ABSTRACT
The truth of Old Testament, of biblical theology, is historical truth, the discipline is as Gabler insisted e genere historico it is not the ultimate or metaphysical truth to which systematic theology aspires. The idea of Heilsgeschichte which dominates Gerhard von Rad's conception of Old Testament faith is an idea that arises from a Christian sense of a divinely guided history in which the arrival of Jesus as Messiah is the final stage. There is no doubt that very few Jewish scholars have shown much interest in Old Testament theology, even when renamed Hebrew Bible theology. Long before messianism appeared on the scene, writers in Israel were engaged in a violent dialogue about the legitimacy of kingship. Forms of Christianity that deny this are no longer in continuity with the tradition that runs through all the types of Judaism that were concerned either with kingship, pro or con, or with the Messiah, pro or con.
