Old Testament

No problem more urgently needs to be brought to a focus than the one to which the following essays are addressed: the relation of the Old Testament to the New. This is not just a concern of Old Testament specialists who might be accused of special pleading, or of New Testament experts who cannot escape dealing with the matter in their exegesis of the text. Rather, it is a question which confronts every Christian in the Church, whether he be a professional theologian, a pastor of a congregation, or a layman. It is no exaggeration to say that on this question hangs the meaning of the Christian faith.

Even the language in which the question is formulated indicates that this is primarily and characteristically an issue for Christian faith. The Christian Bible is composed of two parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament. For members of the Jewish community this distinction does not apply. The Jewish Bible is composed of the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings, a tripartite canon which is basically coextensive with the Christian Old Testament. Although the Roman Catholic Church includes additional books and passages found in the Greek translation of Scripture (the Septuagint), there is general Christian agreement on a bipartite canon which distinguishes between the "old" and the "new."

The marriage of the two parts of the Christian canon is not one that easily holds together, and it might seem that divorce would be the best solution of the problem. Christian uneasiness about the Old Testament has had a long history, extending back to the early period of the Church. At first the Gospel of the Cross and Resurrection was proclaimed by appealing to "Scripture" (i.e., the sacred writings of Israel, chiefly the Law and the Prophets) and even difficult problems regarding the inclusion of Gentiles, such as the issue of circumcision, could be dealt with on this basis.

But as Christianity moved out into the Hellenistic world, it tended to become detached from this historical mooring. In the early second century there were probably many churches in which reading from "Old Testament" Scripture was not practiced and belief in "the God of Israel" faded imperceptibly into pagan conceptions. As time went along there were various attempts to sever the bond uniting the Christian Gospel and the Scripture of the Jewish people.

Before we hastily pick up stones to cast at this "heretic," let it be said that the questions raised by many Christians today about the Old Testament betray a sympathy for Marcion, whose attractive teachings gained a considerable popular following in the second century and even later. The God of the Old Testament, we still hear today, is a God of wrath, the stern, severe Judge whose judgments fill men with terror; on the other hand, the God of the New Testament is a God of love, the kind and merciful Father who treats his children with patience and forgiveness. Or, it is said, the God of the Old Testament is understood anthropomorphically as a kind of glorified human being; the New Testament, however, abandons such theological naiivete and affirms that "God is a Spirit." The God of the Old Testament is a warlike Being who satisfies Israel 's nationalistic pride by slaughtering his enemies; the God of the New Testament, by contrast, is not bound by nationalistic limitations but is concerned for the universal brotherhood of man.

In the heat of controversy, however, Marcion went much further, owing to the influence of Hellenistic dualism upon his thinking. The God of the Old Testament, he said, is another God, inferior to the God of Jesus Christ. These are actually two different Gods! The Old Testament God is the Creator of this transient world; the God of Christ is the God who redeems men from the world. The God of this world is the God of justice; the High God is the loving Father who is apprehended only through faith in Christ. Following this line of thinking, the discontinuity between the two revelations is absolute. The Gospel "fulfills" Jewish Scripture only in the sense that it supersedes and abrogates it.