Theology Proper.

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What is Exegesis?

• What did the text mean?
• 1. OT language
• 2. Establishing the best text - Text Criticism
• 3. Literary Criticism - type of genre, etc.
• 4. Manner of Composition - single/composite
• 5. Character of Text - oral tradition layers of
  meaning.
• 6. Cultural Milieu - Geography Climate
  Archaeology Inst. of An. Is.
• 7. World Thought - text of ANE
• 8. Ancient Israelite Psychology

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What is Hermeneutics?

• What does the text mean?
• 1. Hearing the text in the Theology of both O.T.
  and the N.T.
• 2. History of Interpretation - Church History.
• 3. Critical Theological view on all levels gt
  Systematic/Dogmatic Theology.
• 4. Correction and admonition by the text.

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Canon and Canonization

• 1. Flavius Josephus (c. AD 37- c. AD 100) appears
  to be the earliest extra-biblical witness to the
  OT canon
• 1.1 Division of Josephus 22 Books
• Five Books of Moses Gen Exo Lev Num Deut
• Thirteen Books of the Prophets Jos Jud-Ru 12
  Sam 12 Kgs Isa Jer-Lam Eze Twelve Dan
  Job 12 Chr Ezr-Neh Est

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Canon and Canonization

• Four Hymns and Precepts Psa Prov SOS Ecc
• 1.2 Also the 22 count was followed by Melito,
  Origen, Eusebius, Cyril of Jerusalem, Epiphanius,
  Jerome, and Augustine.

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Canon and Canonization

• 2. Ezra and the men of the Great Synagogue
• The most prevalent answer in some circles was
  that of a sixteenth-century Jewish teacher named
  Elias Levita (d. AD 1549) Ezra and his
  associates, the men of the Great Synagogue,
  established both the correct text, the correct
  number, and the arrangement of the books of the
  Bible. But neither Scripture itself nor history
  gives us any warrant for linking Ezra or a Great
  Synagogue to a closing of the canon.
• Kaiser, Toward Rediscovering the Old Testament,
  38

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Canon and Canonization

• Neither is the tradition drawn from 4 Esdras 14
  - which supposes that all the sacred books were
  burned with the temple in 586 BC, thereby
  necessitating that Ezra and his five companions
  rewrite them in forty days and forty nights- of
  much help either, for this too is completely and
  unsubstantiated by any external historical data.
• Kaiser, Toward Rediscovering the Old Testament,
  38

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Canon and Canonization

• 3. The Council of Jamnia (or Jabne, a town not
  far south of Joppa, close to the Mediterranean
  coast)
• "Even in the frequently alleged work of the
  Council of Jamnia in its two meetings in AD 90
  and 118 cannot be credited with declaring what is
  canonical and what is not.... This Jamnia
  hypothesis, concluded Jack P. Lewis, appears to
  be one of those things that has come to be true
  due to frequent repetition of the assertion
  rather than to its being actually supported by
  evidence (J. P. Lewis, What Do We Mean by
  Jabneh? Journal of Bible and Religion 32 (1964),
  132).... Jamnia, however, gives no evidence of
  settling or even discussing the question of the
  canon." Kaiser, 38

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Canon and Canonization

• 4. Progressive Canonization Theory
• "Within the corpus of the writings themselves
  there is both the assertion of the writers that
  their writings have been received from and guided
  by the revelatory and inspiring work of the Holy
  Spirit and the assertion that what has been
  written was to be collected with the other books
  that had made a similar claim and were likewise
  treated as authoritative." Kaiser, 39
• 5. NT Witness
• 5.1 Lk 24.44 Law, Prophets and Psalms as the
  three fold division of the Baba Bathra.
• 5.2 Matt 5.17 7.12 22.40 Acts 13.15 have the
  Law and the Prophets

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Canon and Canonization

• 5.3 Lk 24.27 has Moses and all the Prophets
• 5.4 Matt 23.34-35
• 6. Roger Beckwith
• The Old Testament Canon of the New Testament
  Church. Grand Rapids Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1985.
• Formation of the Hebrew Bible, in Mikra,
  Minneapolis Fortress Press, 1990, pp. 39-85.
• 7. Recent Influences of Qumran Studies.

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The Hebrew Canonical Order

• Torah Pentateuch
• Prophets
• Former Prophets (Historical Book)
• Later Prophets (Prophets)
• Writings

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Textual Criticism

• MT Masoretic Text (Hebrew)
• LXX Septuagint (Greek)
• Qumran (Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic)
• Samaritan Pentateuch - (Hebrew)
• Vulgate - (Latin)
• Aramaic Targum - (Aramaic)
• Syriac Peshitta - (Syriac)

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Manuscripts
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Dating of Manuscripts Traditions

• Hebrew Bible
• Dead Sea Scrolls 200BCE-100CE (the whole canon
  except for Esther)
• Cairo Codex 827CE, Prophets
• Leningrad Codex 916CE, Prophets
• Aleppo Codex 930CE
• Leningrad B19A 1008-9CE

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Dating of Manuscripts Traditions

• Septuagint (LXX)
• Tradition 3rd Century BCE
• Manuscripts
• Codex Alexandrius (A) 5CE
• Codex Sinaiticus (S or a) 4CE
• Codex Vaticanus (B) 4CE

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Dating of Manuscripts Traditions

• Other Traditions Manuscripts
• Samaritan Pentateuch 400 BCE
• Aramaic Targum
• Syriac Peshitta
• Latin Bible
• Old Latin - 150CE
• Vulgate 400CE
• Emanuel Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew
  Bible

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Codex Cairensis 827CE, Moshe ben Asher
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Aleppo Codex Shelomo ben Buya?a, 930CE
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Aleppo Codex Shelomo ben Buya?a, 930CE
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Codex 17, Firkowitsch Collection 930CE
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Codex Leningrad B19A 1008-9CE
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Codex Leningrad B19A 1008-9CE
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Samaritan Pentateuch 1215/6
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Codex Vaticanus LXX, 1209
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Historical Criticism

• 1. History of Religions
• 2. Form Criticism
• 3. Tradition Criticism
• 4. Sociological Interpretation

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Literary Criticism

• 1. Source Criticism
• 2. Redaction Criticism
• 3. The New Literary Criticism
• 4. Rhetorical Criticism
• 5. Reader Response Criticism
• 6. Structuralism
• 7. Canonical Criticism