J. Andrew Dearman
The Old Testament itself does not often play a significant role in modern scholarship when interpreting the origins of the Christian doctrine of the incarnation. 1 This may seem understandable in historical-critical analysis. When read historically, the OT is a collection of pre-Christian documents and primarily concerned with 'monotheizing in a polytheistic context', to use an interesting phrase of J. Sanders, 2 whereas the crucial steps in the formation of incarnational belief come in the first four centuries ce. Nevertheless, the OT (or parts thereof), especially in Greek translation, was the Bible of early Christianity. Thus it is really early Christian readings of the OT that have received intensive study in reconstructing the origins of the doctrine, readings with exegetical and philosophical presuppositions that differ considerably from those of historical-critical analysis. 3
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