Hermann Spieckermann, «God's Steadfast Love Towards a New Conception of Old Testament Theology», Vol. 81 (2000) 305-327

This article argues in favour of a conception of Old Testament theology that is aware of the different hermeneutical presuppositions due to the different canonical shapes of the Jewish and the Christian Bible, respectively. An Old Testament Theology based on the canon of the Christian Bible has to do equal justice to the Hebrew and to the Greek version of the Old Testament, acknowledging that the Greek version, the Septuagint, is a dominant factor for the emergence of Christian faith. Perceiving the Old Testament from a Christian point of view sheds new light on a central theological issue thus far underestimated in scholarly research: God's steadfast love. The contribution tries to show how this characteristic insight into God's true being is reflected and interpreted in the different parts of the Old Testament.

sentence of doom, he does so as being inwardly torn apart by his inextinguishable love. Israel was told about this tension between doom and steadfast love within God’s inner self by the prophets over and over again. The validity of the prophetic word was confirmed by continual updating within the growing prophetic writings that were acquiring a more and more authoritative character. Some aspects of this process will now be portrayed.

        Hosea’s prophetic existence is formed as an image of God’s internal conflict between doom and love²¹. The prophet’s children bear symbolic names, the daughter hmxr )l ‘Not pitied’ (Hos 1,6) and one of his sons ym( )l ‘Not my people’ (1,9). Thus, they incorporate God’s turning away from Israel which endangers Israel’s life. Israel understood quite well that in case God withdrew his mercy, this would mean serious danger. Consequently, those writers who were handing down the tradition took pains to exempt Judah from God’s merciless judgement (cf. 1,7) and to have the promise of God’s new mercy (cf. 2,1-3), certainly presupposing the experience of his judgement. The promise given in Hos 2,3 makes unmistakably clear what the children’s ominous names already suggested. When God revokes his mercy, God’s relation with the Israelite people ceases to exist. ‘Not my people’ may still be taken as a people in the eyes of the world. Theologically speaking, they are less than nothing. Like a reflected image the names ‘My people’ and ‘Pitied’ occur in Hos 2,3. They indicate the future promise that Israel might be identified with these. Only where God’s steadfast love for his people is realized as mercy is there a chance of life for Israel, namely living as sons of the living, that is, the life-giving God (cf. 2,1).

        In the Book of Hosea, Israel’s betrayal becomes the central theme dealt with in terms of love. In Hos 6,1-6²² the people’s willingness to