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The Doctrine of Grace in the Old Testament

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2009

T. F. Torrance
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Extract

There is no one word for grace in the Old Testament as there is in the New, nor are the precise lineaments of the New Testament thought manifest, but the substance of the doctrine is there. In fact there is no language that expresses so profoundly and so tenderly the unaccountable love of God as the Hebrew of the Old Testament. This is not thought of abstractly but in intensely personal terms as the active love of One who is essentially the living and loving God of Israel. The dominant thought throughout is the amazing choice of Israel by God as grounded only in His free and unlimited love and as creating a community in fellowship with God who bestows Himself upon them as Father and Saviour for ever.

Type
Articles
Information
Scottish Journal of Theology , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , February 1948 , pp. 55 - 65
Copyright
Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1948

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References

1 Deut. 7.7f.; see also 9.4f.; 10.15; 23.5.

2 Snaith, Norman H., The Distinctive Ideas of the Old Testament (1944), p. 135Google Scholar. For other references see p. 136f.

3 Cf. Jer. 22.23; 1 Sam. 4.19; Lam. 4.6.

4 Judges 21.22.

5 Lofthouse, W. H., Ḥen and Ḥesed in the O.T., in Z. AT. W. (1933), p. 30.Google Scholar

6 Cf. the derivative meaning for nought, Gen. 29.15; Ex. 21.2.11; N um. 11.5, etc.

7 Op. cit., p. 128.

8 Deut. 28.50.

9 Lam. 4.16.

10 Gen. 42.21.

11 Job. 9.1f., espec. v. 15.

1 Ex. 33.19. See also Job 8.15; Deut. 3.23; Ps. 143.1.

2 Nor does ḥen have the sense of gratitude or thanks as charis does. Cf. Lofthouse, op. cit., p. 30. This is a view in which Snaith concurs, op. cit., p. 130.

3 Mackintosh, H. R., The Christian Apprehension of God, p. 212 (1934).Google Scholar

1 W. F. Lofthouse, op. cit., p. 30.

2 N. H. Snaith, op. cit., p. 94ff.

3 Dr. Nelson Glueck has defined ḥesed as “die dem Rechts-Pflicht-Verhältnis entsprechende Verhaltungsweise.” Das Wort Ḥesed im attl. Sprachgebrauche als menschl. u. göttl. gemeinschaftsgemässe Verhaltungsweise, Giessen, 1927. A better German expression would be Gemeinschaftstreue.

4 From Amos we gather that there was an even wider tie, a generally recognised brotherly covenant () which though not a formal covenant held sway as a kind of jus gentium (Amos 1.9). Certainly the O.T. speaks of the whole earth as full of God's ḥesed. Ps. 33.5; 104.24; 119.64. It covers all creatures, Ps. 36.7; 89.15; 145.9; cf. Ps. 136. 1–9.

5 Cf. the expression “the hesed of God” or “the ḥesed of the Lord,” 2 Sam. 9.3 1 Sam. 20.14. See Sellin ad loc., Theologie des alten Testaments, p. 28.

1 Ephesians 4.15: ἀληθεὐων ἐν ἀγἀπη.

2 Op. cit., p. 102.

3 R. Bultmann in Kittel, Theol. Wörterbuch zum N.T. Bd. 1, p. 476. Cf. Est. 2.9.17; Ezra 7.28, 9.8; Dan. 1.9.

1 2 Sam. 10.2.

2 Joshua 2.4f. For another clear example see 1 Kings 2O.31f.

3 In Oriental Studies, Festschrift for Paul Haupt, 1926. Ḥesed-Verpflichtung, Verheissung, Bekräftigung. Cf. Ps. 77.8; Micah 7.20; 2 Sam. 7.15f.; Is. 55.3, etc.

4 Isaiah 54.8f.; Ps. 89.1f., etc.

5 This is the theme of Hosea.

1 Thus Wetter, G. P., Charis. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des ältesten Christentums, 1913, p. 10. Cf. Rom. 3.1ff.Google Scholar

2 N. H. Snaith, op. cit., p. 140.

3 Ibid. See especially p. 110f.

4 Ibid. p. 121f.

1 See Eichrodt, W., Theologie des alten Testaments, vol. 1, p. 121ffGoogle Scholar. This falls in line with Dodd's, C. H. enlightening suggestion that the verb originally meant “to be in the right,” rather than “to be righteous.” The Bible and the Greeks, p. 460Google Scholar

2 Hos. 2.19.

1 This is the thought of Jeremiah 8.4ff. See Snaith ad loc., op. cit., p. 121.

2 See Psalms 24.5; 33.5; 40.11; 51.1f; 103.6; 119.41; Is. 47.4; 51–5f.; 56.1, etc.

1 See C. H. Dodd, op. cit., p. 62.

2 Ibid.

3 Gen. 19.19; 20.13; 21.23; 24.27; 32.10; Exod. 15.15; 34.7; Prov. 20.28; Is. 63.7.

4 See again C. H. Dodd, op. cit., p.42 ff.

1 See W. Eichrodt, op. cit., p. 125.