By Tremper Longman III
The Genre
The genre of introduction has a
well-established place in the field of Old Testament studies. It is one of the
first volumes that serious students of the Bible encounter in their quest to
understand the text. Its very title connotes the preliminary nature of its
subject matter. As E. J. Young commented, the word derives from the Latin
introducere that means “to lead in” or “to introduce” (1949, 15).
It is thus the purpose of this
introduction, like all introductions, to acquaint the reader with information
that is important to know in order to read the books of the Old Testament with
understanding. In more contemporary terminology, our goal is to provide the
student with resources needed to achieve reading competence.
Many introductions have been written during
the history of biblical studies. Since the history of the genre may be found
elsewhere (see Young 1945, 15– 37; Childs 1979, 27–47), it will not be repeated
here. Nevertheless, a few of the major transitional points will give the reader
a feel for the evolution of the genre and provide a framework for the present
volume.
The church fathers did not write
what we would recognize today as introductions to the Old Testament, but they
did deal with topics that would later occupy volumes that go by that name. Thus
Jerome, Augustine, Origen, and others wrote concerning authorship, literary style,
canonics, text, and theological issues. Their comments, however, may be found
in scattered locations and not in any single volume.
Childs and Young disagree over
the date of the first truly modern Old Testament introduction. Young attributes
it to Michael Walther (1636) because of his distinction between matters of
general and special introduction (see below). Childs, on the other hand, dates
it later with J. G. Eichhorn, whose three-volume Einleitung was first published
between 1780 and 1783. The difference reflects the theological disagreement
between Young, who as a conservative acknowledges the work of Walther, who held
a high view of inspiration, and Childs, a critic (though moderate), who
requires the advent of the critical method to find the first “truly modern,
historical critical Introduction” (1979, 35).
In the twentieth century the
introduction continued its evolution along the lines of the development of the
discipline as a whole. Thus, after Julius Well[1]hausen
introduced the documentary hypothesis, all succeeding introductions had to take
his theory into account (see Historical Background below). The same is true
with later developments, including form criticism, tradition criticism, and,
more recently, the literary approach.
While mainstream introductions
agree in their acceptance of critical methodology, there are differences among
them. These differences may be observed in a sampling of the introductions that
are still in use. The introduction by Eissfeldt represents classic German
criticism. Much of his work is devoted to reconstructing the history of the composition
of the individual sections of the Bible. Although his work is idiosyncratic in
detail, Eissfeldt devotes detailed attention to a source analysis of the
Pentateuch. In the critical tradition, Rendtorff adopts a somewhat different
approach in that he follows in the line of Noth and von Rad to present a more
historical analysis of the Pentateuch. B. S. Childs, on the other hand,
brackets many of these questions of the historical development of the
individual books in order to delineate the canonical function of the books
(Brueggemann 2003).
The preceding paragraphs describe
the general contours of mainstream Old Testament studies. Specifically, they
delineate the developments of critical Protestant Old Testament studies in
Europe, Britain, and the United States. Protestant scholarship was mainstream
because ever since the early part of the nineteenth century this approach to
the text controlled most of the large churches and virtually every major
academic post. The majority of Catholic and Jewish scholars who were writing
and teaching at this time also accepted many of the tenets that were developed
by these Protestant scholars.
Nonetheless, there was still a
small but determined group of conservative Protestant scholars who were active
in the field and produced Old Testament introductions. The four most
significant works are by Young, Archer, Harrison, and LaSor-Hubbard-Bush. They
differ in length, in areas of interest, and— though they are all conservative
in their approach to the text—in theology. A characteristic of conservative
scholarship as represented in most of these volumes is an apologetic interest.
This concern is represented least in the LaSor[1]Hubbard-Bush
volume, but conservative scholars have felt it necessary to direct much of
their discussion toward combating the historical-critical method and in
particular a source analysis of the Pentateuch.
The Purpose of the Present Volume
The above discussion provides a
backdrop for a description of the purposes and aims of the present volume. The
following comments provide a guide to the plan of this introduction and give a
rationale for the approach adopted here. We highlight the direction of this
introduction and also some of the ways in which it differs from typical
introductions.
