========================================================================
  THEOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT (1904)
  by MacDuff
========================================================================

MacDuff's scholarly theological examination of the doctrinal content of the Old
Testament, designed as a textbook for theology students seeking a comprehensive
understanding of the theological concepts and divine revelation found in the
Hebrew Scriptures.

  Chapters: 1

------------------------------------------------------------------------
  TABLE OF CONTENTS
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    1. 00 The Theology of the Old Testament (1904)

========================================================================
  CHAPTER 1: 00 THE THEOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT (1904)
========================================================================

THE THEOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT by Andrew Bruce Davidson

(1904)

International www.archive.org/details/theologyofoldtes00davirich EDITORS’
PREFACE.

THEOLOGY has made great and rapid advances in recent yeaars. New lines of
investigation have been opened up, fresh light has been cast upon many subjects
of the deepest interest, and the historical method has been applied with
important results. This has prepared the way for a Library of Theological
Science, and has created the demand for it.

It has also made it at once opportune and practicable now to secure the services
of specialists in the different depart- ments of Theology, and to associate them
in an enterprise which will furnish a record of Theological inquiry up to date.
This Library is designed to cover the whole field of Chris- tian Theology. Each
volume is to be complete in itself, while, at the same time, it will form part
of a carefully planned whole. One of the Editors is to prepare a volume of
Theological Encyclopaedia which will give the history and literature of each
department, as well as of Theology as a whole. The Library is intended to form a
series of Text-Books for Students of Theology. The Authors, therefore, aim at
conciseness and compact- ness of statement. At the same time, they have in view
EDITORS’ PREFACE. that large and increasing class of students, in other depart-
ments of inquiry, who desire to have a systematic and thor. ough exposition of
Theological Science. Technical matters will therefore be thrown into the form of
notes, and the text will be made as readable and attractive as possible. The
Library is international and interconfessional. It will be conducted in a
catholic spirit, and in the interests of Theology as a science. Its aim will be
to give full and impartial statements both of the results of Theological Science
and of the questions which are still at issue in the different departments. The
Authors will be scholars of recognized reputation in the several branches of
study assigned to them. They will be associated with each other and with the
Editors in the effort to provide a series of volumes which may adequately
represent the present condition of investigation, and indi- cate the way for
further progress.

CHARLES A. BRIGGS.

STEWART D. F. SALMOND.

Theological Encyclopaedia. By CHARLES A. BRIGGS, D.D., D.Litt., Prof, of
Theological Encyclopedia and Symbolics, Union Theol. Seminary, N. Y. An
Introduction to the Literature of By S. R. DRIVER, D.D., D.Litt., Regius the Old
Testament. Professor of Hebrew, and Cation of Christ Church, Oxford. {Revised
and enlarged edition). The Study of the Old Testament. By the Right Rev. HERBERT
EDWARD RYLE, D.D., Lord Bishop of Winchester.

Old Testament History. By HENRY PRESERVED SMITH, D.D., Professor of Biblical
Historv, Aniherst College, Mass. (Now ready,} Contemporary History of the Old By
FRANCIS BROWN, D.D., LL.D., D.Litt., Testament. Professor of Hebrew, Union
Theological Seminary, New York.

Theology of the Old Testament. By the late A. B. DAVIDSON, D.D., LL.D.,
Professor of Hebrew, New College,’

Edinburgh. (Now ready.}

3nfernafionaf An Introduction to the Literature of the New Testament.

Canon and Text of the New Testa- ment. The Life of Christ. A History of
Christianity in the

Apostolic Age.

Contemporary History of the New

Testament.

Theology of the New Testament.

Biblical Archaeology. The Ancient Catholic Church. The Later Catholic Church.
The Latin Church. The Greek and Oriental Churches. The Reformation.

Symbolics.

History of Christian Doctrine.

Christian Institutions.

Philosophy of Religion. The History of Religions.

Apologetics. The Doctrine of God. The Doctrine of Man. The Doctrine of Christ.
The Doctrine of Salvation. The Doctrine of the Future Life.

Christian Ethics. The Christian Pastor and the Work- ing Church. The Christian
Preacher.

Rabbinical Literature. By S. D. F. SALMOND, D.D., Principal of the Free Church
College, Aberdeen.

(In press.} By CASPAR RENE GREGORY, D.D., LL.D., Professor of New Testament
Exegesis in the University of Leipzig. By WILLIAM SANDAY, D.D., LL.D.. Lady
Margaret Professor of Divinity, and Canon of Christ Church, Oxford. By ARTHUR C.
MCGIFFERT, D.D., Professor of Church History, Union Theological Seminary, New
York. (Ncnv ready.) By FRANK C. PORTER, D.D., Professor of Biblical Theology,
Yale University, New

Haven, Conn. By GEORGE B. STEVENS, D.D., Professor of Systematic Theology, Yale
University, New Haven, Conn. (Now ready.) By G. BUCHANAN GRAY, D.D., Professor
of Hebrew, Mansfield College, Oxford. By ROBERT RAINY, D.D., LL.D., Principal of
the New College, Edinburgh. (Now ready.) By ROBERT RAINY, D.D. LL.D., Principal
of the New College, Edinburgh. By the Right Rev. ARCHIBALD ROBERTSON, D.D.,
Loi’d Bishop of Exeter. By W. F. ADENEY, D.D., Professor of Church History, New
College, London. By T. M. LINDSAY, D.D., Principal of the United Free College,
Glasgow. By CHARLES A. BRIGGS, D.D., D.Litt., Prof, of Theological Encyclopedia
and Symbolics, Union Theol. Seminary, N. Y. By G. P. FISHER, D.D., LL.D.,
Professor of Ecclesiastical History, Yale University, New Haven, Conn. (Revised
and en- larged edition.) By A. V. G. ALLEN, D.D., Professor of Ecclesiastical
History, P. E. Divinity School, Cambridge, Mass. (Now ready.) By ROBERT FLINT,
D.D., LL.D., sometime Professor of Divinity in the University of

Edinburgh. By GEORGE F. MOORE, D.D., LL.D., Professor in Harvard University. By
the late A. B. BRUCE, D.D., sometime Professor of New Testament Exegesis.

Free Church College, Glasgow. (Revised and enlarged edition.) By WILLIAM N.
CLARKE, D.D., Professor of Systematic Theology, Hamilton The- ological Seminary.
By WILLIAM P. PATERSON, D.D., Professor of Divinity, Utiiversity of Edinburg.

(Author will be announced later.) By GEORGE B. STEVENS, D.D., Professor of
Systematic Theology, Yale University. By S. D. F. SALMOND, D.D., Principal of
the United Free College, Aberdeen. By NEWMAN SMYTH, D.D., Pastor of Con-
gregational Church, New Haven. (Re- vised and enlarged edition.) By WASHINGTON
GLADDEN, D.D., Pastor of Congregational Church, Columbus, Ohio. (Now ready.)
(Author will be announced later.) By S. SCHECHTER, M.A., President of the Jewish
Theological Seminary, New York

City.

