scholarly journals The Old Testament in Christian spirituality: Perspectives on the undervaluation of the Old Testament in Christian spirituality

2003 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christo Lombaard

Christian spirituality draws strongly on the Bible. Yet, it is the New Testament that almost without exception features most prominently. Ten possible reasons are offered why the Old Testament takes on such a disproportionately diminutive role in the practice and study of spirituality: Textual complexity/critical scholarship/theological educa-tion; Modern popular pieties; The cultural gaps between the Old Testament worlds and our worlds; Theological difficulties/Christian sensibilities; Fear of “boundary-less” interpretations; The reference to Scripture by writers on spirituality; The notion of progressive revelation; Theological diversity within the Old Testament; OT : NT = law : grace; The long and the short of textual units.

2009 ◽  
Vol 102 (3) ◽  
pp. 297-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul E. Capetz

In the nineteenth century the unrestricted application of the historical-critical method posed an unprecedented challenge to inherited Christian notions about the Bible. While this challenge was eventually to be felt most acutely in the study of the New Testament (nt) once the distinction between the “Jesus of history” and the “Christ of faith” had firmly established itself, traditional viewpoints on the Old Testament (ot) were actually the first to be called into question. As a consequence of historical investigation, it became increasingly difficult for theologians to claim that the gospel is already taught in the ot. Regarding this matter, Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834) made a bold proposal. He argued against the canonical standing of the ot on the grounds that it expresses Jewish, not Christian, religion. For him this conclusion was the unavoidable result of the advancing critical scholarship that was undermining the christological exegesis used to defend the church's claim to the ot against the synagogue's counter-claim to its sole rightful possession. Opposing such “christianizing” readings, Schleiermacher broke ranks from Christian theologians and championed the side of the Jews in this historic debate. His only predecessors in this regard were Marcion and the Socinians, although his proposal for relegating the ot to noncanonical status was later endorsed by Adolf von Harnack.


1948 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-73
Author(s):  
R. Stuart Louden

We can trace a revival of theology in the Reformed Churches in the last quarter of a century. The new theological interest merits being called a revival of theology, for there has been a fresh and more thorough attention given to certain realities, either ignored or treated with scant notice for a considerable time previously.First among such realities now receiving more of the attention which their relevance and authority deserve, is the Bible, the record of the Word of God. There is an invigorating and convincing quality about theology which is Biblical throughout, being based on the witness of the Scriptures as a whole. The valuable results of careful Biblical scholarship had had an adverse effect on theology in so far as theologians had completely separated the Old Testament from the New in their treatment of Biblical doctrine, or in expanding Christian doctrine, had spoken of the theological teaching of the Synoptic Gospels, the Pauline Epistles, the Johannine writings, and so on, as if there were no such thing as one common New Testament witness. It is being seen anew that the Holy Scriptures contain a complete history of God's saving action. The presence of the complete Bible open at the heart of the Church, recalls each succeeding Christian generation to that one history of God's saving action, to which the Church is the living witness. The New Testament is one, for its Lord is one, and Christian theology must stand four-square on the foundation of its whole teaching.


We Walk ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 115-138
Author(s):  
Amy S. F. Lutz

This chapter discusses the parable of the four sons, in which the author relates via the character of the wise son known as the “the child who does not know how to ask.” It talks about the representation of the “simple” child that already represents those with learning differences or intellectual disabilities. It also mentions how disability is seldom addressed in the Old Testament, noting that Moses allegedly suffered from a speech impediment. The chapter describes a token directive not to insult the deaf or place a stumbling block before the blind but is belied by the treatment of the few disabled people mentioned in the Bible. It elaborates how the New Testament, by contrast to the Old Testament, is full of disabled people.


1999 ◽  
Vol 55 (2/3) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. Loader

On the basis of the evidence of publications daing from the eighteenth century, this paper argues that the orthodox doctrine of the verbal inspiration the Bible caused extreme views on the language of the Old Testament which could maybe transferred to the "heathen" language of the New Testament. The resulting void was filled by focussing on the Jewish (read "Hebrew", thought of the New Testament. The work of Chistian Schoettgen, available the author in Vienna, is used in conjunction with the Critica sacra by Johan Gottlob Carpzov to develop the argument for the thesis. Some conclusions ardrawn.