Theological Perspective
In the first place, this
introduction represents a Protestant and evangelical approach to the text. This
theological orientation will become immediately obvious in the discussion of
various critical issues. An evangelical doctrine of Scripture, however, does
not answer all hermeneutical and interpretive questions, nor does it prevent us
from learning from the tradition of historical criticism. Indeed, our
introduction will provide example after example of dependence on the previous
labors of scholars in both the evangelical and critical camps. Many of the
issues that have divided evangelical and critical scholars are as contested today
as they were in the past, but we appear to be entering a new era of communication
and mutual respect about which we can all be grateful. This introduction will
depart from many of the well-entrenched conclusions of critical study, but it
will do so with respect and not with rancor. We also concur with R. H. Gundry
in his warning that evangelical scholarship sometimes simply uncritically
follows in the steps of non-evangelical scholarship in order to find acceptance.
We will do our best to avoid that temptation.
What does it mean to write an
introduction from an evangelical perspective? Among other things, it means
treating the text as the church has received it. While not denying the
possibility of sources and the history of development of individual biblical
books, the focus of this introduction will be squarely on the finished form of
the canonical text. This approach dovetails with recent interests in canonical
theology and literary study of the Bible. However, the similarities, though
welcome, are in some sense superficial, since most critical scholars who take a
synchronic approach to the text merely bracket diachronic issues for the
moment. Childs is a good example. He is careful never to disown typical
historical criticism, while in his introduction and elsewhere he downplays
these concerns in order to highlight the canonical role that the Bible plays in
the[1]ology and the church.
His commentary on Exodus (1974) is a prime example of both his synchronic and
diachronic concerns. They are both present but are not integrated with one
another.
Scope
Old Testament introduction is often subdivided
into two areas: general and special introduction. General introduction treats
topics that cover the whole testament: issues such as text and canon. Special
introduction handles individual books. Our introduction will focus on special
introduction and will proceed book by book. The order adopted will be that
recognized by readers of the Bible in English. This differs from a number of
introductions that follow the order of the Hebrew Bible in the Masoretic
tradition (for instance, the introductions by Young and Childs).
Most of the introductions
mentioned above concentrate on historical questions surrounding a biblical
book. This diachronic impulse crosses the conservative-critical line. Issues
such as who wrote the book and when, the history of the development of the
text, and the historical background of its contents are typical. These are
important problems that will be treated here when necessary. Nonetheless, there
are other equally important topics that help introduce the reader to the books
of the Old Testament. For instance, the literary genre, shape, and style of a
book are essential keys to its proper interpretation. In addition, while a book
of the Bible may have been produced separately from the rest of the canon, its
meaning now resides in the context of the other books of the Old Testament and,
for Christians, the New Testament. Accordingly, we will reflect at some length
on the theological message of the books within their broader canonical context.
Three general topics constitute the discussion in each chapter: historical
background, literary analysis, and theological message.
By now our readers may be asking how we intend
to cover all of these topics while keeping the introduction to a reasonable
length. We feel that it is important, especially if the book is to be used
effectively in the classroom, to limit its size. One area that will get less
coverage than is found in some other introductions is the history of research.
Except in some critical areas such as source analysis of the Pentateuch (and
even here the discussion is brief), we will feature only the high points in research
and mention representative scholars rather than attempt an exhaustive
delineation of past scholarship. We will, of course, be careful to give credit
to those whose research has enlightened us. Furthermore, the bibliographies at
the beginning of each chapter refer to the works that can lead interested
students to the history of research on any given book. In these bibliographies
a premium is placed on books and articles written in English. In part, this
signals the end of the period when German scholarship was considered the
vanguard in the field. But more significantly, it is part of our attempt to
tailor these bibliographies for the English-speaking seminary student. Foreign
language references are added to the bibliographies only when they are crucial
for the discussion.
The Major Topics
As we said above, each chapter deals with the
historical background, liter[1]ary analysis, and
theological message of the book under discussion. The rest of this introductory
chapter is devoted to explicating these three topics. What follows will allow
readers to understand the orientation of the authors and will also allow the
authors to refer back to these more general statements.
While these three topics are
treated separately, it must be borne in mind that they function in a fully
integrated manner in the biblical text (Sternberg 1985). The history has
theological meaning; the theology is based on historical events. The texts that
narrate this theological history or historicized theology are fittingly
described as literary art.
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