OLD TESTAMENT

The Message of the Old Testament

The Message of the Old Testament

Introduction

The composition of the Old Testament is spread out over the first millennium b.c. The main Hebrew manuscripts that served as sources for the modern translations go back to the 10th and 11th centuries. Some earlier translations (essentially the Septuagint, a work done by Jews whose language was Greek, second century b.c.), as well as the Hebrew and Aramean biblical texts from Qumran (first century b.c.) and other sites, have confirmed the essential fidelity of the Hebrew textual tradition.

The Christian minister is pre-eminently a teacher; as a teacher he must be interpreter and critic. He must be equipped to face candidly the problems of biblical criticism. No longer may he arrogate to himself an exclusive position of superior knowledge or speak ex cathedra in the name of ecclesiastical tradition. In the interest of his own intellectual self-respect he is required to give a reason for the faith that is in him and that reason must be one that does no violence to the accepted results of sound scholarship. He must be open-minded; ready to welcome truth from whatever quarter it may come. During the past one hundred years knowledge has grown from more to more (Charles, 2007).

Discussion

The outlook on the universe which obtains today is vastly grander, more accurate, and more thrilling than the outlook of a century ago. If the sixteenth century chronicled a renaissance of ancient culture the nineteenth century introduced a new birth of time which with keen-eyed intellect has set itself to seek truth alone and be satisfied with nothing less, whatever long-lived theories have to be discarded. So it has been in all departments of physical science, and not less has it been in Bible study. Today the achievements of this research are available. It is known that the New Testament writings are of much greater historical value than those of the Old Testament because they are more nearly contemporaneous with the events recorded than is often the case with those of the Old Testament (Lambert, 2005).

It is in connection with the Old Testament Scriptures that intelligence, straightforward honesty, and courage is especially needed in order to present their teaching free from grotesque and fallacious interpretations. At the outset it may be said that the method of the higher criticism is perfectly legitimate and reasonable and cannot fail to make a successful appeal to any intelligent person who will take pains to understand it. That it has been stigmatized as deliberately destructive of faith in the religious content of the Scriptures is due, first, to extreme and unwarranted liberties taken by a few ultra-rationalistic critics; and, secondly, to plain ignorance, whether voluntary or purblind, on the part of the opponents of the method.

In the language of Dr. Orr: "Higher criticism rightly understood, is simply the careful scrutiny, on the principles which it is customary to apply to all literature, of the actual phenomena of the Bible with a view to deduce ...