The purpose of this paper is to briefly summarize the development of Old Testament Theology from the Reformation era to the present time while highlighting the major contributing theologians and their methodological donations to the study of OTT in each era. ... Gabler took a more “faith/pietism” approach to theology while responding to the previous theological movements in the defining of Biblical vs. Dogmatic theology. ... Gottlieb Kaiser actually uses the formerly introduced Historical Critical Method to explore the questions about the study of Biblical Theology with Judaism/Christianity. ... The two note worthy responses to this debate came with the methodologies of Otto Eissfeldt’s “The History of Israelite-Jewish Religion and Old Testament Theology”, and Walther Eichrodt’s “Does OTT Still Have Independent Significance? ... He not only proposed a new view of the source criticism theory (which was the base of all his presuppositions and conclusions), but also proposed that there was no “center”, no central theme or subject from which to trace the intended meaning in the theology of the OT. ... who proposes that theologians should distinguish between Biblical Theology, Systematic Theology and the History of Theology in order to find what each biblical writer intended to write and did so write. ...
Walter Eichrodt: He greatly emphasized that historical study and faith must not be separated when coming to a theology of the OT. ... Such a presentation of the Old Testament was very much systematic in nature and yet Eichrodt would hold that it still was well within the boundaries of the historical discipline. ... We see faith incorporated with a historical critical study method, we see systematic/cross-sectional theology prolifically used as a common means of biblical study, and we see that his “covenant” theme does cover the majority of the OT theologically speaking. ... This Old Testament Theologian was deeply convinced that the start of OTT should be taken from the final book form and the final book place in which we find each book in the modern Hebrew canon. ...
Walter Kaiser: This latter 20th century theologian would fit nicely into the Biola University Biblical studies program in the respect that he is evangelical, dispensational, and does emphasize the use of the New Testament as a help in the interpretation of the old (as much as he would verbally disagree with this statement). Kaiser is an advocate of using the previous texts in the scriptures as a basis of theology to interpret the later dated books of the OT. ... He depends heavily on the Analogy of Scripture, namely that inductive method of biblical study we see using antecedence scripture sequencing, just like in Biblical Theology. ... The object of Kaiser’s Theology is that is seeks to find a center from discovering what each individual writer contributed. It is his view that Biblical Theology draws structure for the historical progression of the text. Kaiser builds his theology piece by piece, adding selected emphasis to account for through OT study (noting the recurrence of phrases and terms taking on a technical status, repetition of ideas and then building upon these frequented categories as a basis for further categories). ...
Personal Response to OTT Contributions
As I learned of the differing methodologies within the field of OTT I immediately began to wonder about the reason that theologians beginning as early as the 16th century took a more specific selected approach to the study of the Old Testament. ... I do not mean to say that the technicalities of historical critical background study need not be specific, nor that our task in OTT should be more topical and systematic (which would be the less specific theology between Biblical and Systematic). ... It is for this reason that a broader OTT, inclusive of faith and reason, descriptive and normative study, the “subjective moment” and the objectivity of the original historical moment with the text, the influence of the New as well as the Old Testament, canonical and extra-biblical material, is a wiser OTT.
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