Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 26:2 (Jun 1983)
Article: Old Testament Theology: The Historico-Genetic Method
Author: Elmer B. Smick

JETS 26:2 (June 1983) p. 145

Old Testament Theology:
The Historico-Genetic Method

Elmer B. Smick*

Robert Pfeiffer of Harvard reportedly said to a student who was interested in studying the Bible with him: “I will tell you what it says, and you tell me what it means.” This represents the attitude of a generation of scholars who viewed Biblical studies as purely a scientific discipline and left theologizing to others.

Assuming that our theology is based on the Bible, there is always the danger of theologizing before we have done adequate analysis. The Evangelical Theological Society, when compared to the Society of Biblical Literature, would certainly deny that it is more interested in theology than in the Bible. But there has been a tendency for us to over-synthesize and for them to over-analyze. Over-analyzing can lead to fragmentation, and over-synthesizing can lead to ignoring data and being selective. Biblical theology is the area where the Biblical disciplines should be brought together and made to serve their ultimate theological purpose. Since Biblical scholars have shown a renewed interest in theology, I propose to examine some important examples of this trend and suggest the path that evangelicals should follow.

One of the current fads is the politico-sociological understanding of the Bible. Sharing the presuppositions of the tradition-history school, W. Brueggemann1 sees two streams of covenant tradition (the Mosaic and the Davidic) set in conflict, although he admits that the Biblical writers did not see it that way.2 Behind the scenes he sees a politico-sociological conflict between these covenant traditions that may be traced through all the phases of OT history and involves a social ordering.

On the one hand the Mosaic covenant is characterized by political decentralization and social egalitarianism, and on the other hand the Davidic covenant is committed to urban centralization and social stratification with power in the hands of an elite following the Canaanite city-kings. The priesthood is explained in the same way: The Mushite priesthood was heir to the liberation faith rooted in Moses preserved among the northern tribes. Conversely, the Zakodite rootage belongs to a royal consciousness based in an urban context. It is “liberation faith versus a religion of legitimated order.” In the exile the Deuteronomic legitimated order called for proto-Pelagian obedience in contrast to the poet of Job with his creation myth and theology of grace.3 Brueggemann admits that the poem of Job

*Elmer Smick is professor of Old Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilt...