Band 77, Heft 2

According to Notker Slenczka, Jesus redefined the early Jewish understanding of God so radically that the Old Testament could not remain an adequate expression of the Christian idea of God. Moreover, in the light of historical criticism, the messianic promises of the OT could no longer be read as prophetic references to Jesus, either. The OT could hence only be seen as revelation to Jews; for Christians, however, it is valuable as paradigmatic expression of human reality and their necessity of salvation only, and to them authentic information about redemption is provided only by the New Testament. The essay discusses this position and defines a possible Christian view on the relation between Old and New Testament based on the insight that Jesus’ redefinition of the image of God can only be understood in the light of the history of God’s self-revelation to Israel, of which Jesus is a part; from a Christian perspective, the words, actions and fate of Jesus then also shed new light on the history of God’s self-revelation to Israel.

The considerations presented in this essay are to contribute to the reassessment of the meaning of hermeneutics as mediator between historical criticism and biblical theology. In dialogue with the concepts of Samuel Terrien and Gerhard von Rad as well as Reinhart Koselleck’s theory of historical time, the essay develops and discusses remembrance, experience and expectation as epistemological principles of a hermeneutics of the whole Bible.

The article analyses the interaction between the Protestant »principle of Scripture«, historical critical exegesis and Jewish interpretations of the Hebrew Bible. The goal of historical critical exegesis of interpreting biblical texts as precisely as possible within their historical and literary contexts is fundamental for the Jewish-Christian dialogue. The plurality of Jewish interpretations of the Hebrew Bible is presented by means of their hermeneutical principles. The article emphasizes the relevance of Jewish biblical interpretation for both Old Testament exegesis and Christian theology, exemplified through different readings of Exod 33:17-23.

This contribution starts with the peculiar ambivalence of how modern German Protestantism deals with the so-called ›Old Testament‹: Delight in Old Testament reading and preaching as seen in the present revision of the lectionary is contrasted by a certain skepticism of scholarly theology against the Old Testament as a part of the Christian canon. The essay assesses both positions critically and demonstrates how reading the Old Testament permanently questions Christian identity vis-à-vis Israel. For sermons on the Old Testament, the point is to preach in a self-evident and at once Israel-sensitive way.

Compared to the other theological disciplines, the most intense and most innovative attempts at combining Old Testament tradition with a theological transfer to modernity are found in the area of religious pedagogy. Especially the treatment of prophetic literature in religious education has had a colorful past, which sharpens the eye for an up-to-date and appropriate presentation. The special challenge is to connect the traditional prophetic speech of God’s determining reality to the politically relevant power of orientation for the students’ lives in a theologically correct manner so that the truth claim of the biblical tradition can come to light freely.