Religion and Theology: Structural Variations between the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old
Introduction
The teachings of the Old Testament in the Christian bible are fundamentally similar to those of the Hebrew bible. This is because both books have drawn from the same set of authors and in the same historical period and in desire to communicate the same message. These similarities can be easily explained by the history of the Christian religion from where Judaism stemmed. The teachings of early prophets and other texts that communicated the basic theology of traditional Christian societies can be found in these books. However, there are differences that are to be found between the two books. The Hebrew bible has a different method of clustering individual texts different from the Christian book by at least a third. The differences are in the way that both sets of books considered the texts along their perceived importance. The Hebrew bible perhaps used this method of classification better than its Christian equivalent since the latter considered other factors including the chronology of events. The structural differences of both books and including the New Testament are outlined in the discussion below.
Discussion
Biblical hermeneutics refers to the interpretation of the bible. The bible is a text that elicits much debate in the society and whose interpretation has been a topic of discussion since the days of the Hebrew bible, to the old and the new testaments. The major hermeneutical and exegetical issues are based on the convictions of the interpreters and can either be based on rationale or the divinity of the bible texts. One school of though argues that the bible is a compilation of books that were written by authors in different historical periods under the divine guidance of the Holy Spirit (Osborne 2006). This school posits that a great injustice is done to the bible if its texts are literally interpreted. It considers the bible as having a fuller meaning and can thus not be taken at face value. The other school of thought argues that the bible is a compilation of books that were written by authors with different artistic inspirations largely guided by their own intelligence and their social environment. These broad hermeneutical and exegetical issues can be further broken down into cultural, historical, literal or legal issues (Tate 1997). The bible can be understood if it is contextualized according to other corresponding events during its compilation. For example, understanding the Palestinian government at the time of Jesus can help one understand the actions of the rulers at the time and therefore assist in the overall interpretation of texts written at that time. Additionally, considering the culture of a people like the Israelites and comparing it to that of Egyptians can help one better understand the Exodus. Another example is the use of the Jewish laws as a basis for understanding the meaning that Israelites placed on circumcision.
The Old Testament theology is basically what God wants to reveal about Himself. There are many truths that the texts reveal about God and they are organized in a manner that allows us greater understanding through a step by step process. In the beginning, genesis, God reveals that there was nothing but a great void and that is filled by the goodness of God by His design. The bible states that in the beginning there was the word and the word was God and the word was with God. The New Testament on the other hand builds on what the Old Testament reveals and describes Jesus, an embodiment of God, as the truth and the life through which humans access God. The Old Testament is a chronological account of how God associated with the chosen human race of the time, the Jews through various individuals. It is a detailed account of various contracts, referred to as covenants, which God entered with some of the most prominent prophets and other individuals at the time. The first account of this is given in the beginning texts of genesis where God enters into a contract with Adam that ends up with him and Eve being kicked out of the Garden of Eden. Other covenants in the texts are with Noah, Abraham, David, and Jeremiah among others. In the New Testament, God also enters into different relationships; the most prominent being with every believer who goes to him and repents. Prophets like Jeremiah had prophesied what was to come and the New Covenant was fulfilled by Jesus Christ.
Towards the beginning of the first century AD, the Jewish people were under the rule of Alexander. This was the period when they were introduced to the Greek language and culture. During the intertestament period, Hellenism was prominent and some of the texts that were written in this period were by Hellenized Jews (Grayzel 1947). The Greek culture was so strong to the point that it persisted even after the Roman conquest. This period spans from the time of the last prophet, Malachi and the appearance of John the Baptist. It spanned 400 years and reflects a crossover from the Old Testament texts to the New Testament. The Hebrew bible does not have a reflection of the intertestamnet period but rather refers to it as the Second Temple Period. During the lead up to the first century AD, there were 400 years where there were no new instructions or communications from God. Some researchers refer to these years as the silent years. However, most deuterocanonical and apocryphal books that are widely used by the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches were written in this period. This period was also characterized by a growth in the Jewish diaspora
The bible was written by various authors during different periods in history. Scholars had to critically assess these texts in order to make informed judgments on the intended meanings of the texts and their historical accounts. The most widely used method of reconstructing the historical and literary texts was by putting the existing texts under intense interrogation in order to determine their accuracy. The first step towards achieving this was assuming that these texts were products of human intelligence rather than supernatural powers, which would have suggested that they were perfect and beyond reproach. Therefore, the origin of texts, the mode of production, the history of the author, the intended audience, the message therein, and the resources used for their production are areas where scholars focused their efforts in making sense of the texts. Since languages are constantly evolving, scholars had to interpret the texts in line with traditional languages so as not lose meaning of words. The exercise was not simple as it involved different disciplines including anthropology, archaeology, folklore, linguistics and the study of old traditions (Barton 1984). Some of the specific methods include textual, canonical, rhetorical, form, socio-scientific, redaction, psychological, narrative, rhetoric, redaction and source critisms that analyzed all the aspects of these texts in detail in order to draw relevant conclusions and relay intended messages.