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-254
Author(s):  
Anna Wierzbicka

Abstract Seen from a broad cross-linguistic perspective, the English verb (to) love is quite unusual because it has very broad scope: it can apply to a mother’s love, a husband’s love, a sister’s love, etc. without any restrictions whatsoever; and the same applies to its counterparts in many other European languages. Trying to locate the origins of this phenomenon, I have looked to the Bible. Within the Bible, I have found both continuity and innovation. In the Hebrew Bible, the verb ’āhēb, rendered in the Greek translation of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint with the verb agapao, implies a “preferential love”, e.g. it is used for a favourite wife of a favourite son. In the New Testament, the concept of ‘love’ loses the “preferential” components and thus becomes applicable across the board: between anybody and anybody else. The paper argues that the very broad meaning of verbs like love in English, aimer in French, lieben in German, etc. reflects a shared conceptual heritage of many European languages, with its roots in the New Testament; and it shows that by taking a semantic perspective on these historical developments, and exploring them through the rigorous framework of NSM and Minimal English, we can arrive at clear and verifiable hypotheses about a theme which is of great general interest, regardless of one’s own religious and philosophical views and commitments.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 38-50
Author(s):  
Kasiatin Widianto

Offering made by Christians today cannot be separated from the teachings of the Bible both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Offerings should be offered seriously with full sincerity and an attitude of sacrifice. Giving offerings does not talk about how much material or wealth is given, but talks about sincerity and longing to give the best to God. The discussion of the results of quantitative research proved that the congregation of the Gereja Sidang Jemaat Allah Pait Kasembon Malang understood the doctrine of the meaning of giving offerings in the Gospel of Luke 21: 1-4 for 44.5%, so the congregation would participate in giving offerings with the right motivation and the best quality for God. Thus the results of this study indicate that the result is in accordance with what the researcher has proposed before.


Author(s):  
Ольга Николаевна Афиногенова

Основная цель статьи - проследить историю отождествления Ангела Господня с архангелом Михаилом и выявить основной этап формирования культа архистратига. Методом сопоставления текста Священного Писания, апокрифов и византийских агиографических текстов выявляется чёткая картина влияния апокрифической традиции на византийский культ архангела Михаила. В Ветхом Завете Михаил упомянут по имени всего три раза - в Книге пророка Даниила; в Новом Завете - только однажды в Откровении ап. Иоанна Богослова. Вместе с тем в Священном Писании есть многочисленные упоминания безымянного Ангела Господня. Ориген впервые отождествил князя Михаила из Книги пророка Даниила с архангелом Михаилом, что было воспринято поледующей традицией. В апокрифах, однако, почитание Михаила не всегда наделено теми аспектами, которые будут фигурировать в более позднее время. Возможно, то, что почитание Михаила вобрало в себя функции других архангелов, связано с популярной агиографической традицией, посвящённой архистратигу. Первый текст этой традиции, ставший широко распространённым в Византии, - «Чудо в Хонах» (VIII в.). Но наиболее исчерпывающе традиция почитания архангела отражена в «Повести» Пантолеона Диакона (IX в.). Текст демонстрирует окончательное закрепление отождествления безымянного Ангела Господня из Ветхого и Нового Заветов с Михаилом, а также приводит наиболее полное изложение аспектов почитания архангела в Византии. The main purpose of the paper is to trace the history of the identification of the Angel of the Lord with the Archangel Michael and to identify the main stage in the formation of the cult of the Archangel. By comparing the text of Holy Scripture, apocrypha and Byzantine hagiographic texts, a clear picture of the influence of the apocryphal tradition on the Byzantine cult of Michael the Archangel is revealed. In the Old Testament, Michael is mentioned by name only three times - in the book of Prophet Daniel; in the New Testament - only twice in the Revelation of John the Divine and in Epistle of Jude. However, in the Bible there are numerous references to the nameless Angel of the Lord. For the first time Origen identified Prince Michael from the book of the Prophet Daniel with the archangel Michael, which was accepted by the following tradition. In the apocrypha, however, the worship of Michael is not always endowed with those aspects that will appear later. Perhaps the fact that the worship of Michael has absorbed the functions of other archangels relates to the popular hagiographic tradition devoted to the archestrategos. The first text of this tradition, which became widespread in Byzantium, was the “Miracle in the Chonae” (8th century). But the most exhaustively tradition of worship the archangel is reflected in consolidation of the identification of the nameless Angel of the Lord from the Old and New Testaments with Michael and provides the most complete exposition of the aspects of veneration of the archangel in Byzantium.


