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.

with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself’ (24,27). Characteristically, the disciples perceive the truth of the interpretation only when Jesus gives the blessed bread to them (24,30-31.35). The experience of the true authenticity of his person has to join the interpretative words. Only after that the disciples may say from a retrospective point of view: ‘Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures?’ (24,32). Interpreting as opening the scriptures requires eyes opened by Jesus Christ or God, respectively (24,31).

        Every form of interpretation in Christian theology, even scholarly exegesis, is dependent on this. The scholarly exegete also principally directs his attention towards recognizing the truth inherent in the texts entrusted to him — although this fact is not always quite evident with all his philological and historical investigations. To discover the truth of the Christian Bible — including the Old Testament — does not mean to discover immediate testimony to Christ in Old Testament texts. This would be an attempt bound to fail. Interpreting the authentic testimony of the Christian Bible means to take investigation into the texts’ world seriously. Neglecting the text’s historical dimension results in docetism, whereas disregarding the question concerning the truth results in religious indifference. Biblical texts should be read critically and theologically, i.e. not with a slow heart (Luke 24,25), but with a burning heart (cf. 24,32) instead. From the New Testament point of view, it is God incarnate in Jesus Christ, who sets the heart burning. He opens the scriptures (cf. 24,32), namely the Old Testament, by interpreting all scriptures (cf. 24,27) with regard to himself. This is not exegetic monomania that discovers always the same in any text. Jesus Christ being God incarnate involves himself in the texts and thus teaches to ask for God in accordance with truth. In the story of the walk to Emmaus Jesus asks the question as to suffering in accordance with truth. Everyone who reads the story about Jeremiah’s suffering or the Servant’s fourth song with such open eyes will perceive the tension between divine love, prophetic suffering and human sin developing in the Old Testament. Asking questions in accordance with truth perceived in the Christian Bible leads to the realization that the Servant’s intercession by suffering and death on behalf of the sinful many comes very close to the idea of God’s incarnation in the Servant, although this final step is not taken there. Thus, in spite of the Servant’s suffering substituting for the many there is no theological re-orientation in the