¶ … Christopher Wright's book
In contemporary times, many modern and post-modern Christian churches and denominations focus almost explicitly on deconstructing passages in the New Testament to reinforce the value of Jesus and his effect on Christianity. As such, there has been a dearth of emphasis on the Old Testament and its role in not only facilitating the New Testament, but also in influencing the life and position of Jesus as the Messiah. Christopher Wright, who holds a doctoral degree from Cambridge in Old Testament ethics and has authored a number of books related to the Old Testament's place in Christianity, has written another book that attempts to rectify this oversight. Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament focuses on the continuity between both testaments of the Bible to demonstrate their collective impact on Jesus. The Christ did not operate in a vacuum; to the contrary, he was part of a lengthy lineage of prophets and individuals who God established covenants with to establish his will, his land, and his religion. The author attempts to emphasize the value of the Old Testament in influencing Jesus and Christianity as it is known today.
Summary
Wright's approach to proving this particular point is decidedly systematic. Approximately the first 50 pages of this work of literature are devoted to contextualizing the Old Testament and establishing its preeminence as a source for the New Testament and Christianity. It was during the Old Testament that the tradition which Christ would eventually continue was first established, most eminently with Abraham. Abraham was the first prophet whom God selected to give birth to the nation of Israel; it was too Abraham that God promised to deliver many children, land, and prosperity. This particular covenant helped to set the stage for the rest of the covenants in the Old Testament, which included God's pacts with David and Noah, among others. Essentially, Wright establishes the fact that Jesus was part of a tradition of Old Testament figures favored by God as the foundation for the premise of the entire book. It is also important to realize that in establishing this groundwork for the rest of the book, Wright is emphasizing the commonalities between Israelites or Jews and Christians. The information about Abraham in particular reinforces the notion that the lineage of these two different religions is the same. In doing so, he is successfully able to convey the sentiment that the Old Testament does not apply simply to Jewish people, but to Christians as well.
In approximately the next 50 pages of the book, the author explains how even though God established a covenant with different representatives (Abraham, David, Jesus and others), it was always the same covenant and was simply using a new vehicle (or person) to further the same goal. This is aspect of the book is vital to the author's argument, since it enables readers to understand that their belief in Jesus is simply an extension of the belief of others in Abraham. Whatever distinctions that people may consider between the Old and the New Testament, between God's affiliation with David, Abraham and Jesus are not important -- all of these individuals simply helped to establish Christianity and, most importantly, the situations and circumstances that would result in the glory of God's son, Jesus. Write explicates the fact that the birth and passion of Christ is the fulfillment of the original promise that God made to both Abraham and David -- a key idea which emphasizes the continuity among these individuals, God's presence in the world, and between the Old and the New Testaments.
In the remainder of the book, the author focuses on various facets in the life of Jesus that demonstrate just how integral the Old Testament was to his maturity and to his gaining the requisite knowledge and understanding of the divinity within him to fulfill his role as the savior of the world. This final portion of the book is perhaps the most convincing for Wright's premises, since he offers key passages in the Bible in which Jesus invokes and studies the Old Testament. Moreover, the wisdom he has attained from these books in the Bible assist him a great deal. The author widely implies that in such a way Jesus is merely fulfilling the prophecies of the Old Testament by realizing the divinity within himself and ascending as the righteous son of God.
Critical Interaction
It is quite clear that Wright is merely an evangelist of the Old Testament's importance. Such a statement is not made to belittle...
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