The article states that, for the purpose of interpreting the Biblical topos of the Law and Grace, Hilarion refers to the genre of the word. Hilarion takes first place in the title, and then in the text of the work God brings out wisdom. By law, he believes the Old Testament, which has already fulfilled its task, and Grace - the New Testament, which outlines the existence of man, his relationship with God, gives hope for eternal life. The subject of the "Word" breaks the sermon into four fragments. In the first of them, we notice the allegorical meaning of reading the Scriptures in relation to the history of mankind. The second part is devoted to the interpretation of the image of Jesus Christ, which appears as a synthesis of God and human nature. The third fragment depicts events beyond the boundary of the Bible. It is devoted to the baptism of Rus. In the fourth fragment Prince Volodymyr is glorified. Following the best traditions of Byzantine oratory prose, the author of the Word simply pours his text into quotations from the Bible and adds to them a predominantly allegorical interpretation, emphasizing that the work is not intended for proclamation, but for reading, which enabled the author to interpret the Scriptures and in the literal, and in allegorical sense. The advantage of the New Testament over the Old Testament is embodied by the author in the images of the free wife of Abraham Sarah - Grace and his servant Hagar - Law. Laconic retelling of God-inspired text, Hilarion interprets the old-czarist images, as those that represent the new covenants at the level of allusions, presented them in the form of additional parallel antithesis. The same anti-colored color is also depicted by the images of their children. Isaac was born from a free woman, which means that he represents freedom, Ishmael is from a slave, hence his image symbolizes slavery. He who receives Grace receives goodness, love, becomes the son of God, and begins to live a new life in the Holy Spirit through which the believer is through. The overcoming of the Law and the perception of Grace means, according to Hilarion, the acquisition of spiritual freedom.


Chronos ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 33-61
Author(s):  
Hilary Kilpatrick

The Bible, as the etymology of the word indicates, refers not to one book but to many. The Christian Bible is made up of the Old Testament, that is, the Jewish Scriptures, and the New Testament; moreover, for some Churches, among them the Orthodox, certain books commonly called the Apocrypha , which were added to the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, also fonn part of the Bible. The Bible is thus a small library, and as is common in libraries, some books are more popular than others. Long before the introduction of printing, the varying degrees of importance accorded to different books of the Bible led to some of them being translated before others. For instance, in Anglo-Saxon England, interlinear glosses (i.e. crude word-by-word translations) were made of the Gospels and Psalms, and separate portions of the Bible, including the Gospels, were rendered into Old English (Anonymous 1997: 200). Likewise, the earliest known written translations of parts of the Bible into Arabic are of the Gospels and Psalms; they can be dated to the 8th century. Oral translations are older, going back to pre-Islamic times (Graf 1944: 114-115, 138; Griffith 2012: 123-126). By contrast, the first attempt to produce a complete Bible in Arabic occurred only in the l 61h century (Graf 1944: 89-90).


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 117
Author(s):  
Gregorius Tri Wardoyo

<p><em>Violent texts in the bible</em><em> both in the Old Testament or in the New Testament</em><em>, especially in the Old Testament, arise a problem</em><em> for a potential reader</em><em> on how to read </em><em>and understand their message and the theology of the author of the Book.</em><em> </em><em>For this reason, b</em><em>iblical scholars try to read it and they propose the way to read such texts</em><em>, such as to read them in the historical context of the Book itself, and interpret them as a reflection of the author and their experience</em><em>. This article tries to propose another way to read violent texts, in particularly that involve God as author of violent deeds. The methode of this discussion is exegetical analysis on the texts of the Old Testament</em><em>, especially on those which narrate the violent deeds of God </em><em>. The result of the study is the violent deeds of God aim to recreate the creation; that is why such violent texts might be read in the frame of the new creation.</em></p><p><strong><em>Key words</em></strong><em>: </em>Alkitab, Keluaran, Kekerasan, Allah, Penciptaan (Baru)</p>


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