Review Articles

Recent German Old Testament Theologies*

Rolf

Rendtorff

University of Heidelberg

There has been a rather long time of silence in the field of Old Testament
theology in Germany, After the landmark of Gerhard von Rad's two volumes (1957 and 1960) there appeared a few shorter works, two of them
in a theological context close to von Rad, by Waldier Zimmerli (1972)
and Claus Westermann (1978), and one beyond any definable theological
consensus: by Fohrer (1972). But then there was silence.
Now within a few years there have appeared four different books with
"Theologie des .\lten Testaments" included in their ddes. It is certainly
no accident that all of these books have been published by scholars who
were close to redrement (Horst Dietrich PreuU) or already retired (Otto
Kaiser, Josef Schreiner), or even have been edited posthumously (Antonius H. J. Gunneweg), Obviously our day is not the dme for books of this
kind, and only at the end of their academic and theological careers have
certain scholars ventured to publish what they have taught for decades.
The four authors belong more or less to the same generation: Gunneweg
and Schreiner, both boin in 1922, Kaiser in 1924, and PreuB in 1927. All
of them grew up in the satne scholarly context, though with the difference that three of them are Protestant, while one (Schreiner) is Roman
Catholic. Looking at these books together, one will find some comtnon
ground in certain exegedcal and historical positions, yet also a wide variety in the ways they approach, select, and expound their subjects and in
some fundamental theological views. Let us first have a look at the way
the authors introduce their works.

*Horst Dietrich PreuB, Theologie des Alten Testaments, vol, l,JHWHsenmhk'iides und verpfiichtemles Hantleln (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1991), 330 pp,; vol, 2, Israels WegmitJHWH (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1992), 361 pp.; Antonius H.J, Gunneweg, Biblische Theologie des .ilteii
Testaments: Eine Retigionsgesclwhle Israels in biblisch-theologischer Sicht (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer,
1993), 255 pp.; Otto Kaiser, Der Gott des .Alten Testaments: Theologie des Alien Testaments, pt, 1,
Grundlegung (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1993), 355 pp,; pt. 2 (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, in press); Josef Schreiner, Theologie des Alten Testaments: Die Neue
ErhterBibel, Ergdnzungshand 1 znmAlk'u Testament (Wtirzburg: Echter, 1995), 349 pp.
1996 by The University' of Cliicago, All rights reserved. 0022-4189/96/7602-0009SO 1.00

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Two of the books begin with a comprehensive chapter on the history of

the discipline of Old Testament theology, which leads to an explanation
of the author's own approach. PreuB (pp. 1-30) begins with Johann
Philipp Gabler (1787) but then goes into more detail in discussing the
developtnents in this century. His main interest is directed to the question
of a center {Mitte) of the Old Testament as discussed extensively since
Zimmerli's review of von Rad's Theology in 1963.' This is also PreuB's own
posidon, which he describes as 'jHWH's work in history elecdng Israel
for communitywhich is at the same dme a work entailing obligations
for this people (and the peoples)" (p. 29).^ This concept is reflected in the
dtle of the first volume: 'jHWH's Electing and Obligadng Work." With
regard to the two following authors it might be mentioned that PreuB
does not explicitly deal with the problem of the Christian use of the Old
Testament; only in the final sentence of his book does he say that in the
framework of a biblical theology embracing Old and New Testament "the
Old Testament itself will take care that its important tnessage will not fall
short" (p. 327).
Gunneweg begins his introductory chapter (pp. 9-36) back in the Reformation, in whose sola scriptura he sees the actual origin of biblical theology, even if the Reformers were not yet aware of the consequences of the
primacy of the Bible as norma nonnans for theology. In the twendeth
century he considers the disdnction between the history of the IsraeliteJewish religion and Old Testament theology to be of particular importance. From that point of view he criticizes von Rad's work as inconsistent,
while he favors the approach of Fohrer, who had introduced the strange
word "Daseinshaltung." This is also Gunneweg's own approach: the
subject of an Old Testament theology is neither revelation nor God's
acting in Israel's history but the Selbstverstdndnis or Daseinshaltung of the
(mostly anonymous) authors of the texts of the Old Testament. Finally, Gunneweg repeats his well-known position that from a theological
point of view the New Testament is the only criterion for die validity of
the Old Testament.-^ Therefore, only a selection from the Old Testament according to that criterion can be relevant for the Chrisdan
Church.
Kaiser's introduction is remarkably different. He begins with a long
I \rtm Testamentum (1963), 13:100-111.
- All translations are my own.
* See Antonitis H.J, Gunneweg, Understanding the Old Testament (London: Old Testament
Lihriu-v, 1977; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1978),

