Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 64:1 (Mar 2021)
Article: Do The Speakers In Acts Use Different Hermeneutics For Different Old Testament Genres?
Author: Andrew Judd

JETS 64:1 (March 2021) p. 109

Do The Speakers In Acts Use Different Hermeneutics For Different Old Testament Genres?

Andrew Judd*

^* Andrew Judd is an associate lecturer in Old Testament at Ridley College, 170 The Avenue, Parkville, Victoria, Australia 3052. He may be contacted at [email protected].

Abstract: Quotations of Old Testament texts in Acts have been explained in myriad ways—as everything from midrash, to rhetoric, to opportunistic proof-texting. This variety of explanations presents a confusing and unprincipled picture of apostolic hermeneutics. But is there a principle behind this diversity? Drawing on modern genre theory’s observation that genres create distinct hermeneutical roles for the reader, this article tests the hypothesis that the hermeneutical structures employed by the apostles to interpret and apply the Old Testament vary depending on the genre of the source material. It concludes that if the genre of the source text is a psalm, then the text will usually be interpreted typologically to make a Christological point.

Key words: Acts, Psalms, use of the OT in the NT, genre, hermeneutics

Hans Robert Jauss has justly observed that “the abundance of literary forms and genres ascertainable in the Old and New Testaments is astonishing”—from laments, to heroic prose, to genealogy, to riddle.1 Modern theories of genre suggest that each of these genres asks something different of its reader: the task of understanding a poem is different from the task of understanding a letter. Indeed, this is such a foundational principle that introductory guides to reading the Bible are often arranged with different sections for different genres: epistle, narrative, parable, psalm, and so on.2 Yet philosophical and theological hermeneutics have often been curiously disinterested in questions of genre. Even discussions around intertextuality and the Bible have focused on lexical connections rather than the more diffuse networks between texts based on genre.3 Accordingly, attempts to understand the NT’s use of the OT have often pointed to a dizzyingly diverse array of midrashic techniques, without considering whether there is, as genre theory suggests, some correlation between the genre of the source text and the hermeneutical structures used to interpret it.

JETS 64:1 (March 2021) p. 110

Can the many different genres of the OT help explain the many different hermeneutical methods that are applied to those texts in the NT? In other words, does the fact that a text is a psalm, and not historical narrative, ...