Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 150:600 (Oct 1993)
Article: Periodical Reviews
Author: Anonymous

BSac 150:600 (Oct 93) p. 493

Periodical Reviews

“The Paradigm Is Changing: Hopes—and Fears,” Rolf Rendtorff, Biblical Interpretation 1 (1993): 34-53.

This article appears in a new journal to be published three times a year by E. J. Brill. With the subtitle “A Journal of Contemporary Approaches,” the journal “will encourage a dialogue between the various new approaches and the classical disciplines of exegesis.”

Fundamental to all research is the notion that nothing should be taken for granted, that methodological presuppositions should be continually reevaluated, and that, when necessary, former conclusions should be challenged and altered. Stephen Neill has well said, “The uncritical acceptance of any unproved axiom makes further scientific work almost impossible. Nothing is more important than that every axiom should constantly be put to the test and verified in every possible way” (The Interpretation of the New Testament: 1861–1961 [London: Oxford University Press, 1964], 257–58).

Rendtorff, professor of Old Testament at the University of Heidelberg, in recent years has called into question certain axiomatic ideas of Old Testament scholarship, such as the Documentary Hypothesis in Pentateuchal criticism. In this article he describes the paradigm commonly adopted in modern Old Testament studies, shows some of its weak points, and then argues that this paradigm is in the process of shifting to newer and better methodologies. Though this shift brings with it anxiety for some scholars who are comfortable with the old ways, Rendtorff maintains that for many it also is a source of hope for the future of Old Testament studies in the 21st century.

The essence of Rendtorff’s thesis may be described as follows. Throughout the 20th century, Old Testament studies have been profoundly influenced by Julius Wellhausen, Bernhard Duhm, and Hermann Gunkel. Wellhausen was the great popularizer of the view that the Pentateuch could be divided into prior literary sources (viz., J, E, D, P), and in light of the dating of these sources the evolution of Israel’s religion could be written in a way that differed radically from earlier understandings. So influential was this model in subsequent Old Testament scholarship that to the present time Old Testament studies continue to operate to some degree under the influence of the Wellhausen model. In a similar way Duhm’s conclusions on the

BSac 150:600 (Oct 93) p. 494

so-called Trito-Isaiah and the independent authorship of the Servant Songs in Deutero-Isaiah became very influential in Old Testament studies. Gunkel’s innovations with form-critical methods virtually dominated certain areas of Old Testament study, even though in ways his approach was inc...