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chapter entitled "The Hermeneutical Presuppositions" (pp. 13-89),
whose first paragraph has the heading "The Position of Theology in an
Age of Nihilism and the Task of Old Testament Theology." Here he
quotes page-long passages of Nietzsche and Jean Paul. Only then does
he begin with an extended treatment of the history of the Old Testament
in the Chrisdan Church, stardng with the New Testament and proceeding through die Middle Ages and Enlightenment up to this century, again
and again extensively quodng fi-om all kinds of literature from Luther
(sometimes in Latin) through Johannes Musaeus, Eichhorn, Herder, and
others up to Harnack. In the final paragraph of this chapter endded
"The Task of a Christian Old Testament Theology" he begins again with
Luther and finally comes to Bultmann and Hirsch, quodng their opinion
that the Old Testament can be relevant for the Chrisdan only through its
failure. But then he continues, stating that Israel's failure can also be
understood as promise (p. 87). The theological relationship to Gunneweg's posidon is obvioits,
Schreiner's book has just a brief intioduction (pp. 11-14) in which he
discusses the problem what Old Testament theology means. According to
his position, it is its task to trace the "speaking about God" {die Rede von
Gott) in the books of the Old Testament. "Yahweh stands at the beginning,
in the middle, and at the end of what the Old Testament has to say" (p.
14). The question of a specific Christian reading of the Old Testament is
not mentioned at all. Even the last sentence is a quotation from the Old
Testamentin this case from the Septuagint (Dan 3:52), which for the
Roman Catholic author is an integral part of the Old Testament.
This first comparison shows that in the basic quesdon of a "Chrisdan"
reading of the Old Testament, two of the authors, Gunneweg and Kaiser,
still hold the position developed by Hirsch and Bulttnann in the thirdes
and fordes of this century: that the Old Testament, theologically speaking, can only be the (more or less) dark background of the New Testament, even if both of them assure us that this does not mean "a general
depreciation of the Old Testament" (Gunneweg, p. 35). According to that
position though, the decision about the theological value and relevance
of the Old Testament can only be taken from tbe standpoint of the New
Testament and will definitely exclude parts of the Old Testament message. To decide which parts have to be excluded will be the task of die
Chrisdan theologian.
II

For the presentadon of the Old Testament material two of the authors,
PreuB and Schreiner, chose a systematic concept, while that of Gunneweg
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and Kaiser is historical, even if in different ways. Yet in detail all four of
the concepts are fairly different from each other
The two parts of PreuB's book are organized according to the subtitles
of the two volumes. In the first part of the point of view is JHWH's' acting
with Israel and the world, while the second part is looking the other way
around from the angle of Israel and humankind. According to the definidon of the "center" of the Old Testament given in the introducdon, the
leading term in the first volume is "elecdon." After a more general chapter on terminology the first main chapter is entided "The Election and
Obligadon of the People" (pp. 43-156). The starting point is the exodus
as "original election" {Urenodhlung). From there PreuB condnues to "Israel as Exodus Community" and then further to "Israel as People and as
Believing Community." In each paragraph PreuB presents an extensive
collection of biblical material, organized according to topics and themes.
Where relevant the material is presented according to Hebrew terms
(PreuB is the only one who uses Hebrew characters, and does so widely).
The reader has the impression that PreuB always aims at completeness.
This is particularly useful because he selects his quotadons not in a narrow way but rather from a broader view, adding related terms and aspects. The impression of completeness is increased by the vast amount of
literature quoted in the many thousands of footnotes. Yet it is not just a
coUecdon of quotadons that is offered here but there is always mention
of the context, and in many cases brief exegetical explicadons are given.
In addidon there is often a discussion of certain exegedcal and theological opinions of modern authors that are of some relevance.
From exodus PreuB condnues to Sinai, at which point he explains in
detail die different aspects of law, and there is a paragraph on Moses.
The next step leads to the land, its promise, history and law, and then
finally to the war. Almost half of the first volume is taken up by two chapters about God: his names, his way of acdng, his revelation, and finally
God as creator. This late position of creation is caused by the systematic
structure of the book, but there is also a theological implication because
PreuB keeps the older position of von Rad that "creation has no theological weight on its own" (p. 271).
The second volume is organized similarly. It begins with the patriarchs,
then the king, temple, priests, and prophets. Next follows a long chapter
endded "The Israelite and His Relation to God (Anthropology)," which
presents a lot of anthropological material. "The Life of the Elect" deals
PreuB is the only one who uses the internationally established way of wridng the tetragrammaton only with its consonants, while the other three author,s sdll use the oldfashioned writing with vowels.

