Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament | Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament

How Jesus might have figured out he was the Messiah by reading the scriptures | Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament | Christopher J. H. Wright

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	• Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament Christopher J. H. Wright InterVarsity Press, 1995 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 6 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

looking over Jesus' shoulder as he reads his Jewish Bible

When scholars write popular books, it is sometimes evident that they are speaking a strange tongue. Chris Wright's semi-popular biblical theology does not suffer this deficiency. Wright wears his scholarship lightly and writes with a good preacher's respect for his audience's intelligence and lack of awareness of the issues that detain and entertain the specialist. The result is a solid and enriching example of a mature hermeneutic that takes the Old Testament seriously in its own right, and then seeks in it a witness to Jesus.

The organization of the book's five chapters underscores the book's unwavering focus on both the Old Testament and on Jesus. Wright names them, respectively, 'Jesus and the Old Testament Story', 'Jesus and the Old Testament Promise', 'Jesus and his Old Testament Identity', 'Jesus and his Old Testament Mission', 'Jesus and his Old Testament Values'. The result is a confessionally Christian biblical-theological treatment of the texts that avoids and occasionally critiques the hermeneutical blunders that bedevil much Christian proclamation of Old Testament texts.

In his first chapter ('... Story', pp. 1-54), Wright presents a fairly conventional survey of Old Testament history and literature. I use the term with no pejorative meaning, for Wright is convinced the average Christian knows little of this material, and so his task is essentially remedial. Indeed, his method has biblical precedent, for example in Peter's speech in Acts chapter seven.

The author takes his cues from the manner in which the gospels frame their protagonist in terms of his relationship to a heritage that we know principally from the pages of the Old Testament. It is evident from the outset that Wright will read Jesus with rather than against the grain of the Old Testament and the Judaism of his own day, an argument that will be developed in the book's final chapter.

Wright gives due attention to the 'inter-testamental literature' and, to this reader's satisfaction, attempts a brief rehabilitation of the Pharisees, a matter that requires attention in the light of his chosen readership of 'typical Christian carol-singers'. Wright is eager to establish that the Old Testament sets the basic definitions of terms like 'redemption', 'salvation', and the like that will be bandied about in the New in the expectation that readers will know to what they refer. He is particularly attentive to the character of the Old Testament as 'story', a tale that will not be fully told by the time the first testament comes to its end, and so points forward to God's subsequent redemptive activity in Jesus himself. Indeed, 'the Messiah was Israel', an affirmation that for Wright seems to hint more at the continuity between the two literary sections of the biblical story than at the discontinuity that is evidenced by them.

The relationship of story to promise is critical for a work of this kind, not least because a popular view of the Old Testament as a context-less 'book of promises' about Messiah is strong among many Christians. The architecture of Wright's book already suggests a more organic link between Old Testament story and promise, a matter to which the author turns in chapter two ('Jesus and the Old Testament Promise', pp. 55-102). Noting the manner in which the Gospel of Matthew cites texts with regard to Jesus that were actually written of Israel, Wright offers this programmatic statement: 'Not only does the Old Testament tell the story which Jesus completes, it also declares the promise which Jesus fulfils.' The singular word `promise' where one might have anticipated 'promises' signals Wright's intention to develop a nuanced and unmechanical view of how Jesus accomplishes this completion and this fulfillment. For Wright, Matthew begins with the experience of Jesus that he shares with his community and works his way back to Old Testament scriptures that are now seen to possess a deeper sense than another reader might have anticipated. The Old Testament is a matrix of promise in that it reveals a God who promises redemption, restoration, healing, and the like. Jesus, in unforeseen ways, becomes the agent of that complex and hope-instilling promise.

Wright accents the personal ('I-Thou') nature of promise, including its need for a response if it to become effectual. He is also eager to establish that promise affirms the history and the people among which it was established in a way that mere prediction cannot. Though Wright does not use this language, this allows the Old Testament to point towards fulfillment in a impressionistic or even 'fuzzy' manner rather than in the mechanical precision that today motivates some Christians to discover mechanical and ludicrous literal fulfillment of a vision never intended for such realism and little adapted to its requirements.

