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The Proper Role of Old Testament Theology

The place of Old Testament theology is to aid the exegete in being that discipline which bridges the gap between one text and another. Understanding the historical sense, the grammatical sense, etc. is one piece of the puzzle; another piece is to understand how that text is itself informed by previous revelation. This is important in understanding the Old Testament itself as well as how the Old Testament informs the NT.[1] Thus it appears from Kaiser and Bright that one must attempt to synthesize the historical information, the textual information, and the idea of development of revelation in order to find a proper Old Testament theology.

“Theology is a kind of workshop or storehouse at the church’s disposal. Old Testament theology is one branch of this critical and constructive activity.”[2] By joining New Testament theology together with Old Testament theology as biblical theology, it can be the material from which the systematic theologies derive their categories and topics. However, it is not the task of Old Testament theology to incorporate its results in some system or to justify one over another. The goal is to not force the material into a mold before it is studied on its own terms.[3]

Since Old Testament theology can be seen as a sort of storehouse from which the material is withdrawn to develop the systems (dispensational, progressive dispensational, and covenant), and that it is not the place of Old Testament theology to ensure that its material fits into a particular system, and that theology in the end is a workshop in which the church forms its ideas and begins to put them into use, it is critical that the systematic theologies properly understand and integrate the materials of the Old Testament theologian. Since the Old Testament theologian is not a priori concerned with the categories and terminology of the systems and the systematic theologian is concerned with formulating and properly developing his or her system not a priori Old Testament theology, then the two can become mismatched. The Church then loses its understanding of the big picture that the Bible presents. In the end, the Church must be grounded in a biblically based theology that is robust and well informed. Thus, this work will examine the covenants of the Old Testament from the systematic theologian’s viewpoint. It is an attempt to show how the systems are handling the Old Testament in comparison with one another. In that way, we see how the two disciplines are integrated and help to ensure our own theology is biblical.

[1] Bright 1967, 143; Kaiser 1991, 17-18.

[2] Barth, Christopher. God with Us: A Theological Introduction to the Old Testament. Edited by Geoffrey W. Bromiley. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1991, 3.

[3] House 1998, 53-54.