ZTbe 3nternatfonal Ubeolosfcal Xfbrars,

EDITED BY CHARLES A. BRIGGS, D.D., Edward Robinson Professor of Biblical
Theology, Union Theolcgical Seminary, New York. AND STEWART D. F. SALMOND, D.D.,
Principal, and Projessor of Systematic Theology ’, United Free Church College,
Aberdeen; THE THEOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. BY THE LATE A. B. DAVIDSON, D.D.,
LL.D., Lnr.D.

INTERNATIONAL THEOLOGICAL LIBRARY THE THEOLOGY OF THE

OLD TESTAMENT BY THE LATE A. B. DAVIDSON, D.D., LL.D., LiTT.D.

PROCESSOR OF HEBREW AND OLD TESTAMENT EXEGESIS NEW COLLEGE, EDINBURGH EDITED
FROM THE AUTHOR’S MANUSCRIPTS BY S. D. F. SALMOND, D.D., F.E.I.S.

PRINCIPAL OF THE UNITED FREE CHURCH COLLEGE, ABERDBBM

UNIVERSITY

NEW YORK:

CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS

1904 Published May, 1904 The Rights of Translation and of Reproduction are
Reserved

PREFACE. THE master hand, it will easily be seen, has not put this work in order
for the press. The subject was long in Professor Davidson’s mind. He gave it a
large place in his College Lectures. He was constantly engaged in writ- ing upon
it and in recasting what he had written, modify- ing his statements and revising
his conclusions. He prepared a large mass of matter, but he did not survive to
throw it finally into shape for publication.

It has been a difficult and anxious task to deal for the best with the abundant
material Dr. Davidson’s manu- scripts bear on every page impressive evidence of
the immense pains he took with things, and the lofty standard he set before him
in all his professional duty. Much of the matter came to me in a variety of
editions, four, five, or six in not a few cases, the long results of unceasing
study and searching probation of opinion. It has been far from easy to de’cide
between one form and another, all being left undated, and to bring the different
parts into proper relation.

I have not thought it right to take liberties with my departed friend’s work. I
have given it substantially as he left it, adding only an occasional note where
that seemed specially appropriate or needful. Nor have I judged it within my
province to depart from his ways in the use of Scripture or in anything else.
When expounding any

?

/

\ Q I 9 ’

VI PREFACE Biblical truth he was iii the habit of making copious quotations from
the sacred text, referring to the same passages again and again as they offered
themselves in different aspects and connexions. He did this, too, with much
freedom, using sometimes the Authorised Version and sometimes the Eevised,
furnishing sometimes a trans- lation of his own, and sometimes giving the sense
rather than the terms. His methods in such things are followed as they are found
in his manuscripts. Had Dr. Davidson been spared to complete his work and carry
it through the press, it would have been different, no doubt, in some respects
from what it is. It would have been thrown into the best literary form. Its
statements at some points would have been more condensed. It would have had less
of that element of iteration of which he made such effective use in his
class-room. But even without the last touches of the skilled hand, it will be
seen to be a distinct and weighty contribution to a great subject. Fine
thinking, penetrating exegesis, spiritual vision, a rare insight into the nature
and operation of Eevelation, make the book one which the student of Old
Testament Scripture will greatly value.

One thing that gave Dr. Davidson much concern was the question of the plan on
which a work of this kind should be constructed. His object was to bring the
history and the ideas into living relation, to trace the progress of Old
Testament faith from stage to stage, and to exhibit the course along which it
advanced from its beginnings to the comparative fulness which it obtained at the
end of the prophetic period. But he never carried out the scheme.

He had an increasing distrust of ambitious attempts to fix the date of every
separate piece of the Hebrew literature, and link the ideas in their several
measures of immaturity and maturity with the writings as thus arranged. He

PREFACE Vll became more and more convinced that there was no solid basis for
such confident chronological dispositions of the writings and juxtapositions of
the beliefs. In his judg- ment the only result of endeavours of this kind was to
give an entirely fictitious view of the ideas, in their relative degrees of
definiteness, the times at which they emerged or came to certainty, and the
causes that worked to their origin and development. The most that we had
scientific^ warrant to do, in view of the materials available for the purpose,
was, in his opinion, to take the history in large- tracts and the literature in
a few broad divisions, and study the beliefs and the deliverances in connexion
with these. My work is at an end. During its course the mist has been often in
my eyes. The sense of loss has been revived. A voice has spoken to me out of the
past. A face that was darkened has seemed to be turned upon me again with its
old light. I have felt how long art is and how short is life.

S. D. F. SALMOND.

ABERDEEN, April 2, 1904.

CONTENTS.

L THE SCIENCE OF OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY.

MM 1. The Idea of Old Testament Theology . . 1 2. Studies preliminary to Old
Testament Theology . . 4 3. Definitions and Characteristics of Old Testament
Theology 6 4. The Relation of Old Testament Ideas to the Old Testament History
....... 11 5. Divisions of the Subject ..... 12 G. The great Historical Periods
..... 15 7. General Course and Drift of the History . . .22 8. Literary and
Historical Criticism in relation to Old Testament Theology . . . ... 28 II. THE
DOCTRINE OF GOD.

1. General Character of the Old Testament Conception of God 30 2. The Idea of
the Divine Name . . . .36 3. Particular Names of God . . . .38 4. The Name
Jehovah ...... 45 5. Jehovah the God of Israel ..... 58 6. The historical
Occasion of the Application of the Name

Jehovah . 67 III. THE DOCTRINE OF GOD THE DIVINE NATURE.

1. The Knowledge of God ..... 73 2. The Essence and Attributes of God . . . .82
3. The Unity of God . . . 96 4. The Doctrine of the sole Godhead of Jehovah in
later Prophecy . ..... 100 5. The Personality and Spirituality of God . . .106
tv

X CONTENTS IV. THE DOCTRINE OF GOD THE SPIRIT.

PAGE 1. The Spirit of God . . . . . .115 2. The Spirit of God within God Himself
. . .117 3. The Activities of the Spirit . . . . .120 4. What the Spirit is . .
. . . .126 V. THE DOCTRINE OF GOD THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES.

1. The Righteousness of God . . . . .129 2. The Holiness of God . . . . . .144
3. The Natural Attributes . . . . .160 4. The Redemptive Attributes . . . . .169
5. God’s Relations to Nature and to Men . . .174 VI. THE DOCTRINE OF MAN.

1. Human Nature and its Constitution . . . .182 2. The terms ’ Body ’ and ’
Flesh ’ . . . .188 3. The term ’Spirit’ ...... 192 4. The term ’Soul’ ...... 199
VII. THE DOCTRINE OF MAN SIN.