A final section embeds promise in the rich concept of covenant. Wright is surely faithful to his sources when he concludes that 'the overwhelming impression that makes itself felt through all this study of promise and covenant, is God's unwavering intention to bless.'

'Jesus and his Old Testament Identity' (Chapter three, pp. 103-135) probes what scholars call the `messianic self-identity' of Jesus, a topic that might seem odd or even contentious to Christian believers who have not thought seriously about Jesus' humanity. Wright wants to establish the fundamental role that the Hebrew Scriptures played for the 'carpenter's son from Nazareth, who takes upon himself a staggering identity with awesome personal consequence ... by accepting and internalizing three Old Testament figures.' The chief value of this chapter is Wright's extended exploration of typology, a venerable and much-abused element of Christian hermeneutics. For Wright, the typological instinct is valid as `a way of understanding Christ and the various events and experiences surrounding him in the New Testament by analogy or correspondence with the historical realities of the Old Testament seen as patterns or models'. This definition once again locks the two poles of his book (Jesus and the Old Testament) in an embrace without which each loses its meaning, worth, and veracity. An extended discussion of what Jesus and his earliest interpreters meant by the phrase 'son of God, as this was applied to the aforementioned carpenter's son.

'Jesus and his Old Testament Mission' (Chapter four, pp. 136-180) underscores the reality that Jesus' self-identity was inseparably bound to his sense of having been sent by his Father. Palestinian Jewish self-consciousness at the time found expression in the concept of exile. It was a simple thing to transfer the moniker and imperial qualities of biblical 'Babylon' to Rome, a new generation's oppressive presence. Over against this imperial intrusiveness, popular Jewish expectation focused on Israel's restoration.

Both John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth stepped into this cauldron of hope and resentment, in solidarity with the imminent fact of Israel's redemption but with a novel angle on how that was to be accomplished. A number of linguistic and conceptual receptacles were ready at hand to be filled with the content that Jesus would bring to them: son of Man, anointed one ('messiah'), servant of the Lord. With varying degrees of reticence and enthusiasm, Jesus used or allowed these terms to be used of him, typically modifying the accent in surprising directions that the early church, upon further reflection, would transmit in the teaching and proclamation that are the stuff of the New Testament.

Jesus and the apostles were able to discern an ample participation by non-Jews in the 'Israelite' restoration that they perceived occurring in their midst. Paul would work this out into a clearer articulation of his own 'sending' or mission to the gentiles.

Wright's final chapter ('Jesus and his Old Testament Values', pp. 181-252) shows how Jesus life was fully aligned in moral-ethical terms with his Old Testament legacy. This chapter competently indicates the continuity between the testaments, since for Wright Jesus more often underscores or occasionally draws out the fuller implications of Old Testament ethics as they already exist than adds uniquely New Testament-ish ethical instruction.

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Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament

This book by Christopher Wright is excellent. I came away with a much greater appreciation of how Jesus is seen throughout the Old Testament, and a sense of how the whole history of God's people was leading up to the coming of the Redeemer.

How Jesus might have figured out he was the Messiah by reading the scriptures

In this book, Christopher Wright attacks the popular idea that we can know Jesus without knowing the Old Testament (an idea expressed through biblical illiteracy and an emphasis on "New Testament" Christianity). His thesis--"the Old Testament tells the story which Jesus completes" (2)--is well defended on every page. I especially valued his insights into how Jesus rooted his identity in both God's declaration at his baptism as well as scriptural promises regarding Isaac, David, and the "servant of the Lord" (from Isaiah). Highly recommended.