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with ethics and ethos. Surprisingly, only then follows a chapter on Israel's
service (cult) (sec. 13). It is not quite obvious why the cult comes only after
anthropology and ethics and not earlier, say, in the context of temple and
priests (sees. 8 and 9) or even in section 5, where the ark and the tent of
meeting are dealt with. Any theological reasons are not discernible because PreuB explicitly refuses the posidons of Wellhausen, Kohler, and
others, for whom cult is just a pagan or edinic matter (p. 227). The book
ends with two chapters dealing with eschatology andwhy only as the
last chapter?"Israel and the Nations."
The question about the position of the chapter on cult shows one of
the weaknesses of this book. It is often not quite clear to the reader why
a certain topic is dealt with exactly at its given place. In several cases the
chapters are not related to each other in the framework of an embracing
system that is explained to the reader On the other hand there are full
indexes in both volumes so that everything can be found easily, therefore
this imperfecdon does not seriously ditninish the usefulness of the book.
It is first of all an impressive collection of material, well organized within
the individual chapters according to terms, key notions, and so on, and
always giving information about the context and certain scholarly opinions and discussions, throughout complemented by a wide range of literature. On the other hand the book has no clear-cut systematic conception
of its own, and it is not even innovative in its scholarly and theological
views, though it does not claim to be so. The exegedcal, historical, and
theological positions are mainly conservadve (e.g., the "Yahwist" is dated
in the second half of the tenth century B,C,), but the I'ecent discussion is
always mentioned.
HI

Schreiner s system is different. The title of every main chapter of his book
begins with "Yahweh." This name is always followed by an apposition, for
example, "Yahweh, the God of Israel," or a condnuadon added by "and,"
as in "Yahweh and Society." There are ten main chapters, beginning with
"Yahweh, the God of Israel" and ending with "Yahweh and the Future."
The arrangement and organizadon of the material follows the author's
individual view. It begins with a chapter endtled "The People of Yahweh"
because Old Testament theology originated with the people who called
themselves "people of Yahweh" (p. 17).
The individual chapters often begin by discussing a key term or a main
nodon in its exegedcal context. So in the first chapter, "Yahweh's People,"
the author discusses the terms '"am" and "goj," the question of Israel's
origin as a people (in the exodus event), the "covenant formula" (which
is of deuteronomistic origin), Israel's election and the term " % " and
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other aspects of Israel's self-definition. The corresponding chapter, "Israel's God" deals with the name of God and its interpretation, its revelation,
the "God of the fathers" (without mendoning Alt), Israel's God, and some
other specific aspects. The explanadons are rather brief, more touching
on matters than explicating them, mainly presendng the author's own
view with very few hints to scholarly literature. On the other hand, from
the beginning the author uses the abbreviations "]," "E," and "P," without
explaining what these abbreviadons mean. One wonders what kind of
reader the author has in mind.
The next two chapters are again in correladon to each other: "Yahweh,
the God Who Causes Salvation," and "Yahweh, a Demanding God." It is
interesting to observe the different terminology: PreuB speaks about the
"obligating" God, Schreiner about the "demanding" God. In this chapter
Schreiner speaks about "the divine order through the prophets" before
reaching the different kinds of commandments given in the context of
Sinai: first the "Book of Covenant," then Exodus 34, and only then the
decalogue. The latter has, according to Schreiner (following Hossfeld),
its original place in Deuteronomy and is only "secondarily placed before
the book of covenant" (p. 113). Here it is obvious that a certain exegetical
concept with regard to the age of the different collections of laws dominates the biblical presentation of the tnaterial.
Next follows the chapter, "Yahweh, the Creator" Here Schreiner, like
PreuB, keeps von Rad's early position of 1936, that in the Old Testament
creation is subordinated to faith in God's salvational liberation of his
people.^ Then after two chapters, "Yahweh and the Individual" and
"Yahweh and Society," follows a chapter endded "Yahweh, the Only
God." It is surprising to find this chapter here in the second half of the
book, .since already in the first chapter there had been a presentation of
the name of God and the like. The reason is that the author now begins
to discuss the problems of polytheism and monotheism, speaking of the
long way Israel had to go to reach the recognition of the one God. He
believes that Elijah played an important role in this development, while
he takes the texts about Elijah to be deuteronomistic (p. 221).
As in PreuB's book, the cult comes late, treated in the second to last
chapter, between "Sin and Guilt" and the last one, "Future," but cult is
bere mainly "festival and celebration." Sacrifices are only mentioned as a
means of not appearing empty-handed before God (p. 298). In the foregoing chapter some sacrifices are mentioned as means of atonement
(p. 267), but the regular daily cult in the temple does not come into view.
^ For the fundamental change in von Rad's thought see R, Rendtorff, '"Where Were You
When I Laid the Foundation of the Earth?' Creation and Salvation Histoi7," in Ganon and
Theology: Overtures to an Old Testament Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993), pp, 92-113.