1. Sin its Nature and Extent ..... 203 2. The Consciousness of Sin ..... 227
VIII. THE DOCTRINE OF REDEMPTION.

1. The Covenant. . . . . . .235 2. Why the Covenant with Israel and not another
? . . 249 3. The Terms descriptive of the Covenant Relation . . 252 4. The
Second Side of the Covenant The People a righteous People ....... 259 5.
Righteousness in the People ..... 271 6. Righteousness, Grace, and Faith ....
278 7. Suffering and Imputation ..... 282 IX. DOCTRINE OF REDEMPTION SUPRAHUMAN

GOOD AND EVIL.

1. Angels ....... 289 2. The Angel of the Lord . . . . .296 3. Satan ..... 300

CONTENTS XI X. DOCTRINE OF REDEMPTION-PRIESTHOOD AND

ATONEMENT.

PAGE 1. The Priest 306 2. Sacrifice ....... 311 3. Atonement and Forgiveness . .
. . .315 4. Atonement by Priest and High Priest . . . 324 5. The term ’Atone’
...... 327 6. Ritual Use of the Term . . . . .338 7. The Principle of Atonement
.... 352 XI. THE DOCTRINE OF THE LAST THINGSTHE

MESSIANIC IDEA.

1. Distinctive Contributions to the Doctrine . . . 356 2. The Consummation of
the Kingdom . . . 3C5 3. The Day of the Lord . . . . . .374 4. The Day of the
Lord in Deutero-Isaiah . . . 384 5. Redemptive Righteousness in Deutero-Isaiah .
. 395 XII. DOCTRINE OF THE LAST THINGS IMMORTALITY.

1. Differences in Modes of Thought .... 402 2. Fellowship with God the
Fundamental Idea . . 415 3. Preliminary Questions as to Man’s Nature . . .417 4.
Conception of Sheol ...... 425 5. Conception of Death ...... 432 6. Life and its
Issues ...... 437 7. Problems of Righteousness and their Solution . . 453 8.
Ideas of an After-Life in Psalms xvii., xxxvii., xlix., Ixxiii. 459 9. The Idea
of an After-Life in Job . . . . 466 10. The Hope of an After- Life in relation
to the Ideas of Life and Death . .... 495 11. The Moral Meaning of Death . . .
.511 12. Further on the Reconciliation between the Idea of Death and the Idea of
Life 522 NOTES OF LITERATURE ..... 533 INDEX OF SCRIPTURE PASSAGES , , 541 INDEX
OF MATTERS . . 548 THE THEOLOGY OF THE

OLD TESTAMENT THE

UNIVERSITY OF THE THEOLOGY OF THE OLD

TESTAMENT.

/. THE SCIENCE OF OLD TESTAMENT

THEOLOGY.

1. The Idea of Old Testament Theology.

OLD Testament Theology is the earlier division of Biblical Theology. We speak of
a Natural Theology, a Biblical, a Systematic Theology. These adjectives attached
to the term Theology indicate the source of our theological knowledge, or the
orderly form into which the knowledge is thrown. In Natural Theology nature is
the source of our know- ledge. In Systematic Theology, while Scripture supplies
the knowledge, some mental scheme, logical or philo- sophical, is made the mould
into which the knowledge is run, so that it comes out bearing the form of this
mould. In Biblical Theology the Bible is the source of the know- ledge, and also
supplies the form in which the knowledge is presented. Biblical Theology is the
knowledge of God’s great operation in introducing His kingdom among men,
presented to our view exactly as it lies presented in the Bible. Now the Bible
is a book composed of many parts, the composition of which extended over
considerably more than a thousand years. And the operation of God in bringing in
His kingdom extends even over a larger space. But in the Bible we have writings
contemporary with this operation, and reflecting it for more than a thousand
years, and writings which sketch that operation in brief 2 THE THEOLOGY OF THE
OLD TESTAMENT and in its principal turning-points during the ages pre- ceding.
This at once suggests to us, therefore, when we consider that God’s operation
extended over this long period, and yet that it took end at last in the coming
of His Son, that two characteristics belong to it. It is historical, and it is
progressive ; it covers a long period, and it advances from less to more, and
finally culminates. And the Bible keeps pace, so to speak, with this operation,
reflects it, and gives us the knowledge of it in this form. In its fullest sense
the kingdom of God was only intro- duced in the Coming of the Son of God into
the world ; and in this sense all that went before might seem only capable of
being regarded as preparation for this kingdom, or at most shadows of it. And
this is the view which has often been taken of what is called the Old Testament
dispensation, namely, that it is a designed shadow or adumbration of the new.
But this is not the view which it takes of itself ; the consciousness of Israel
as reflected in the minds of its prophets and highest men was that it was the
kingdom of God already. The apparent discrepancy disappears on a little
consideration of what the kingdom of God is. It is the fellowship of men with
God and with one another in love. In a perfect sense this could not be till the
Coming of the Son in whom this fellowship is fully realised. And in a sense all
that went before was preparation for the kingdom rather than the kingdom itself.
But how was the perfect kingdom prepared for ? Not by mere pre- dictions of it
and references to it as a thing to come, nor by setting up a thing which was a
shadow of it ; but by setting itself up in as perfect a form as was possible to
begin with, awakening within men both a sense of dis- satisfaction with its
imperfections then, and lofty ideals of what its true condition would be, and
thus kindling in them an enthusiasm which made them not only long for the
perfect kingdom, but struggle for its attainment. For as the kingdom of God in
its perfect form does not lie in mere knowledge, but rather in the life which
the know- ledge awakens, so it could not be prepared for by the THE IDEA OF OLD
TESTAMENT THEOLOGY 3 mere knowledge that it was approaching, nor even by the
knowledge outwardly communicated of what it was. It could be prepared for only
by bringing in, and that in ever fuller tides, the life of which it consists.
That life no doubt depended on the knowledge of what the kingdom truly was ; but
this knowledge could be learned by men only by living within the kingdom itself.

Thus the perfect kingdom was gradually prepared for by setting up such a kingdom
in an imperfect state and under temporary forms, and by administering it in such
a way as progressively to suggest to men’s minds the true ideal of the kingdom,
and communicate to them in broader streams the true life in such a kingdom. And
each step of this com- munication was a more perfect bringing in of the kingdom
itself, an advance towards its perfect form. Thus a life and a thought were
awakened within this kingdom of God set up in Israel, which grew and expanded
till they finally burst and threw off from them the imperfect outward form of
the kingdom in which they were enclosed. Now the Old Testament Scriptures
exhibit to us the growth of this life and this thought. We can observe the
stream of life and ideas flowing from the Exodus at least, or even from a source
higher up, ever broadening as it proceeds, and finally pouring itself into the
sea of life and thought in the New Testament age. We can fathom this stream here
and there along its course, mark the velocity and breadth of its cur- rent,
observe the changing colour of its waters as it pursues its way through region
after region of the people’s history, and perceive what subsidiary streams
poured their contents into it and helped to swell it. To do this and present the
results to ourselves is to be Old Testament theologians.