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level headed reading: Jesus in his own context

in order to properly understand the Jesus of the new testament, instead of making a Jesus of our own liking, it is necessary to understand Jesus as he himself indicated. Jesus himself, according to the new testament, made constant reference and allusion to the hebrew scriptures, ( old testament ), as he sought to explain himself, his actions, his teachings and his significance. Understanding the old testament is therefore of paramount importance for understanding what Jesus was and is about. This means far more than knowing some of the messianic proof texts or knowing about Noahs ark or the temple and sacrificial system of the ancient hebrews. Understanding the old testament involves knowing the overall aim and purpose of it, and how it all is held together by connected themes that form a unified whole. Christopher Wright's book, Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament, is an absolute Godsend towards getting the drift of the old testament and how it carries forward to the Jesus of the new testament. This book is a little bit technical at times, it is not a devotional work, but reading this book will educate a person to accurately understand what the old testament is about and how it flows into the person of Jesus, thereby expositing the true meaning and intent of Jesus according to the background that Jesus himself referred to. Thanks Chris Wright for this fabulous book. Also, for serious bible study of the best sort, see his excellent magnum opus, The Mission Of God. It is truly outstanding!! For some other great little books on Jesus that are sane and sober, see: Jesus and His World by Peter Walker, The Original Jesus by N.T. Wright, and for a bit of a larger work see Jesus and The Gospels by Craig Blomberg.

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Helpful Insights into Jesus

In his preface, Christopher Wright reveals that his conviction that "the deeper you go into understanding the Old Testament, the closer you come to the heart of Jesus" underlies the theme of Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament. He states that he writes this book for people wishing to "deepen their knowledge of Jesus and the scriptures that meant so much to him." Wright uses the Old Testament to shine a light on the life and identity of Jesus. He uncovers how Jesus' knowledge of the Old Testament would have influenced him. Similarly, he looks at how the Old Testament scriptures influenced the Jews of Jesus' day and their reactions to Jesus' ministry. Through this, readers can develop a keener insight into who Jesus is and what Jesus accomplished on the cross when he said, "It is finished." (Jn 19:30 ESV)

Wright begins his book with the beginning of the gospel story about Jesus. He uncovers what is behind the genealogy of Jesus that begins Matthew's and Luke's gospel.

A major component of the identity of Israel that Wright discusses is its mission and ministry to be a blessing to all nations.

As Wright shares the story of Israel that is behind the genealogy, he emphasizes the promises of God to Abraham and to David. Seeing in his genealogy Abraham and David, Jewish readers of Matthew's and Luke's gospels would immediately associate Jesus with the promises made to these significant men in Israel's history.

Wright indicates that two characteristics of the Jews during Jesus' time were an increased devotion to the torah and an "upsurge in apocalyptic, messianic hope." (Wright 26) Jesus' hearers would have had significant knowledge of Old Testament scripture and would have been applying it to their times in hope of seeing signs of God's messiah.

In Wright's book, we see that the cross and resurrection are the answers to the problems of obedience to the law and to the prophesied deliverance and restoration of Israel. He writes, "The New Testament affirms that the Gospel of the cross and resurrection of Christ is God's complete answer to the totality of evil and all its effects within his creation." (Wright 30) Wright shows that the work of Christ is a universal work that offers deliverance and redemption to not just Jews but to Gentiles also.

Wright sums up the theme of the Old Testament and New Testament culminating in Christ, "Taken together both testaments record the work of God's saving work for humanity." (Wright 34) Wright asserts that God's redemptive history includes the following four principles: election, redemption, covenant and inheritance. Wright concludes that God, not man, fulfills this saving work in Jesus, Israel's Messiah and the world's Savior.

