Once again—the "center" of the Old Testament - Old Testament theology

Biblical Theology Bulletin, Fall, 2001 by Roland E. Murphy

As for the relationship between the Testaments, Janowski recognizes that there is both continuity and discontinuity--but he stoutly affirms "one God of the two Testaments" (309). He deliberately chooses an example of continuity: the "Shekinah" or indwelling of God. The word does not occur in the Bible, but in Jewish tradition it indicates the divine presence. It comes from the biblical root skn, which "became in Priestly usage a technical theological term to designate the presence of the transcendent god in his sanctuary" (Cross: 245-46), and is derived from miskan (tent, tabernacle, and eventually Temple). In an earlier study (1987: 186-91) Janowski had argued that a special theology of the Lord's presence with his people Israel emerges with the exile. With the Temple in ruins, pre-exilic Temple theology became Shekinah theology (divine presence among the people, not the Temple). This momentous change in mentality is reconstructed on the basis of the tenuous evidence in Exodus 29:43-45, Ezekiel 43:7-9, and the insert by a late deuteronomistic redactor in 1 Kings 6:11-13.

More important than the verb itself, however, are the nouns that indicate the presence of the Lord. It is the Glory of God in a cloud that Solomon describes in the Temple (1 Kgs 8:11-13). In the Deuteronomic tradition it is the Name that dwells there (e.g., Deut 14:23-24). Ezekiel sees the Glory of the Lord returning to the Temple, and he hears a voice giving out the consoling promise: "I will dwell [skn] among the Israelites forever" (Ezek 43:4-7). In the Hellenistic period the indwelling is marked by the divine birth of Wisdom, created before all else, and finding delight with human beings (Prov. 8:31). Then Woman Wisdom relates the command she receives from God to "pitch tent" (Sir 24:8, kataskenoson) in Jacob/Israel. And it is from the holy tent that she ministers to the Lord (Sir 24:10).

Thus far, the development of the divine indwelling is well known in the biblical sources. In the New Testament it culminates in John 1:14 (Sir 24:8!) with the "pitching of a tent," as the Logos takes up a special form of residence with the people. Janowski describes briefly the rabbinic version of the Shekinah theology as "a legitimate heir to the Shekinah tradition contained in the Old Testament" (315). That may very well be, but one must keep in mind that the term Shekinah is post-biblical, and in the Bible the divine presence is expressed by several terms, such as Name or Glory.

Moreover, the importance of Shekinah theology in rabbinic sources is exceedingly modest when compared with the role of Torah theology in the Hebrew Bible. The Shekinah does not link Christianity with rabbinic Judaism. Rather, Christian belief is linked to the Old Testament data, to the general theme of the divine indwelling. On the one hand continuity exists between the Old Testament and later Jewish tradition. On the other hand there is continuity between the Old Testament and the New Testament. But one cannot claim that "Christianity's specific intensification [what is meant is the Incarnation] grows on the soil of Judaism" (316). Rather, it grows on the soil of the promises of the Old Testament, not on rabbinic sources. It receives a particular emphasis in the wisdom literature (Sirach and Wisdom of Solomon, both excluded from the Tanak), which Christianity took to itself.