What we shall have to look for is a point of view ; and that point of view will
be this, that in the Old Testament we have presented to us an actual historical
religious life, men filled with the profoundest thoughts of God, and living to
God a most close personal life, and, having such thoughts of God and such
experiences of life to Him, importunate in their desires and attempts to 4 THE
THEOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT awaken in those around them the same thoughts and
the same life. This is the strange scene, full of the intensest reality, which
the Old Testament exhibits to us, a scene continued down through a long
historical period, changing in some ways, but always presenting the same main
feature namely, that of a body of profoundly religious men speaking the truth to
their countrymen, and seeking to turn them to God. Thus we do not go to the Old
Testa- ment with any general conception that it is the word of God spoken to us.
We do not go to it with this concep- tion, but we rise from ib with this
conception. This is the thing which will be made plain to us, the personal
religion of all the writers of Scripture, their life to God and with God. This
becomes plainer the lower down we come, in the Psalter, for example, and in such
books as Job. In the period after the Exile we shall rind problems raised by the
conditions of life, problems touching God’s rule of the world, His relation to
Israel, the people who knew Him, and were the representatives of His cause in
the world ; problems, too, of His relations to the godly in an ungodly
generation. To the intellect these questions might be insoluble. But we shall
see something that enabled men to live without a solution. This was their
religion, their conscious fellowship with God. We shall find that more and more
religious certainty was based on this consciousness. It was the only thing the
pious mind possessed, but it was at last always found enough. " Nevertheless/’
said the Psalmist, tried by misfortune and intellectually paralysed before the
riddles of providence, " nevertheless, I am continually with thee" (Ps. Ixxiii.
23). The consciousness of God becomes the other side of self consciousness, and
this in- ward assurance will be seen to be strong enough to face all the
difficulties raised by what is external.

2. Studies preliminary to Old Testament Theology. This conception of what Old
Testament Theology is at once suggests that certain studies must precede it. If
it PRELIMINARY STUDIES 5 be the presentation to ourselves of the gradual advance
of the kingdom of God as exhibited to us in the successive books of Scripture,
it is necessary that we should see how these books follow one another, and know
the age to which they belong, and of which they reflect the life and the
thought. Criticism or Introduction must precede any attempt at a scientific Old
Testament Theology. And this fact is what legitimates Criticism and gives it a
place as a handmaid to Theology. As a mere literary science whose object was to
settle the ages of the various literary components of the Bible, and describe
their characteristics, and indicate their connections with the history of the
People of Israel regarded as any other ancient people, Criticism would have no
proper place among our theological disci- plines. But when it is not pursued
simply for its own sake, so to speak, but is used as an instrument for disposing
the books of the Old Testament in their proper place so that we may correctly
perceive how ideas arose and followed one another in Old Testament times, and
may observe how history reacted upon the thought and life of the people, then
Criticism has a very important place to fill.

Obviously, too, Old Testament Theology must be pre- ceded by scientific exegesis
of the literature in its length and breadth. We cannot create a trustworthy
theology of the Old Testament by merely picking out a text here and there in an
Old Testament book. We must know the whole scope of the book. Individual
passages always derive their meaning from the context. Torn from their
surroundings their mere language might suggest to us much more or sometimes
perhaps much less than they really mean. Such passages have usually some bearing
on the circumstances of the author’s time. This bearing often greatly modifies
their meaning, and it is seldom that we can really discover the true sense of
any single passage in a book unless we have made a study of the whole book and
learned to estimate the author’s general modes of. thinking, the broad drift of
his ideas, and discovered to what matters in the history of his people and what
6 THE THEOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT condition of their minds it is that he is
directing his whole work. Such studies of whole books are useful and almost
necessary preliminaries to Old Testament Theology. Such studies, exhibiting what
the Germans call the Lehrbegriff, the general drift of the teaching of a book,
have not been uncommon in connection with the New Testament. They have been less
attended to with regard to the Old

Testament.

3. Definitions and Characteristics of Old Testament Theology.

Old Testament Theology has been defined to be the historical and genetic
presentation of the religion of the Old Testament ; or as others express it, it
is that branch of theological science which has for its function to present the
religion of Eevelation in the ages of its progressive movement. These
definitions do not differ from the one already suggested, namely, that it is the
presentation of the great operation of God in bringing in the kingdom of God, so
far as that operation was carried on in the Old Testament period. The one
definition speaks of the religion of the Old Testament, and the other of God’s
operation in bringing in His kingdom. But these two things are in the main the
same. The kingdom of God is within us. To bring in the kingdom was to awaken a
certain religious life in His people, and to project great thoughts and hopes
before their minds. This life and these thoughts are reflected to us in the Old
Testament Scriptures. These various definitions all imply the same distinct
characteristics.

They all imply, e.g., that Old Testament Theology is a historical science. It is
historical in the same sense as that in which the Old Testament is historical,
i.e. in the sense that its parts follow one another down through a long period
of time. We can readily perceive reasons sufficient to explain the gradual and
historical inbringing of the kingdom of God. For instance, one of the first
necessities to one who will take his place in the kingdom of God is that God
should DEFINITIONS OF OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY 7 be known to him, at least on the
moral side of His being. But God could not make His moral nature known by mere
statements concerning Himself delivered at once. His power He could reveal in
one terrible act, but the principles lying behind His power, and governing the
exercise of it, His justice, His goodness, His grace, in a word His moral
nature, could not be shown except by a prolonged exhibition of Himself in
relation to the life of men. When we look at the Divine names we observe that
the attribute which the Shemitic mind earliest laid hold of was the Divine
power. The Shemitic people were slower to learn His other attributes, especially
to learn the constancy and unchangeableness of these attributes, in other words,
to rise to the conception of God as a tran- scendent moral Person. They could be
taught this only by observing how God acted in their history with a terrible
consistency, punishing evil with an inflexible uniformity, and making
righteousness on their part the condition of His being their God and protecting
them. When we read the Prophets we perceive that they considered that this was
the chief lesson which the people’s history was fitted to teach them. In
opposition to their superficial hopes, founded on Jehovah’s being their national
God, and their expectation that they could at any time secure His favour by
making their burnt sacrifices fatter and more abundant, these prophets insist
upon the ethical uniformity of the Divine Mind, which cannot be bribed by gifts,
but demands rectitude : " I hate, I despise your feasts ... let judgment roll
down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream "

(Amos v. 2124, E.V.). This lesson in regard to the nature of God is the chief
lesson which the prophets draw from the history of the people. But one can
conceive many other uses served by the long preliminary history of Israel. Its
many vicissitudes threw individuals into very various circumstances, often
trying, sometimes joyous, and thus we have those beautiful pictures of the life
of the individual with God which are contained in the Book of Psalms, almost the
most precious heritage which the Church has THE THEOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
derived from Israel, and to which there is almost nothing similar in the New
Testament period.