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It is not easy to discern Schreiner's posidon with regard to dating. He
never mentions the age of'J" and "E" and often he speaks about those
and other texts just within their given biblical context. But it is obvious
throughout the book that Deuteronomy plays a central role in his theological interpretation of the Old Testament. At several points he follows
the recently dominant tendency to date texts late (e.g., the above mentioned traditions about Elijah (p. 221). Of course, he does not claim to
write a history of Israel's religion, but he mentions rather often the exilic
or postexilic formuladon of certain texts and ideas so that one can realize
a certain general tendency. All in all, this book expresses the individual
view of a well-known Roman Catholic scholar who presents the sum of
his theological life.
IV

Gunneweg declares in the subtitle of his book that it will be a Religmisgeschichteeven if one from a biblical-theological point of view. So he begins with abriefcbapter endded "The Religion of the Ancient Near East
with Particular Consideradon of the Canaanite Religion" (pp. 37^4) followed by a chapter called "The Pre-lsraelite Epoch Circa 1400-1200
The Religion of die Patriarchs" (pp. 45-53). The latter shows a rather
conservadve point of view, accepdng such hypotheses as Leonhard Rost's
Weidewechsel and Albrecht Alt's God of the Fathers. Gunneweg proceeds to
Paul's view of Abrabam and declares that by Paul "the Old Testament
text in fact has been corrected in a Chrisdan sense." He goes on to say
that "the Christian faith ventures to understand the words of the text
better than they tmderstood themselvesalso better than the Jews understood and sdll understand them," but he quahfies this statement immediately by adding that the modern interpreter "has lost the naive uninhibitedness of a (man like) Paul." Therefore he feels confronted with
"probably the most difficult problem of Christian theology, namely the
question of die historically and theologically adequate definition of the
reladon of the Old and New Testament" (p. 52).
Gunneweg then goes through the history of biblical Israel: the dmes
of "early Israel," the "covenant of the tribes" (keeping the theory of the
"Amphictyony"), the epoch of the state, the great prophecy in the time of
the kingdom, the Babylonian exile, the restauradon, and the late postexilic dme. In these chapters he deals first with the early theological "main
themes," then with "religious innovadons" in the time of the state, with
"radical changes" in the time of the exile and the like. His position is
throughout conservative. Again and again he confronts Old Testament
topics with their New Testament reception, always in the same sense as
in the example given above.
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In this context Gunneweg polemizes against a certain postwar theological development in the German Protestant churches. He declares "the
opinion, somedmes even officially taken by churches, that the New Covenant means the inclusion of the gendles in God's covenant with Israel" to
be "a Hagrant heresy" (p. 73). This refers to the statement adopted by the
Synod of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland of 1980 against which
Gunneweg, together with some other Bonn professors of theology, had
publicly protested when it had been published.'*
So Gunneweg's book combines a mainly conservative view of the history of Israel's religion with a decided conviction of the theological and
religious insufficiency of the Okl Testament, including a vehement polemic against a growing development iti the German (and international)
churches to rethink the basic relations of the church and the Jewish
people, calling it simply "heresy." Fortunately he is not a Protestant pope,
entitled to issue such a verdict, and one hopes his voice is just representing a minority among German Old Testament scholars.

