Five Views of Christ in the Old Testament by Brian J. Tabb

Author:Brian J. Tabb
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zondervan Academic
Published: 2023-05-02T00:00:00+00:00

Evaluating Dharamraj’s Interpretive Steps and Case Studies

Because different Common Readers will pair up different texts and identify different icons, Dharamraj identifies “a measure of subjectivity” in every reader-response method (130). She claims to curb this arbitrariness with “inbuilt hermeneutical checks and balances,” including these (131):

1. Probing “sufficient background information” enough to properly understand the proposed icon (i.e., dominant theme).

2. Considering “whether the icon being pursued is a significant one in both the texts” (T1 and T2).

3. Evaluating “whether the intertextual conversation (T3) emerging out of the study appears forced or flows naturally.”

4. Assessing whether T3 actually deepens “the reading of each text (T1 and T2) toward orthodox Christian faith and practice.” This is done by assessing T3, the transcript of the intertextual dialogue.

While Dharamraj’s approach allows a given text’s meaning to measure the significance of a proposed icon, it appears that intuition, public meaning, and orthodoxy supply the only measures for evaluating “whether the textual conversation (T3) . . . appears forced or flows naturally” (132). This strategy allows one to stay within the bounds of Christian orthodoxy, but it neither allows one to justify claims from Scripture nor guards one from embracing right doctrine from the wrong texts.

In Dharamraj’s comparison of Genesis 22:1–19 and Philippians 2:6–11, she chooses the icon of “the willing son” (134). At no point does she wrestle with whether the narrator intended such a focus in Genesis 22:1–19; nor does she consider it significant that Paul never tags Christ the divine “Son” within Philippians. Many of her comparisons between the two texts were both valid and insightful, but I believe this is because Genesis 22:1–19 itself points ahead to Christ, both typologically and directly. Moses’s conscious foresight justifies a potential theological link, even conceptually, between Genesis and Philippians, yet Dharamraj never attempts to establish such an intentional connection.

In the second case study, Dharamraj considers “the relationship between God and the one celebrated” in Proverbs 8:22–31 and Colossians 1:15–20 (138). In alignment with her method, she never considers whether Paul intentionally shaped Colossians to reflect Proverbs’ wisdom tradition. In contrast to the first case study, Dharamraj identifies greater dissonance between how Proverbs portrays Wisdom and how Paul depicts Jesus. While I appreciate that “the effect of the intertextual conversation (T3) is the adoration of Jesus” (144), she unjustifiably pits Christ against Wisdom. Paul uses language that intentionally invites the reader to think of Christ as the Wisdom of Proverbs 3, 8, and 30 (cf. 1 Cor 1:24, 27, 30). When read within its close context, Proverbs teaches that Wisdom is both the preexistent Son and coeternal with God (8:22; 30:3–4), that Wisdom was God’s appointed representative by whom he originally created the world (3:19–20; 8:23), and that Wisdom’s joy was one of the great ends for which God made all things (8:30–31). These align with Paul’s portrait of Christ in Colossians 1:15–20. Jesus did not say, “Something greater than Wisdom is here,” but “Something greater than Solomon is here” (Matt 12:42; Luke 11:31). Thus, he was

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