Full Text for The "Cry Of Dereliction"--Another Point of View (Text)

The Leuenberg Concord Translation by JOHN DRICILLMER kience, The Bible, Evolution, ;reation, And The Flood RAYMONDF. SURBURG rhe Outside Limits Of Lutheran 2onfessionalism In Contemporary 3iblical Interpretation HORACED. HUMMEI, The "Cry Of Dereliction"-Another Point Of View HORERI-IIOLST Assistant Professor, Co,acordi~r Senior. College, Fort nrn?~ic,Tir'linirn CHRISTIANS TODAY are often confused concerning the meth- ods and opinions of contemporary Biblical scholars. Unfor-tunately, often some of the most meaningful and theologically sig- nificant labor is not trcll known while less important but more spectacular material is widely pubicized and discussed. This brief study seeks to present one example where, in the opinion of this writer, contemporary scholarly methods ha\-e facilitated interpreting and preaching on a difficult Biblical passage. The so-called 'zgeli~t~rz Jlntthii~ts, NTD, Giittitrgert, \'andenlloeck~~ncli & Ruprecht, 1960, p. 271. 2.
Hermann Samuel Reimarus, who is usually considered the fathcr of modern critical life of Jesus study, considered this elidence that Jesus died a frustrated and defeated revolutionary. He n-rites, "This avowal cannot, without violence, be interpreted other\\-ise than as meaning that God had not aided Him in His aim and purpose as He had hoped. That shon-s that it had not been His purpose to suffer and die, but to estahlish an earthly kingdom and deliver thc Jews from political opgession-and in that God's help had failed Him." Cited in Albert Sc neitzer, Tl~c Qrrest of the Historicnl Jesrts, translated from the German by IV. i\Iontgomer!-. Zen- lork, I\lacmillan Company, 1961, p. 20. Reimarus' so-called \\'olfenbiittel Fragments have now been translated and published by Fortress Press. 3.
\V. F. Flemington, "Baptism," The Interpreter's Dictio~rary of flte Biblc, Sen. Tork, Abington Press, 1962, vol. I, p. 319. The 1950 Stone Lectures of Princeton Theological Seminary by C. H. Dodd is the pioneer XI-ork which set forth the thesis that KT citation of the 0T verses (or el en an allusion to the OT) is a pointer to the entire context rather than a testimonial to be interpreted out of contest and/or xithout a context. Confer especiallv the conclusions, as non-published in .4ccordi11g to the Scriptlrres, London, Kisbvt & Co. Ltd., 1952, p. 126ff. Barnabas Lindars, in his important monograph, cautiously agrees with this principle \\-hen he writes, "Generally quotations in the Ken- Testa- ment ha\-e not been selected n-ith complcte disregard of the original context." Xeu. Testn~rio~tApologetic, Philadelphia, \Vestminster Press, 1961, p. 17. -1s one example, he notes that the short quotation froin Is. 53 in Acts 8:32f is probably a citation xhich refers to "the n-hole prophecy." Ibi~l,p. 83. It is important to remember that such a method of citing longer sections was useful because chapter and verse divisions \\-ere introduced long after the ST documents were written. F. Danker n-rites that Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury probably introd~~ced chapter divisions in the llassoretic 'Ic-st about AD 1204. llltc~tipr~rposeTools for Bible Stztd>, St. Louis, Concordia Publishing House, 1960, p. 57. 4.
Conjer Alt. 17:9ff, 111;. 9:9ff, John 1:21. cf. Hermann L. Strack and Paul Billerbeck, Koririr~eittnr Zlttn Se!~ert Testclrr~ent airs 1alrr~uti11)lrI 3lidrascI1, LIiinchen. C. H. Beck'sche \-ex-lagsbuchhandlunp, 1926, I, p. 753ff and ;specially, "Der Prophet Elias nach seiner Entriickung aus dem Diesseits, Exkztrse rlr eiilseltzei~ StelTen des Srzrcrl Test~oi~e>~ts, Miinchen, C. H. Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1936, p. 76-1-798. For English readers, Joachim Jeremias' study is now translated; TD'iT. 11, p. 928-941. 5.
Glenn IV. Barber, n'illiam L. Lane and J. Ramsay Jlichaels, Tire Sell. Testniizerlt Spenks, Sen- Tork, Harper and Row, 1969, p. 117. These men viridl!. explicate this pericopc by effectircly using italics when they cite key passages from Psalm 22. 6.
Lindars, op. cit, p. 89 suggests that it was for apologetic reasons that Luke and the Apocrrphal Gospel of Peter either omitted or altered the "Cry of Dereliction.'' 7.
LEditors' Sote: The author's thesis was also held br- Luther and others belonging to the heritage of Lutheran Orthodoxy.1