To describe the structure of Kaiser's book is rather difficult. The back

cover says that this theology is "decidedly systetnatic." The book itself
at least the first volume^looks more like a kind of history of Israel's
religion. It is organized in three parts, each of them following historical
lines. At the beginning of every chapter there are introductory summaries called "Lehrsatz"; this is a systemadc element, but of course also a
didacdc one. Only in the last pages of the first volume does the author
announce that the second volume -will contain "the risk of a systematic
doctrine of God of the Old Testament" (p. 350).
The first of these parts (after the introductory part, called "The Hermeneutical Presupposidons") is endded "The Historical Presupposidons," historical here meaning "history of religion." It begins with a chapter called "The World of the Gods" which offers a tour d'horizon through
the ancient Mediterranean world of religions under different aspects.
Then follows a chapter, "Yahweh's Rise in History," which goes in three
steps from "early dmes and dme of die kings" through "the dme of exile
and the Persian dme" to "the Hellenisdc time." This is pure history of
religion. First it is told how Yahweh developed "from a god of the mountain to Israel's king god," then how he became "the only god and the
jttdge of the world," and finally "the righteous god." Of course, in these
^ See A, Brockway et al,. The Theology of the Ghurches and the Jewish People (Geneva: World

Council of Churches, 1988), pp, 92-94, The criticized phrase says: "We believe the permanent election of the Jcwisli people as the people of God and realize that throtigh Jesus
Christ the church is taken into the covenant of God with his people."

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chapters everydiing depends on the author's foregoing decisions about
the age and function of the texts. For example, in a paragraph on "Yahweh and Baal" Elijah figures just in a footnote as "dtn-dtr retrojection"
(p. 120, n. 26).
The next part is organized according to the canon of the Old Testament. There are four chapters: on the Pentateuch, which Kaiser calls "the
post-priestly historical work (JEP)"; on the deuteronomisdc and the
chronistic historical work; on the books of die prophets; and on the wisdom poetry. This part one could call a theological history of Hebrew literature. Methodologically speaking it is a kind of theologically reflected
redaction history that interprets the different stages of the texts as expressions of certain theological developments.
Surprisingly, the last part is called "The Torah." There is one chapter
on Israel's law that interprets "the theologizadon of the law," beginning
with the Book of Covenant and ending with a paragraph with the heading "Israel's Joy in the Law." Theologization includes historicization and
finally denaturizadon of the festivals; but nevertheless the author closes
diis chapter by quoting Psalms 119:162. The last chapter is endtled "The
Torah as the Center of the Scriptures." Here Kaiser shows how all parts
of the Old Testament finally have been interpreted in the light of the
Torah: the early and the later prophets as well as the wridngs. Thus the
Torah became the center of the Scriptures. There is a brief final reflection
on the Chrisdan understanding that Christ is the end of the law (Rom.
10:4) and love is the fulfilling of the law (Rom. 13:10).
Undoubtedly, Kaiser's book is the most original and unconventional of
the four books under discussion. This is its strength and also its weakness.
The reader has to follow uncondidonally the author's line, otherwise he or
she will not get any informadon because everything depends on the author's decisions about the historical and theological history of the texts. It
is, so to speak, the opposite of the book by PreuB, which informs the reader
of scholarly discussion but leaves it to the reader to draw the conclusions.
VI

As a kind of appendix it should be mentioned that a fierce discussion was

sparked recendy on the question of "Old Testament theology, or the history of Israel's religion." The initiator of this discussion is Rainer Albertz
(now in Miinster), and the discussion has been carried on at the two international meedngs of the Society of Biblical Literature at Miinster (1993)
and Leuven (1994).' Albertz himself published a two-volume Religions' T h e papers will be published in the vol. 10 oi Jahrbuch fiir Biblische Theologie (1995),
in press,

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geschichte,'* the first book of that kind in decades. This is a very interesting
but also controversial book. The basis of Albertz's view of the history of
Israel's religion is his own earlier published concept of a clear-cut disdnction between the official religion and the religion of the family, which he
follows from the earliest times ("religion of the fathers," exodus, etc.) up
to the Maccabeans. His position is partly conservative, in pardcular with
regard to the early periods, and he pardy follows the recent trend to late
dating so that the whole second volume is devoted to the postexilic time.
Recently there also appeared a book on the theological ethics of the Old
Testament by Eckart Otto.^ This is the first scholarly book on that topic
published in German since Johannes Hempel's (1938). But to review this
book would go beyond the scope of this essay.
" R. Albertz, Religionsgeschichte Israels in alUestamentUcher'/.eil.Grundrisse zum Alten Testament, vol. 8, pts. 1 and 2 (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1992).
' E. Otto, Tlieologische Etliik des Alten Testaments (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1994).

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