THE OLD TESTAMENT LIBRARY WALT-HER EICHRODT General Editors G. ERNEST WRIGHT, The Divinity School, Harvard University JOHN BRIGHT, Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Virginia JAMES BARR, Princeton Theological Seminary PETER ACKROYD, University of London VOLUME ONE Translated by J. A. BAKER The Westminster Press Philadelphia Copyright 0 1961 S.C.M. Press, Ltd. Translated by J. A. Baker from the German This edition in the English language Theologie des Alten Testaments, Teil I is dedicated to the (sixth edition, 1959, published by Ehrenfried Klotz Verlag, Stuttgart, Society for Old Testament Study in association with and to the Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Gattingen, SocietJy of Biblical Literature and Exegesis with the author’s revisions to November I 960) with the gratitude of the author for honoray membership of these British and American learned bodies Library of Congress Catalog Card No. X 6 I-I I 867 Eighth Printing, 1975 TYPESET IN GREAT BRITAIN PRINTED IN TIIE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CONTENTS From the Preface to the First Edition II Preface to the Fifth Revised Edition 13 Preface to the English Edition 17 Translator’s Preface 23 Abbreviations 24 I. Old Testament Theology: The Problem and the Method 25 II. The Covenant Relationship 36 I, The meaning of the covenant concept 36 2. The history of the covenant concept 45 I The jeopardizing of the Yahweh covenant 45 II The re-fashioning of the covenant concept 49 III. The Covenant Statutes 70 A. THE SECULAR LAW 74 I. Its distinctive character 74 2. Some crucial phases in the development of the law 83 IV. The Covenant Statutes (continued) 98 B. THE CULTUS 98 I. The significance of the cultus for religion in general 98 2. The significance of the cultus in the religion of Israel 101 I Sacred sites 102 II Sacred objects *o7 III Sacred seasons “9 IV Sacred actions I33 (a) Consecration and purity rites ‘33 (b) Sacrificial worship 14’ (c) Prayer 172 V Synthesis 176 7 8 CONTENTS CONTENTS 9 V. The Name of the Covenant God 178 III The religious structure of classical prophecy 345 The new exnerience of the divine reality 345 I. General semitic designations of God 178 (4 The working out of the experience of God in the 2. Specifically Israelite designations of God w 187 prophetic system of thought 353 3. Epithets of Yahweh ‘94 (4 The new sense of the unity of I@ 353 (B> The divine-human relationship transferred to the indi- vidual level 356 VI. The Nature of the Covenant God 206 (Y> The prophetic critique of daily life 360 A. AFFIRMATIONS ABOUT THE DIVINE BEING 206 (8) The prophetic attitude to the cultus 364 The prophetic attitude to the national religion 369 I. God as personal 206 (4 ( I) Common presuppositions 369 2. God as spiritual 210 (2) The prophetic re-shaping of the national religion 371 3. God as one 220 (0 Sin and judgment 374 (4 The prophetic conception of history 381 P> Eschatolog_y 385 Synthesis VII. The Nature of the Covenant God (continued) 228 (4 387 B. AFFIRMATIONS ABOUT THE DIVINE ACTIVITY 228 I. The power of God 228 2. The lovingkindness of God (hesed Yahweh) 232 IX. The Instruments of the Covenant (continued) 392 B. THE OFFICIAL LEADERS 392 3. The righteousness of God 239 I. The priests 392 4. The love of God 250 I The formation of the priesthood in the history of 5. The wrath of God 258 Israel 392 6. The holiness of God 270 II The religious structure of the priesthood 402 7. The relation of the Old Testament picture of God to the (a) General 402 moral norm 282 (b) The distinctive character of the priestly concep- 8. Synthesis 286 tion of God 406 (c) The relations between God and the world 410 (d) The place of man in the world 415 (a) Human right conduct 4’5 VIII. The Instruments of the Covenant 289 (18) Cultic activity 4’9 A. THE CHARISMATIC LEADERS 289 (y) Human existence in time (history and eschatology) 424 I. The founder of the religion 289 (e) Synthesis 433 2. The seers 293 2. The king 436 3. The Nazirites 306 I The origin of the monarchy 438 II The ambivalent assessment of the monarchy in the 4. The judges 306 sources 44’ 5. Nabism 309 III The monarchy as a religious office in the history of the I The basic characteristics of the phenomenon 309 covenant people 442 (a) The phenomenon of group ecstasy 309 IV The religious effects of the monarchy 452 (b) The general religious character of the phenomenon 3 I 3 (c) The effects of spirit-possession 319 II The theological significance of nabism 3’8 III The degeneration of nabism 332 X. Covenant-Breaking and Judgment 457 6. Classical prophecy 338 I. Judgment as a guarantee and restoration of the covenant 457 I Links