The ontological extension. The unity of tradition history of the Old and New Testament according to Hartmut Gese
Abstract
Biblical theology is the comprehensive presentation of the revelation history which is expressed in the tradition history, Gese says. The tradition history describes formal and substantial presuppositions of the text, taken from the tradition.
The biblical texts grow out of life processes and exist in life contexts ("Sitz im Leben"). Gese's hermeneutic fundamental theorem is: "The text is to be understood as it wants to be understood, i.e. as it understands itself." Therefore, an analysis of "ontological structure", which is the base of the text, is necessary.
To a certain extent, history of the tradition forming equals history of the consciousness experiencing history. We recognize how the tradition with its "ontological dynamics" proceeds to new forms of being.
Thus, the fundamental theological importance falls on the text formation. In the biblical tradition, God reveals as Self, in a self-disclosure to his personal counterpart, Israel.
Revelation is the salvation of humanity. Together with Gerhard von Rad, Gese denies searching for a "middle" of the Old Testament; on the other hand, he claims that not only the kerygmatic content but also the ontological structure was modified during history.
Gese speaks on only one single process of the biblical tradition - there existed no closed Old Testament prior to the New which created the Old, and the Christ event defines the telos of this process of the tradition formation.