Conclusion
The Hebrew bible is firmly rooted in Jewish law. While it is fundamentally similar to that of the Old Testament, there exist some structural differences. The Tanakh has 24 major books which is a variation of the 39 in the Christian Old Testament but has some of the books clustered into what some scholars referred to as a force-fit in order to arrive at the Books of the Jewish Canon. Although the two books have two thirds of their texts following the same order the Christian Old Testament is regarded as having the most logical order under hermeneutics since it has all the texts in a chronological order with Chronicles coming before Ezra in a logical manner. The reason that scholars posit for the differences in the books is that the Tanakh has its texts arranged in the order of their canonical importance and the texts that appear last were compiled in the latter stages. The old Christian testament is thought to be a more balanced and sequential account of God’s word.
There are fundamental similarities between the theologies of both the Old Testament Christian texts and the Hebrew bible compared to that of the New Testament. The basic teachings are that there exists a God who created man in His image and manifests Himself through them (McGrath 1998). In the Hebrew bible and the Old Testament, God revealed Himself to people through a number of ways, most of them dramatic. He appeared to Moses as a burning bush, converted Lot’s wife into salt, saved Noah using an ark, availed a lamb as a sacrifice for Abraham as he was about to sacrifice his son and many others. These manifestations of God were through the Jewish people that were considered a chosen race. The texts refer to the children of Israel as God’s preferred people. On the other hand, the New Testament, although also written in the Hebrew context, appeals to all races and groups of people. In addition, God is no longer manifested in dramatic fashion as he was in the traditional texts. In analyzing the theologies in all the three bibles, one realizes that the New Testament was a necessary sequel to the Old Testament as it served as a platform for the fulfillment of the prophesies that had been made by prophets like Jeremiah. While the Hebrew bible would continue to be relevant to the Jewish people at present without the New Testament, it would strike no relation with non-Jews. Therefore, the New Testament theologies were important as a development of traditional notions of God and also as a way of including all other races in the world.
The period preceding the first century AD is regarded as having been one of the quietest as there were no dramatic communications or manifestations of God as had been in earlier centuries. However, invasion by the Greeks served to enrich the culture of the Jews and inspire some of the deuterocanonical and apocryphal texts still in use by the church today. This period was characterized by Hellenism and preceded the intertestament period (Hegel 1974). The Hebrew bible does not have a sequel and therefore disagrees with the term intertestamental period otherwise referring to it as the Second Temple Period (Baron 1952). This is when some of the books were included in the bible together with the last prophet’s work, Malachi. The history of Judea’s conquest during this period has the Persians as the masters of the Jews, then the Greeks, followed by the Syrians then the Hasmoneans and eventually the Romans. During this period, Judaism was a cult but developed into a major religion under the Pharisee rulers who became the rabbis and compiled the Hebrew bible.
The texts that were used to eventually compile all the various bibles were written in different historical periods. Therefore, the texts could not be directly adopted without scholars having to analyze their authenticity and accuracy (Soulen 1981). This entailed several academic disciplines in order to translate and adopt the texts with as close to the message as originally intended by the authors. It has been claimed that the rabbis had very ingenious ways of translating the texts so that they fit their intended messages to the public. In particular, it is documented that the topic of circumcision was very popular and that any text could be twisted until it conveyed that message. Therefore, scholars had to critically assess the texts so that there original messages could be established. It is therefore apparent that although it is claimed that the bible is a compilation of books from authors under the guidance of the holy spirit, there were gross misrepresentations in the texts that warranted scholars to reanalyze them for accuracy and relevance.
References
Baron, S.W., 1952, A Social and Religious History of the Jews, Vol 1, Ancient Times. Jewish Publication Society
Barton, J., 1984, Reading the Old Testament: Method in Biblical Study. Philadelphia: Westminster
Grayzel, S., 1947, A History of the Jews. Jewish Publication Society
Hegel, M., 1974, Judaism and Hellenism. Fortress Press
McGrath, A., 1998, Historical Theology: An Introduction to the History of Christian Thought. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Osborne, G.R., 2006, The Hermeneutical Spiral: A Comprehensive Introduction to Biblical Interpretation. Second edition. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press
Soulen, R.N., 1981, Handbook of Biblical Criticism, 2nd ed. Atlanta, Ga: John Knox
Tate, W.R., 1997, Biblical Interpretation: An Integrated Approach. Rev. ed. Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publications
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