These definitions also all imply that the presentation of the Old Testament
religion in Old Testament Theology is f/enetic. This means not only that Old
Testament Theology shows us the religion of the Old Testament in gcnesi, that
is, in the condition of actually arising or originating, but that its progress
was, so to speak, organic. It grew, and that not by mere accretion or the
external addition of truth to truth. The succeeding truth rose out of the former
truth. This was due to the fact that the kingdom of God was planted into the
life of a people, and thus its progress was inseparably connected with the
progress and destiny of the nation of Israel. We cannot get a religious progress
without a religious subject in whose mind we observe the progress. Now, fche
religious subject in the Old Testament was the people of Israel and the progress
can be studied in the mind of this subject as influenced by its history.
Revelation of truth was not, so to speak, communicated from without ; but the
organs of revelation rose within the people in the persons of its highest re-
presentatives, men in whom its life beat fullest and its aspirations were most
perfectly embodied. Thus the truths concerning the kingdom of God which they
were enabled, stage after stage, to reach, had a connection with one another
parallel to the connection between the stages of the life of the people. The
truths regarding the kingdom of God appearing in the Old Testament are all given
in terms, so to speak, of the history, institutions, and life of the people of
Israel. It is customary to regard the institutions of Israel, its offices and
ordinances, as all prearranged parallels to the things of the Christian Church,
shadows and adum- brations or types, as they are called, of the realities of the
New Testament kingdom. Now, of course, it must be maintained that the perfect
form of the kingdom of God, the form which it was to have in the New Testament,
was contemplated from the beginning. There was a deter- minism impressed on the
Old Testament kingdom toward CHARACTERISTICS OF OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY 9 its
perfect form ; it was a growth, an organism of which we see the complete stature
only in the New Testament kingdom. But we must not regard those institutions in
Israel as only having this use of foreshadowing the future.

They were real institutions and offices there, and their re- ference to the
future was probably, in many instances, not understood or even surmised. The way
they bore reference to the future in the minds of the people was rather this.
The highest thinkers among the people, such as the pro- phets, perceived the
idea lying in the offices and institu- tions, and expressed their longing and
certainty that the idea would be yet realised.

Thus it was, for instance, with the kingship. Its idea was a king of God’s
kingdom, a representative of God sitting on the throne in Jerusalem. Such an
idea of the kingship led to the most brilliant idealising of the king and his
office. Being king for God and in God’s king- dom, he had attribute after
attribute assigned to him, all reflections of the Divine attributes, till at
length he was even styled the ’ mighty God,’ he in whom God Himself would be
wholly present. And not only the kingship, but other offices and other
characters appearing among the people were idealised ; and as it by and by came
to be felt that such ideals could not be realised in the present, the realisa-
tion of them was thrown into the future. One of the most remarkable of these
ideals is the Suffering Servant of the Lord, which is rather a personification
of the suffering people idealised. But, in general, everything significant in
the people’s history and life was, as it were, abstracted from its relations in
the present ; it was held up and magnified by a process of moral idealisation
and the realisation of it thrown into the future. Thus the people’s minds were
directed to the future, not, as is often thought, because they understood
beforehand or ever were taught that their institutions were all predetermined
shadows of a reality to come, but because they perceived that the ideals which
their institutions suggested to them, and which their history and experience had
called up before their 10 THE THEOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT mind, were ideals
that could not be realised in the present, in the conditions of the people and
the world that then existed, nor even under those institutions which had been
the very means of suggesting the ideals to their minds.

But, again, these definitions all imply that Old Testa- ment Theology is a
development. It is not a thing com- plete, it is but the earlier part of
Biblical Theology, arid is completed in New Testament Theology. Still, Biblical
Eevelation being an organism, Old Testament Theology is not a torso. It is a
growth which, though it has not attained perfection, has attained a certain
proper develop- ment. All its parts are there, though none of it is yet in full
stature. There is perhaps no truth in the New Testament which does not lie in
germ in the Old ; and conversely, there is perhaps no truth in the Old
Testament, which has not been expanded and had new meaning put into it in the
New. The Old Testament contains the same truths as the New Testament, but in a
less developed form, and we must avoid two errors which are not uncommon. The
one is the mistake of separating the Old Testament from the New in such a way as
leaves us with no authoritative truth in the Old. The other is to confuse the
New and the Old so that we shall find the Old equally advanced with the New. The
difference between the New and the Old is not that the same truths are not found
in both, but that in the one the truths are found in a less degree of
development than in the other. The Old Testament is as good authority for a
truth as the New ; only we must not go beyond the degree which the truth has yet
reached in the Old Testament. This fact, however, that the progress of the
kingdom was organic and at last culminated, suggests that the Old Testament
should be read by us always in the light of the end, and that in framing an Old
Testament Theology we should have the New Testament completion of it in our
view. What we shall be engaged in is mainly dis- covering the thoughts and
estimating the life of the Old Testament people in its various stages. But it is
obvious THE IDEAS AND THE HISTORY 11 that at no time was the consciousness of
the Old Testament Church able to take in the whole meaning of the develop- ment
in the midst of which it stood. It must be our first object to discover what
views the prophets and other Old Testament writers had, to present them to
ourselves, and to take care not to impose New Testament conceptions upon them.
Still, it will be of interest to ourselves to compare the two together, and to
see how far the Old Testament Church had been able to realise to itself the
point towards which the development was moving ; and, knowing this goal, we
shall be in a better position to estimate the meaning of the Old Testament from
the light in which it is thus set for us.

4. The Relation of Old Testament Ideas to the Old Testament History.

If the view which we have taken of our subject, then, is correct, it will appear
that, though we speak of Old Testament Theology, all that we can attempt is to
present the religion or religious ideas of the Old Testament. As held in the
minds of the Hebrew people, and as exhibited in their Scriptures, these ideas
form as yet no Theology.

There is no system in them of any kind. They are all practical religious
beliefs, and are considered of importance only as they influence conduct. We do
not find a theology in the Old Testament ; we find a religion religious con-
ceptions and religious hopes and aspirations. It is we ourselves that create the
theology when we give to these religious ideas and convictions a systematic or
orderly form. Hence our subject really is the History of the Religion of Israel
as represented in the Old Testament.

We have seen, too, that the presentation or exhibition of the religious ideas is
to be historical. This is the systematic form under which the religious ideas
are pre- sented, and which the Old Testament itself supplies. The historical
character of the Old Testament religion is one of its chief characteristics,
that is, its continuance and 12 THE THEOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT growth during
a long period of history. And, further, we have seen that the presentation is
organic. This, indeed, is contained in the fact that it is historical. The
history of any individual consciousness must be organic, whether the mind he
that of a nation or that of a person. Our successive experiences and the phases
of mind which we go through during a lifetime are not isolated occurrences.

