Christopher R. Seitz on the Old Testament and Theology

Christopher R. Seitz, Word Without End: The Old Testament as Abiding Theological Witness (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), xi + 355pp., ISBN 0802843220.

[The following is a lightly-edited version of a review first written in November 1998 and published on London School of Theology’s website.]

The issues raised here by Christopher Seitz are vital for the self-understanding of today’s Christian community. If the Old Testament is the Word of God, then we are obliged to take it seriously as such. Theoretically, of course, Christians operate with a unified canon – Old Testament and New Testament. In practice, however, the Old Testament is frequently and effectively marginalised, which leads to little sense of the overarching sweep of salvation history from creation to consummation, and little understanding of the relationship between the old covenant and the new covenant. Seitz seeks to address this division.

But a recurring concern of the book is to assault the similar barrier between biblical studies (combining Old Testament and New Testament studies) and theology. Seitz urges ‘biblical studies to be more theological and theological studies more biblical’. Otherwise biblical studies will tend to focus narrowly on historical issues, and then attempt to make itself relevant by an ‘existential’ leap back to the twenty-first century, while theology will tend towards philosophical reflections on issues facing the church today, but will stay largely detached from serious exegetical engagement with the two-testament Christian canon.

The volume is made up of twenty-two essays (some of which have been published elsewhere – although the collection still provides a coherent work), divided into three parts: Biblical Theology, Exegesis, Practice. The shape is important. That there is a second part means that the Biblical Theology section does not stand alone in glorious theoretical isolation, but is expanded and illustrated in exegetical studies based in a specific Old Testament book (Isaiah). That there is a third part means that the biblical-theological and exegetical issues raised in the first two parts are earthed in a discussion of several pressing questions (ranging from the church’s lectionary to urban theology to homosexuality).

It’s clear from the title that Seitz is particularly concerned with the ‘abiding theological witness’ of the Old Testament. In the first part of the book (Biblical Theology), he argues that we need to hear a connected Old and New Testament witness to God in Christ. Historical criticism of the Old Testament has been too narrowly focused, and has effectively ignored significant links with the New Testament. The varied essays are united by a concern for a ‘canonical’ approach to Scripture, akin to the work of Brevard Childs. Seitz thus works with the unity of the Bible as transmitted by the church. When he tackles the vexed question of who the Old Testament belongs to, he thus argues for a Christian reading:

‘Though it should seem obvious, we should remember that a “historical” Jesus has never been the object of the church’s faith, but rather the triune God, revealed in Old and New Testaments and presently alive in the body of Christ through the presence of the Holy Spirit. Consequently, to search for a “historical” Jesus apart from the witness of Israel’s scriptures is to drive a wedge between the One raised and the One doing the raising. It is this avenue that Paul shuts off, as do the creeds, when they say that Jesus rose again “in accordance with the scriptures.”’

Overall, then, Seitz seeks to reconnect the Testaments where they have become disconnected. In his scheme, the witness of the Old Testament itself is affirmed, but it is also to be taught and experienced within a Christian framework – so that Christians may see the way the Old, in the light of the New, renders God.

In the second part (Exegesis), he works out these reflections, dealing mainly with the book of Isaiah, and especially issues of interpretation. Among other things, he draws interesting links between Isaiah and Lamentations, Isaiah and the kingship Psalms, and offers reflections on how Isaiah should be treated in church Bible study.

The essays in the third part (Practice) cover a range of issues. Seitz adds his voice to the ‘inclusive language’ debate, arguing that God must continue to be known as Father. He suggests that the church’s lectionary should have two readings (rather than three), in order to bring out the correspondence between the Old Testament and the New Testament. This section also includes two powerful and engaging essays, in which Seitz persuasively argues that same-sex unions may not be justified from a biblical and Christian perspective.

The book is not always an easy read, and perhaps a little uneven in places – but it is well worth working through. Anyone interested in the place of the Old Testament in the theological task will benefit from Seitz’s timely reminder for the Christian church to pay attention to the shape of its Scriptures – Old and New, New and Old.