Abstract:
The raison d'etre of this study is the problem of normative theological dicta in parts of the Old Testament, which are contradicted in another or even the same book of the Old Testament. In this article canonisation as an ongoing process is investigated from a postmodem perspective which takes contextuality, intertextuality and grand and little narratives into account. The so-called Zion Theology is identified as a grand narrative during the time before and after the Babylonian exile. Books like Jeremiah, Micha, Samuel and Kings, as well as Jonah and Chronicles are referred to in this regard. The research, inter alia, leads to the following result: the normative material of a religious society is interpreted in the light of the prevailing grand narrative. These interpretations are usually added to the normative material. Little narratives, being contradictory to and resisting incorporation into grand narratives, are usually added to the normative material after the grand narrative has been stripped of its hegemony by historic events. This accounts for contradictory theological dicta in the Old Testament. From this follows that the very nature of the canonised material brought together in the Old Testament opposes a fundamentalistic or orthodox theological approach.