They rise each out of the other. They are connected with our external history ;
many times they are due to it. But even our external history has a unity and an
organic char- acter in it. And this is no doubt truer of a nation, or at least
its truth may be more distinctly perceived in national life. When, therefore, it
is said that the Old Testament religion is to be presented organically, it is
meant that each step of progress was intimately connected with the people’s
history with their experiences. Eevelations of this truth or that were not made
sporadically, but were given in con- tinuous connection with the national life
and experience, and so the truths are interlinked with one another in the same
way as the successive stages of evolution in the national history are. 1 5.
Divisions of the Subject.

Now, the question arises, What divisions of the subject shall we adopt ? If we
employed the ordinary threefold division, Theology, Anthropology, and
Soteriology, we 1 "From an evolutionist point of view, men speak of the
development of the religion of Israel. From a different point of view, the
history of Israel’s religion is called a progressive revelation. We must
remember that a pro- gressive revelation from the Divine side must exhibit
itself among men as a persistent struggle to realise new truths. Every new
thought of God is first understood in a soul which has been made receptive for
it ; and, once grasped, it maintains itself in him who is illumined by it, as
well as in those around him, only by conflict. This conflict appears to one man
as a progressive development ; to another, who, by experience, has learned to
know the gulf between God and the human heart as a terrible reality, it appears
as a progressive revelation. But, however it be regarded, all are agreed that
from the Tora and Nebiim [Law and Prophets] we can understand how the precious
treasure of Israel’s religion came more and more fully to light, and maintained
itself ever more firmly" (Wildcboer, Canon, p. 162).

DIVISIONS OF OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY 13 should have to take each of these
subjects and trace it down, step by step, through the whole length of the
nation’s history, marking the points at which the current of thought on the
subject received new additions or a new momentum.

Perhaps, however, the easier way would be to divide the history into periods, to
cut it into zones, as it were, and examine in each of these zones the whole
religious thought of the people during the period, as it is reflected in the
literature of that period. This method preserves better the historical character
of the study, and this is the method usually adopted by writers on the subject
of Old Testament Theology. In point of fact, the three- fold theological
division Theology, or doctrine of God;

Anthropology, or doctrine of man ; and Soteriology, or doc- trine of salvation
is somewhat too abstract for a subject like ours. What we meet with in the Old
Testament are two concrete subjects and their relation. The two are :

Jehovah, God of Israel, on the one hand, and Israel, the people of Jehovah, on
the other ; and the third point, which is given in the other two, is their
relation to one another. And it is obvious that the dominating or creative
factor in the relation is Jehovah. The Old Testament contains almost exclusively
a theology (^0709 irepl Seov) or doctrine of Jehovah the God of Israel. It is to
be observed, too, that what we have to do with is not a doctrine of God, but a
doctrine of Jehovah, Israel’s God. We have reached now such a stage of thinking
on the Divine that, while some may doubt whether there be a God at all, nobody
supposes that there is more than one. But this point is just one that has to be
inquired into regarding Jehovah how far Israel’s God was believed to be God
alone. At all events, as I have said, He was the normative factor in the
relation.

He moulded the people, and the mould into which He cast them was that of His own
nature. The conceptions of the people regarding Jehovah immediately reacted on
the people and created corresponding conceptions regarding themselves. The
people must be what their God, Jehovah, was.

Now, thoughts of Jehovah or revelations regarding 14 THE THEOLOGY OF THE OLD
TESTAMENT Him, for the two things are the same, seeing that a revelation is no
revelation until it takes the shape of human thought, might run on two chief
lines. One would be ethical or spiritual conceptions of Jehovah conceptions
which immediately reacted on the people and made them feel that the same ethical
character was de- manded from them, if they were to be His people. And a second
would be thoughts of how Jehovah was to be served in acts of worship in other
words, thoughts re- garding the sacred ritual. Now, these are the two lines on
which most of the sacred writings of the people run. The first line of
conceptions, the ethical or spiritual, whether in regard to the nature of
Jehovah or the conduct of His people, was chiefly developed by the prophets. The
line of ritual service naturally was developed mostly by the priests, or a’t
least by men who were more practical than the prophets. But even the ritual
legislation was influenced by the pro- phetic teaching it was often an
embodiment in a practical form of their ideas. This second line, then, is that
of the legislation, for all the legislation relates to the worship or ritual
service of Jehovah at least in the main. These two streams of thought might be
called objective, so far as the body of the people was concerned. For, though
the prophetic thoughts were, of course, profoundly sub- jective to the prophets
themselves, that is, rose up out of their own hearts with the greatest intensity
and fire of conviction, yet the prophets were a small body compared with the
whole mass ; they were the organs of revelation to the general body. And in like
manner the legislation, which was many times a mere practical embodiment of
prophetic teaching, was formulated by small bodies of priests, and was imposed
upon the mass by authority.

Besides these two objective streams there were two others, which might be called
subjective. One of these was the expression of personal devotion, or the
spiritual experi- ence and exercise of the individual mind, such as we have in
the Psalms. There is no reason at all to suppose that the bulk of the Psalms are
the production of one individual. THE GREAT HISTORICAL PERIODS 15 They are the
expression of the devotion, and many times of the religious conflicts of the
individual mind, throughout the whole of the people’s history, particularly
during its later stages. And, secondly, the other subjective stream of thought
was that embodied in the Wisdom. This is the expression of the religious
reflecting mind, as the other was of the devotional mind. The pious emotions
responded to the prophetic truth, and to the demands of the law, in words that
run through the whole scale of religious feeling. The reflecting mind delighted
itself by observing how the great ethical truths of Jehovah’s nature were
everywhere verifying themselves in His providence in the world and in men’s
lives. Or it was startled at a later time, when even the godly lay under
grievous calamities, to find that the prophetical teaching was contradicted by
events of actual providence. This gave rise to doubts and question- ings, by
which men were sometimes almost driven to despair. This Wisdom we have in the
Proverbs, many of the Psalms, Job, and Ecclesiastes ; and, of course, to all
these have to be added many expressions of religious faith and many examples of
religious conduct in the historical writings.

Keeping, then, all these general lines of thought in view, which are in the main
four, prophecy, or religious politics ; legislation, or the ritual of worship ;
devotion, and reflection, we have the literary materials which we have to divide
into periods, so as to exhibit the historical growth of the conceptions which
the materials embody. Naturally, any division will to some extent break in upon
things closely connected, because the growth of thought or the stream of history
cannot be cut into sections. For it is a thing continuous and uninterrupted. But
with this admission the following division marks the great points in the
literary history of Israel.