with nabism 339 I The possibility of annulment 457 II The distinctive character of classical prophecy 34’ II A new evaluation of God’s covenant 458 IO CONTENTS III The hope of the overthrow and punishment of Israel’s enemies 459 IV Foreign influences 461 v An execution of Yahweh’s righteous judgment 461 2. Judgment as abrogation of the covenant 462 I The transformation of the limited vision of the future 462 II The change in the character of the expectation of doom 464 III Individual retribution 467 From the PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION 3. Individualist and universalist elements in the expectation of judgment 467 HE spiritual situationin general and that of theology in particular is impressing ever more peremptorily on everyone concerned with XI. Fulfilling the Covenant: The Consummation of God’s T Old Testament studies the need for a new essay in OT theology. There are quite enough historical descriptions of Israelite and Dominion 472 Judaistic religion: but by contrast only the most rudimentary attempts I. The principal forms of the Old Testament hope of salva- tion 473 have been made to present the religion of which the records are to be 2. The importance of the hope of salvation for the doctrine found in the Old Testament as a self-contained entity exhibiting, of God 490 despite ever-changing historical conditions, a constant basic tendency I The entry of God into history 490 and character. It is precisely such a presentation, however, which has II The supramundane character of the messianic king- today become quite indispensable in the face both of the deep issues dom 491 raised by the comparative study of religions and of the current III The solution of the pressing problems of religion 492 impassioned analyses of the Christian religion and its relation to its 3. The origins of the Old Testament hope of salvation 494 I Mythical elements 494 Israelite past. Indeed, to anyone who is in any way acquainted with II Its cultic derivation 497 the problems involved the whole difficulty of the project is so strongly III Its nationalist origin 498 contemporary, that a doubt whether the question can be solved with Iv Its religous core 499 the means at present at our disposal must seem only too well justified. 4. Prediction and fulfilment 50’ The author of the present work has, therefore, entered on his task not I The various attempts at a solution 502 light-heartedly but only under the strongest pressure from very II The double relationship of prediction and fulfilment 508 diverse quarters. The experience which he has been able to gain in working over the material during repeated courses of lectures has indeed been encouraging: but in addition what has helped him to Excursus : The Problem of Old Testament Theology 512 persevere in his work is the conviction that it is better at least to hazard an attempt to master a problem which has become too Index of subjects 521 insistent to ignore-and thereby, perhaps, to provide a stimulus for better solutions-than to leave the whole matter undisturbed. He is Index of modern authors 530 fully aware that in doing so he has departed from the usual procedure, Index of biblical passages 535 not only in the arrangement of the material, but even more in the effort to determine which questions are fundamental to the faith of the OT. This will be especially noticeable with regard to the signifi- cance of the Covenant, its institutions in Law and Cult, and its instruments of expression in Prophecy and Priesthood. But this pproach wi.ll seem a disadvantage only to those who cannot see how II 12 FROM THE PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION miserably inadequate at just these points is the usual theology-one which thinks that the essence of OT religion can be displayed in the bloodless abstraction of ‘ethical monotheism’, simply because it can- not free itself from the values of a rationalistic individualism and the structure-patterns of developmental theories. It is, therefore, the author’s hope that this first part of the Theology of the Old Testa- ment, which aims at clarifying the most important fundamental PREFACE TO THE FIFTH REVISED EDITION questions, may be of some service to many who in the controversy about the OT are looking for new lines along which to direct their INCE the appearance of the First Edition of the present work there thoughts. has been a very happy revival oftheological work on the OldTesta- W. EI~HRODT ment, and such work has now won back its rightful place in acade- Base1 S mic studies in a field where the religio-historical approach for a long 34) ‘933 time held wellnigh undisputed sway.