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.

suffering upon him (53,8) presupposes the Servant’s sinlessness (53,9) and the conformity of his will with God’s (53,6.10). In the verses framing the message of the group God himself confirms the effectivity of the Servant’s suffering and death. Probably, it is even further expanded. In the final passage (53,11ab-12), it is stressed thrice that the ‘many’ (Mybr) profit by the Servant’s suffering and death. Who these many are, is not defined here. But the fact that v. 12 parallelizes the many and the sinners (My(#p) seems to support the view that the many are regarded as a more numerous group than the one proclaiming the Servant’s suffering. Finally, the introductory divine speech in 52,12-15 clarifies the understanding aimed at. Here, we discover a tendency to identify the many (52,14) with the many nations (Mybr Mywg) (52,15). The Servant’s suffering has assumed universal meaning; it is a promise to the nations which originates from a deed already performed.

        The close relation between God and the Servant conveyed by his suffering and death reaches the limits of theological imagination within the Old Testament³². In the Book of Deuteroisaiah, the Servant’s fourth song is immediately followed by a text which replaces the relationship of God and the Servant by the relationship of man and woman representing the relationship between God and Zion-Israel. After betrayal and adultery, after sterility and widowhood — the images of sin and suffering overlap and permeate one another — God declares and promises his love to his wife Zion-Israel. This love need not be reanimated; it was always there. God could never give up his first love. ‘Can a wife of a man’s youth be cast off, says your God?³³ For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with great compassion