Abstract
Old Testament studies have posed a lot of challenges to scholarship. They made people like Marcion read it with a pen-knife frame having in mind to cut off those texts of ‘horror' which present the Old Testament God as a wicked God who lacks compassion and the spirit of benevolence. This monstrous presentation of the Old Testament God has propelled some scholars like Pail Copan to ask, is the God (of the Old Testament) a moral or monster? This view of the Old Testament God is occasioned by the challenges involved in the studying of the Old Testament as an ordinary literary work, historical work, archaeological work, or a theological document. Viewing this canon from a theological perspective leads one to reading it from a religious perspective. This brings to the fore studying the religion of the Old Testament from a phenomenological perspective with an eye specifically on the concept of the Old Testament God. From a phenomenological perspective, it shows that the theistic concept was borne from varied experiences. It shows the nature and character of their God.
TopBrief Understanding Of The Old Testament And The Challenge Of Methodology
The Bible generally is the sacred book (scripture) of Christian religion. Worthy of note, this is divided into two major sections called testaments from the Latin word testamentum meaning covenant. These two major sections are Old Testament and New Testament. The Old Testament is majorly the Jewish scripture (though accepted by Christians) and speaks of the covenant God had with Israel, while the New Testament is concerned with the fulfilment of God’s covenant with humanity fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The Old Testament is often said to be the shadow of which the New Testament is the reality. Scholars are of the opinion that, the Old Testament in the New Testament concealed while the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed. Our concern in this study is with the Old Testament.
The Old Testament is structured differently by Roman Catholics and Protestant Churches; that of Roman Catholics is the Scripture of Judaism with seven (7) other books which were originally written in Greek language unlike the other parts which were written majorly in Hebrew language. Protestants only limit themselves to the thirty-nine (39) books of the Jewish scripture. The additional books by Roman Catholic are called Apocrypha by Protestants, but generally, they are called deuterocanonical books by Roman Catholics.
Old Testament Bible which is a collection of a library of many books whose composition spanned over one thousand years comprises of the Torah, Nabi’im and Kethubi’im (TANAK or TNK) which is commonly translated as the Law, Prophets and Writings (hagiographa – Holy Writings). Old Testament is a canon not only to the Jews but also part of the Christian canon. The term Old Testament is used by Christians, and it is in this sense that Werner H. Schmidt points out that, “the very name Old Testament (OT), makes sense only in correlation with the New Testament (NT) [and] this implies the problem of the Christian interpretation of this body of tradition” (2015, p. 3). The Christian understanding of Old Testament comes majorly from her expectation of the fulfilment of Jeremiah’s prophetic declaration and promise of a new covenant in Jer. 31:31ff, i.e. ‘new covenant’ which would replace the one which was broken by Israelites and led them into exile and Babylonian captivity.
The major challenge in the study of Old Testament is the issue of methodology. Worthy of note is the fact that, methods are a means to an end, so before one studies Old Testament, the question of the goal(s) of Old Testament must be established. To the Danish philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard, the main goal of studying the Bible is to obey it. In his words, “God’s word is given in order that thou shalt act in accordance with it, not in order that thou shall practice the art of interpreting obscure passages” (Kierkegarrd, 1941, p. 54). This goal of Kierkegaard did not take into cognizance those researchers to whom the Bible is not a canon of faith. It therefore rules them out of studying the Bible of which Old Testament is part of.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Old Testament: Is majorly the Jewish scripture (though accepted by Christians) and speaks of the covenant God had with Israel.
Phenomenology Study of Religion: This is an approach in which the researcher always suspends his/her judgment. It is used in describing the bracketing off,or suspension of judgment on questions of the validity of the phenomena and whether they give actual knowledge of the external world.
Suzerainty Covenant: This is a covenant relationship in which YHWH pledges to be the Suzerain (king) over Israel while Israel in turn is seen as YHWH’s vassal who is expected to be faithful to the covenant bond. YHWH as the suzerain protects, provides, and guides Israel.
Monotheism: The belief in the existence of only one God.
TANAK: Torah, N a bi’im and K e thubi’im (TANAK or TNK) is commonly translated as the Law, Prophets and Writings ( hagiographa – Holy Writings).
YHWH: This is the name of God is often left as a tetragrammaton (four letters). It is from here that vowels are introduced to produce the name Yahweh. It is not pronounced because of the idea of holiness attached to it. This name conveys the idea of God’s presence with Israel during their Egyptian slavery and He would be with them during their suffering and have them liberated.