6. The great Historical Periods.

(a) A preliminary or introductory period terminating with the Exodus. The Old
Testament religion hardly begins till 16 THE THEOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT the
Exodus. Therefore the religious subject in Old Testa- ment times with whom
Jehovah’s covenant was made was the people Israel, not individual Israelites,
and the people was the creation of the great act of redemption at the Exodus.
This period, then, would be preliminary. We have no litera- ture from this
period itself. What we have is the view of this period taken in the ninth and
eighth centuries. This view contains many elements particularly two, national
traditions of early human history not peculiar to Israel, but shared in by most
Shemitic nations ; and, secondly, the penetration and modification of these
traditions by the principles of the religion of Jehovah e.g. in the narratives
of the Creation, the Fall, the Flood, etc. So the patriarchal period is the
period of tradition, and of tradition possibly religiously coloured. What is
perhaps most important for us is this religious colouring, rather than the mere
details of the history.

(b) The period from the fixodus to written prophecy, B.C. 800. The beginning of
written prophecy in the deliverances of Amos and his successors is a point of
such importance that it is natural to make it an era. Apart from the religious
truths taught by the canonical prophets there is one thing which characterises
them all from Amos downwards. They have completely broken with the nation, whose
conditition they condemn and pronounce to be hopeless, and on the eve of
destruction. This destruction is inevitable, Jehovah their God being what He is.
No doubt earlier prophets express the same judgment, but less universally. Even
as early as Solomon, Ahijah of Shiloh predicted the downfall of his kingdom (1
Kings xi. 3139). And Elijah’s attitude was the same towards the kingdom of the
north. Perhaps during this period we can trace only two of the four great
streams of thought with much certainty.

1. Of Prophecy, we have examples in Deborah, Samuel, Elijah, and Elisha. Except
the Song of Deborah, there is no literary prophecy. Under prophecy, however,
according to the Jewish modes of classification, fall historical writings, e.g.
Judges, the Books of Samuel. THE GREAT HISTORICAL PERIODS 17 2. The other stream
is that of Legislation. Here we can put with certainty the so-called Book of the
Covenant, Ex. xx.-xxiii. It may be the cape that more should be placed here ;
but this is disputed. It is probable, how- ever, that there were both Psalms and
Proverbs during this period the latter certainly, as, e.g., in the fable of
Jotham. But it is difficult to identify those of this age. As to this oldest
legislation, however, all scholars are agreed, and with it goes, of course, a
good deal of the history in Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, and Joshua. It is very
probable that laws more strictly ritual than those in the code Ex. xx. xxiii.
existed. But it is not certain that they were yet reduced to writing, being
merely traditional among the priests. If written, they were kept within the
priestly circles.

(c) From 800, written prophecy, to 586, the Exile of Judah. 1. Prophecy. The
stream of prophecy beginning with Amos gradually widens out to be a broad and
im- posing river. The great prophets whose names we know belong to this period
Amos, Hosea, Micah, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. Perhaps it would be safest to close
the period with Jeremiah, who survived the Exile only a very short time, and to
carry Ezekiel into the next period. He survived the Exile a number of years, and
for other reasons he rather belongs to the post-Exile sphere.

2. In Legislation we have belonging to this period the Book of Deuteronomy. This
may be said apart from any theory of its origin or even its date of composition.
It ought to be placed in this period on other grounds. It was discovered in the
Temple in the year 621. Made public in this year, it exercised immediately a
powerful influence upon the worship, and also upon the general current of the
people’s thoughts. This period of its discovery was that when its teaching
really became a factor in the public life and the religious conceptions of the
nation. It became public law, and powerfully influenced botli religious practice
and religious literature from this date. It is also the general impression among
writers on the Old Testament 18 THE THEOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT that
Deuteronomy follows the great prophets Amos, Hosea, and Isaiah, and reflects in
its spirit their teaching. So far as its legislative contents apart from its
spirit are con- cerned, they are an expansion of Ex. xx. xxiii.

(d) From the Exile, 586, to 400, the close of the pro- phetical Canon. This
might be called the period of the Restoration and Reconstruction of the State.
It deserves to be considered a distinct period, because undoubtedly new
conceptions and a new way of reading the past history of the nation arose, and
also a new ideal for the future. The prophet Ezekiel belongs to this period, at
least as a powerful influence, though in point of fact he lived mainly during
the preceding period.

It includes : 1. Prophecy Ezekiel, II Isaiah, Zechariah, Haggai, Malachi. 2.
Legislation the Levitical legislation of Ezra and Nehemiah. 3. The Psalter. 4.
The Wisdom.

(1) As to Prophecy. The second half of Isaiah is usually placed in this era. Its
contents refer it to this period. If Isaiah was its author, he was enabled to
project himself in spirit into the Exile, and see and estimate that period, with
its personages and forces, precisely as if he had lived during it in the body.

(2) The Legislation of this period is the so-called priestly or Levitical
legislation, contained now in Ex. xxv. xl..

Leviticus, and good part of Numbers. It is disputed, indeed, whether this
legislation as a whole belongs to this period. And it may be allowed to be
probable that there were written ritual laws as early as other laws. There were
customary ritual actions a ritual praxis, consuetu- dinary and practised
embracing the various kinds of sacrifice, though the numbers of victims, etc.,
might not be fixed. This ritual praxis gradually expanded, and became more
splendid, more refined, more expressive in details of the underlying ideas. We
see it in great grandeur in the time of Amos and Isaiah ; it was about complete
in the time of Ezekiel. It is not at all probable that these ritual laws were
for the first time written at this late period, but at this period they appear
to have been THE PSALTER 19 brought together and codified, and no doubt
additions were made to them to give them theoretical completeness.

They are probably the result of the ritual practice throughout the history as it
was modified and improved. It appears to me that the Book of Ezekiel shows that
before his day the ritual was almost the same as it became after the
Kestoration. But how far the ritual customs had been reduced to writing before
this period is difficult to ascertain. Being largely for the guidance of the
priests, they had less public importance.

Apart, however, from other considerations, there are, at any rate, these two
reasons for placing the priestly legislation here first, it was certainly not
completed or codified in the form in which we have it till this period ; and,
secondly, what is more important, it did not become an element in the national
life till this era. Whether it existed before or not, it was not obeyed, the
nation did not subject themselves to it. From the year 444, when Ezra and
Nehemiah read the Law before the people, it is certain that this Levitical law,
as a ritual, and the hierarchical system as a govern- ment, became the ritual
and government of the community. The theocracy, which was, so to speak, ideal
before (i.e.

Jehovah was king), now became hierarchical : the theo- cracy was a government by
priests ; the high priest was the head of the community.

(3) The Psalter. The Psalter must be placed here for various reasons. It was
only now that the Psalms were collected together, and as a whole made the medium
of the devotional service in the temple. Not before this time did the Psalter
enter into the people’s life as the expression of their devotions, and as a
powerful influence upon their life. In estimating the progress of religious
thought and de- votional life, we must recognise the public acceptance of the
Psalter as the expression of this thought and life to be one of the most
important events with which we have to deal Many of the Psalms, of course, may
be ancient. It would be as untrue to say that the Psalmody of Israel took its
rise with the Second Temple, as to say that the Thames rises 20 THE THEOLOGY OF
THE OLD TESTAMENT at London Bridge. But though the Thames rises higher up, it
begins at London Bridge to bear on its bosom the commerce and the industrial
life of the nations ; and the Psalter, too, begins with the Second Temple to
express the religious life, not of individuals, but of Israel. And the national
use of the Psalter shows how completely all the conflicts which the prophets had
to wage against idolatry and the like, had been fought out and the battle won.
The providence of God had set its seal on the prophetic teaching, and it was
accepted by the restored nation.

