3 - Sacrifice and covenant in the Old Testament

Summary

The previous chapter has related the particular problems of Hebrews to wider questions of interpretation; by contrast, this chapter moves from general issues in anthropology to particular features of Biblical religion, in preparing for the extended discussion of Hebrews to follow in part III. Its purpose is threefold. First, it seeks to demonstrate in practice that recent structuralist studies in the field of anthropology have relevance and value also in the study of the Bible, taking as an example some interesting interpretations of aspects of Leviticus. Second, it employs the principles used in these writings to survey from a structuralist point of view the Old Testament material most prominently referred to in Hebrews. Third, it locates structuralism alongside other methodologies in an inclusive view of the Old Testament. While the first two purposes provide the substance of the chapter, and will be worked out in parallel in its central sections, the third is the subject of some brief opening and closing remarks, which carry the hermeneutical discussion forward into later chapters.

Methodology in Old Testament interpretation

Anthropology differs from most methods used in Old Testament study, not only in being largely synchronic in its interests, but also in its fundamental concern with discerning and describing phenomena as wholes.