THE DISCIPLINE OF INTRODUCTIONS

Five years after the appearance of the Exodus commentary, Childs published his influential Introduction to the Old Testament as Scripture (1979). His unpublished Sprunt Lectures of 1972, which had emphasized final form studies for the first time, were also reworked into this text (1979: 17). The first issue to be considered is whether, as some have suggested, the Introduction reflects any changes in the canonical approach. Second, I will describe the distinctive features of a canonical ‘introduction’ as opposed to earlier scholarly works in this genre. Third, we shall investigate the relationship between Childs's Old Testament Theology in a Canonical Context (1985) and his previous publications.

Changes in the canonical approach

Up until the appearance of the Introduction Childs had consistently stressed that consideration of the New Testament was an essential part of his approach. Yet, as James Barr has correctly pointed out, there is comparatively little talk of the New Testament in the Introduction: ‘the Old Testament has not been interpreted as Christian scripture after all’. Childs's response to this observation was thin. He protested that he ‘was not writing a biblical theology but an introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures … the larger task clearly needs to be done’ (1984b: 70; cf. 1979: 72). He had, however, already written in his Exodus commentary that the sections on ‘New Testament context’ and ‘theological reflection within the context of the Christian canon’ belonged to ‘the heart’ of the commentary (1974a: xvi). Barr had good grounds to think that New Testament study was an indispensable part of the canonical approach.