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.
Testament9. Before we examine this history closely we will have a final look at the formula itself. Its nucleus proclaims Israels God as a god of love and faithfulness. The crucial Hebrew term for this is dsx, often explained by tm). The Septuagint translates both nouns with adjectives, polue/leoj kai_ a)lhqino/j very merciful and truthful10. In the Authorized Version both terms are translated by abundant in goodness and truth, the (New) Revised Standard Version says steadfast love and faithfulness, and the Jerusalem Bible renders kindness and faithfulness. These references to the Septuagint and different English translations may appear confusing, but they prove the semantic complexity of the terms dsx and tm). The semantic spectrum coloured by dsx is marked by the terms grace, mercy, compassion, kindness, love, that of tm) by faithfulness and truth. Faithful love and steadfast love seem to be appropriate terms to signify how God perceives his relation towards Israel in this central passage of the Sinai pericope.
The final shape of the Sinai pericope conveys the same message as its Deuteronomistic precursor did earlier11: God does not determine