In addition to looking at the Old Testament in relation to Jesus' death and resurrection, Wright also examines in depth how it shapes his identity, mission and values. He asserts through his book that it is impossible to fully know Jesus apart from knowing the essential parts of the Old Testament. He writes that Jesus completes the story that the Old Testament begins, "It declares the promise which he fulfilled...provides the pictures and models which shaped his identity...programs a mission which he accepted and passed on...teaches a moral orientation to God and the world which he endorsed, sharpened and laid the foundation for obedient discipleship." (Wright 252)

Wright contends that Israel, as the recipient of God's promise, was to be a conduit of that promise to all nations. He calls Israel the intended priesthood of God in the midst of the nations bringing them to the saving knowledge of God.

Although Israel was a recipient of God's promise and election, the people could only walk in the promise and election by grace and faith. Wright writes, "The promise comes as the initiative of God's grace and always depends on God's grace. But that grace has to be accepted and responded to by faith and obedience." (Wright 68)

In his discussion of the necessity of faithful obedience, Wright continues, "No doctrine of election, no covenant theology, no personal testimony of redemption, can relieve us of the imperative necessity of faith proving itself in active obedience." (Wright 70) He elaborates that the initiative of God's grace or promise demands a response of obedient faith now from Jews as much as Gentiles. Wright continues to emphasize God's requirement of faithful obedience in regard to his covenant promises to Israel. Despite Israel's disobedience, the covenant continued, because it was grounded in God's grace and purpose for humanity. According to Wright, God's covenant promises reveal his intense desire to bless people.

I think Wright lacks clarity in his discussion of obedience in the context of the new covenant in Jesus. Israel's repeated failures are indicative of Christians' similar inability to live up to the standards of the law. Obedience for the Christian, Jew or Gentile, is to a new call, as Christians are the recipients of a new covenant that comes through faith by grace. The difference that Wright does not explicitly note is that Jesus has fulfilled not only Israel's role as servant but has fulfilled the requirement for obedience for the recipients of the promise. Jesus answered, `The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." (John 6:28-29 NIV)

It seems that Wright does not distinguish between the requirements of faithful obedience to the law under the prior covenants to Israel and faithfulness under the new covenant. What Jesus requires is not works or behavior but belief and faith for salvation. Although Wright points to the prophets' promises of a new heart and the law written on hearts, he seems to be advocating the idea that the new covenant through Jesus merely makes it easier for followers to obey the law rather than rest in Christ's work on the cross finally acknowledging that all of our righteous works are but "filthy rags." (Is 64:6 NIV)

Wright looks at how the Old Testament would have revealed to Jesus his role as savior of the world. Wright points out three roles that Jesus would have seen, "sovereignty, servant hood and sacrifice. All three are built into the calling of Jesus. All three are given depth and meaning by the Old Testament characters whose identities are merged in Jesus." (Wright 110)

Wright profoundly relates the conflict between man's earthly vision and God's eternal, spiritual vision. He writes,"We have imagined that the best way to save the world was to run the world. With the tragically ironic result that Christian mission in the name of the Servant has been indelibly associated in the minds of many with power--military, cultural economic and political. It is an image that is hard to live down. "(Wright 178)

He contrasts this with God's prescribed mission of service and sacrifice for the world. The way of Jesus, the way of sacrifice and service, is what we can learn from the Old Testament. Wright concludes that Jesus' message is the message at the heart of the Old Testament. It is the message of the Jubilee year of the Lord and of restored relationships to God, the sovereign king over all--what Wright calls an "Old Testament concept" now at hand. (Wright 243)

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We cannot know Jesus without knowing his story.Today the debate over who Jesus is rages on. Has the Bible bound Christians to a narrow and mistaken notion of Jesus? Should we listen to other gospels, other sayings of Jesus, that enlarge and correct a mistaken story? Is the real Jesus entangled in a web of the church's Scripture, awaiting liberation from our childhood faith so he might speak to our contemporary pluralistic world?To answer these questions we need to know what story Jesus claimed for himself. Christopher Wright is convinced that Jesus' own story is rooted in the story of Israel. In this book he traces the life of Christ as it is illuminated by the Old Testament. And he describes God's design for Israel as it is fulfilled in the story of Jesus.

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