(4) The Wisdom. The Proverbial literature probably would fall largely into the
preceding period. But some of the most splendid fruits of the reflective mind of
Israel, such as the Book of Job, probably belong to this epoch. The Wisdom
belongs to the literature of the individual’s religious life ; Prophecy and
Legislation to the sphere of the national life. Consequently the Wisdom
literature is mainly late.

(e) From 400 to the Christian era. This embraces:

1. Prophecy Daniel; 2. Wisdom Ecclesiastes ; 3. His- tory Chronicles. This is
the period of the Law. The division which we have followed gives five periods, a
preliminary one, and four others From Moses to prophecy, 800 ; from 800 to 586,
the fall of Jerusalem; from 586 to 400; and from 40 to our era. But perhaps the
whole period from the Exodus might be divided into three characteristic stages
1. Pre-prophetic period, down to 800 ; 2. Pro- phetic period, down to 586 ; and
3. Levitism, down to our era. Of course, these names are general. Prophetism is
but the development of Mosaism on one side ; but it is a distinct development
and a literary development. Similarly, Levitism is a development of Mosaism on
another side, but it is no doubt an expansion ; and historically the Lcvitical
system during this period actually made itself master of the people, and brought
them into subjection to it, which historically had not been true at an earlier
period. The prophets, being statesmen in the kingdom of God, stand in closest
relation to the history, and in their THE PROPHETIC LITERATURE 21 pages the
significance of the various momenta and turning points in the national career
can best be estimated. And it is their teaching that we should chiefly have
before us. From 850 or 800 to 400 B.C. they are the main figures in the history
of Israel ; and unquestionably the prophetic literature is the most
characteristic, and has most affinities with the New Testament. We are able to
receive a better general idea of the religion of the Old Testament by study- ing
the Prophets than by reading any other part of the Hebrew Scriptures. The
literature of the period ending with 800 or 750 B.C. is scanty, being chiefly
contained in the part of the Pentateuch called J, or the united elements JE. It
is different with the prophetical period, 800586, which is the most important
for an Old Testament theo- logian, i.e. for one who wishes to understand the
develop- ment of Eevelation or the religion of Israel historically in other
words, to understand the faith and hopes of Israel as they existed actually in
the minds of the prophets and the people. All the great religious conceptions of
the Old Testament come to view in this period. An exception might be made in
regard to the doctrine of immortality. But there are two doctrines of
immortality in the Old Testament that of the people, the kingdom of God ; and
that of the individual person. The former is fully developed in the prophetic
age ; that of the individual, perhaps not until the period of Judaism. For the
prophetic teaching is, so to speak, national ; it was only on the down- fall of
the State that the meaning and worth of the individual life began to be
adequately felt, and consequently that the destinies of the individual began to
be earnestly pursued and reflected upon. But very much of the Christian doctrine
of immortality e.g. the concomitants of it, the judgment ; the result of it,
eternal peace and fellowship with God, and the like is taught in the Old
Testament in connection with the eschatology of the king- dom or people of God.
But if the prophetic period be the most important period for the Old Testament
theologian, the period of 22 THE THEOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT Judaism, from the
Eest oration in 537 to our era, is of supreme importance for the Christian
theologian or exegete.

Because, although this period is not so rich in original productions, it is the
period of reflection and generalisation on the prophetic teaching, and of
appropriation and as- similation of it into the individual life. This process in
great measure stripped off the nationalism from the pro- phetic truths, and
brought them under individualism. But individualism is universalism. The
individual is of no nation. But this way of looking at the ancient literature
generalised the contents. The circumstances in which a truth was uttered ceased
to be of importance, while the person who uttered it or to whom it was uttered
was equally unimportant. All those things ceased to have meaning. The things
that had meaning and had universal applicability were the ethical and religious
principles.

These were the Word of God. So that in a sense it is true that the better
historical Old Testament theologians we are, the worse fitted are we to
comprehend the New Testament writers. It is admitted that the sense put by New
Testament writers on much of the Old Testament which they quote is not the true
historical sense, i.e. not the sense which the original writers, prophets, or
wise men had in their mind. The sense which the New Testament writers express is
the sense which arose during the period of Judaism which experience and
reflection and personal piety put upon the Old Testament. Hence is it that to
the Christian theologian or exegete the period of Judaism is of the utmost
importance.

7. General Course and Drift of the History. The literature of Israel, then,
being so closely connected with its history, it is of importance to understand
the general course and drift of the latter. As in all ancient States, the
religion was national. The religious unit or subject was not the individual in
the State, but the ideal unity GENERAL DRIFT OF THE HISTORY 23 formed by the
State as a whole. Now, this unity came into existence at the Exodus from Egypt.
From that hour Israel was conscious of being a people, and Jehovah, who had
delivered them, was their God alone : " I am Jehovah thy God, who brought thee
out of the land of Egypt " (Ex. xx. 2 ; cf. Hos. xiii. 4). The sense of being a
people, and the sense of being the people of Jehovah, if not identical feelings,
reacted very powerfully on one another ; and hence the religious literature of
the .people reflects from age to age all the changing hues of its history. That
history ran very much such a course as we should have expected.

(1) The migration of the ancestors of the people from the East, the descent into
Egypt, the oppression and bondage there, and the delivery under Moses, are
events testified to not only in the formal history of the Penta- teuch, but by
frequent incidental allusions in other writing.

These allusions express the fundamental historical feeling of the people, the
very basis of their national and religious consciousness (Amos ii. 9 seq. ; Hos.
xii. 1 3 ;

Mic. vi. 4).

(2) Disintegration under the Judges. It was natural that the unity into which
the tribes l had been welded at the Exodus by the necessity of facing a common
danger, or sharing a common enterprise, should become relaxed when the danger
was over and the enterprise had in great measure succeeded ; and, accordingly,
after the settlement in Canaan, we find the unity in some degree disintegrated,
and the various tribes fighting each for its own hand, and only entering into
combinations when some danger more serious than usual threatened. Such is the
history as reflected in the Book of Judges. No doubt a religious disintegration
in some measure ran parallel to the political one. Even in this troubled period,
however, although 1 The tribes entered Canaan, or at least conquered a place in
it, not in common, but independently, or in smaller combinations. There were two
Canaanite belts between Judah and the northern tribes, and between the northern
tribes themselves, i.e. the


========================================================================
Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/macduff-theology-of-old-testament-1904v9/
========================================================================