86-100

• Peter, C. B.

In this paper the writer has addressed himself to one basic question: What is unique in the Old Testament? Having briefly pointed out the failure of archaelogy to answer the question satisfactorily, and having briefly mentioned the alternate approaches of Gerhard von Rad and Norman Gottwald to answer this question, the writer has presented his thesis that the uniqueness of the Old Testament is to be found in a remarkable dialectic between history and myth which runs through the entire content of the Old Testament. This dialectic, the writer maintains, has expressed itself in such processes as the historicization of myth on the one hand, and remythification of history on the other. Finally, the writer believes, that the Temple of Jerusalem provides the student of the Old Testament with a viable paradigm to understand this dialectic.The paper falls into five sections. Having introduced his subject in the first section, the writer moves on to a brief discussion of the Temple of Jerusalem, beginning from its proto-type the Shiloh Sanctuary. This discussion provides a backdrop for the material contained in section three and four. In section three the dialectic between history and myth has been discussed in relation to the Temple and God’s Presence, while in section four it has bem discussed in relation to the Temple and God’s Kingship. Finally, the writer has summarized his discussion in the fifth section on conclusion.

• Philosophy, Ethics and Religion

• Theology
• Βίβλος

This is a revised elaboration of one of author΄s earlier papers, «The Temple in Old Testament Theology» (Bangalore: The United Theological College, 1980. Unpublished). He is grateful to his former professors in the Old Testament, Dr. Kenneth T. Aitken (now of the University of Aberdeen), Dr. Rudolf Ficker (Hanover, W. Germany), and Prof. Theodore N. Swanson (The United Theological College, Bangalore, India for their continued guidance and criticism which has encouraged him to pursue, over the past ten years, the thesis of an inner O.T. dialectic, of this paper, in some of his writings, for example C.B. Peter, A Traditio-Critical Study of the Tension Between the Nomadic and the Agrarian Modes of Life from the Israelites Settlement in Canaan to the Time of the Beginning of the Monarchy (Unpublished M. Th. thesis to Serampore University. Bangalore: The United Theological College, 1981. Hereafter called «Agro-Nomadic Tension»), C.B. Peter, «Israel and Her Neighbours: An Analogy to Understand the Shaping of the Indian Christian Ethos», India Cultures, voi. 38, No. 2 (Jabalpur: School of Research of Leonard Theological College, 1983), pp. 20-44; and C.B. Peter, «The Trends Behind the Trends: Theological Polarization and Synthesis» (Nairobi: C.C.E.A., 1989 unpublished)., Περιέχει σημειώσεις, Αφιέρωμα στα 90 χρόνια του καθηγητή Oscar Cullmann