Knowing Jesus Through The Old Testament Analysis
LIBERTY UNIVERSITY
A CRITIQUE OF CHRISTOPHER WRIGHT’S
“KNOWING JESUS THROUGH THE OLD TESTAMENT”
AN ESSAY SUBMITTED TO DR. CURTIS FITZGERALD
IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR
THE COURSE OBST 591
LIBERTY BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
BY
MARTA N. LUNA
LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 3
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE BOOK 3
CRITICAL INTERACTION 5
CONCLUSION 9
BIBLIOGRAPHY 10
INTRODUCTION
Dr. Christopher J. H. Wright, (Ph.D., Cambridge), author of Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament,1 is an academic scholar of Old Testament ethics, who taught at the Union Biblical Seminary (1983-1988) and served as Director …show more content…
of All Nations Christian College (1993-2001). At this time Dr. Wright is leading the Langham Partnership International, and is a team member at All Souls Church in London, England.
The writings of the Old Testament take central importance as the author elaborates the concepts of the promise, Jesus’ identity, His mission, and the values found in the Old Testament, while taking the reader from father Abraham to the lineage of David, continuing with the exile account, and climaxing with Jesus’ era. It is the intent of this essay to convey, in agreement with the author, the value of the Old Testament in understanding the life, purpose and scope of the ministry of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and how devaluated the study of the Old Testament has been in many of the Christian churches.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE BOOK
Dr. Wright’s book begins by presenting his position and reason for writing the book, focusing on the life of Jesus and the purpose for His coming.2 It is immediately followed by a presentation of Jesus’ humanity (Matthew 1-4)3 seen as member of the house of David, raised in the ways of the traditional Jewish upbringing. First, the history and genealogy of the Hebrews is utilized to explain the importance of God’s decision in choosing Abraham, to whom He issued the promise to …show more content…
give him descendants, make him a great nation, and bless the entire human race through him. Matthew covered the genealogy of those who followed until the time of the incarnation of the Messiah. Later, Wright discusses the different covenants presented in the Old Testament and its significance to the history of Israel and to the believer. He defines “promise” and “prediction”: a promise from God requires a response, it comes by grace, has to be accepted, responded by faith and demonstrated obedience4; a prediction does not require a response, and it may come true or not.5 Even though the Old Testament has many “predictions”, the covenants do not fall in that category, because there is an established relationship between God and man, and were guaranteed to be fulfilled. Next, the author observes that all of these covenants ‒Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic and New Covenant6‒ are linked by the active involvement of creation and mankind in it as well as the universality of the scope, for God’s desire is to bless all nations of the earth, deliver from their enemies and spread justice to humanity. The themes in the New Covenant run through prior covenants. Second, Jesus’ identity becomes the focus of discussion, for He is the Son of God and the faultless representative of Israel, corroborated by the Old and New Testament writers.7 Israel’s relationship with God was of a father-son type, symbolic of the personal-individual and national bond with Yahweh, and what is expected of Israel in this correlation. Then, the author presents Jesus’ mission within the New Covenant. The Son of Man from the book of Daniel and the Servant of the Lord from the book of Isaiah, are portrayed and given a new dimension and meaning.8 Wright states that the role and duties delegated to Israel are now assigned to the believers: “Christian mission, it is true to the whole biblical pattern, cannot be confined to verbal proclamation alone. The mission of the Servant included justice, compassion, enlightenment, liberation.”9 This theme is enhanced with emphasis on the obedience demonstrated by Jesus while pursuing the completion of His mission in reaching the Jews and the rest of the world.10 Finally, the Old Testament values depicted in Jesus’ ministry on earth include themes like the primacy of God above all things, how important it is to give attention to people than to material things, and the importance of meeting the needs of people than any right.
CRITICAL INTERACTION
The concept of the fulfillment of the promise given to Abraham and his seed, and its transcendence beyond the Hebrew community becoming a global outreach, is unveiled in this well worked presentation, divided into five subsections, titled according to the main arguments he discusses in detail; this major theme is portrayed by Matthew in the first four chapters of his gospel. This mechanism proves to be an ideal tool providing an outline of what the chapters and sections will discuss. Dr. Wright uses theological reflection in his consideration of the life of Christ as seen through the Old Testament. The language is simple and direct, provoking expectancy as he introduces the topics in a fiery tone, although there are sections where it takes longer than necessary to make a point. Wright states that Matthew focuses the attention of the readers on the events and genealogies that prepared the way to the story he is unveiling, i.e. connect the story of Jesus with the story of their forefathers and prophecies of the Messiah in the Old Testament,11 and explains that Jesus is the end of the Old Testament story and the fulfillment of the promise; He was a Jew, a man, lineage of King David, realization of the promise, and the beginning of a new era for humanity.
“So then we can see that when we take Old Testament history seriously in relation to its completion in Jesus Christ, a two-way process is at work, yielding a double benefit in our understanding of the whole Bible.”12
With the coming and manifestation of the Messiah, that covenant and its blessing have been extended and presented to the Gentiles.13
In consideration of these matters, it is important to signal Dr.
Wright’s strengths in his argument: as he discusses the Old Testament and Jesus’ identity, Wright manages to dissolve the erroneous belief of foreshadows or pre-figurations of Jesus that many find in the Old Testament; yet, it is known that there are types, but their objective is not to pre-figure.14 He advises Christians not to consider typology an exegetical tool “…because it is selective in the texts it uses form the Old Testament…” and “…it is limited in the meaning it extracts from those selected texts”, but as study tool to understand who Jesus is in “light of the Old Testament.” 15 Another argument is the belief that Israel had all merits necessary to be the chosen people,16 and that this is the reason why God chose them among all nations. To this misconception, Dr. Wright responds stating that Israel’s reason for being is concealed in the promise given to Abraham, which included being a blessing to other nations.17 He also makes a good defense on the matter of salvation being attained by the mercy of God and His over abundant grace towards men, not attained by works.18 Wright’s prominence on the theme of obedience provides a clear understanding of its benefits to whosoever follows it.19 Finally, great defense was presented in his explanation of holiness as being more than a ritual, rather it is to love your neighbor as you love yourself.20 In discussing the fulfillment of the promise, the reader
encounters the analogy of the motor car and the horse used to illustrate the work of a promise, in which Dr. Wright conveys that once a promise is declared and given, it could occur that the circumstances may have been altered by historical events, then elements of the promise may have also been modified to fulfill the promise, but the core of the message, its intention, had not change. The author makes a strong case in the discussion of the process he calls promise/fulfillment and fresh promise/fresh fulfillment, in which he states that when a promise is given and is partially fulfilled, another new promise is given reinforcing and broadening the scope of the original and the new promises with an expected future realization that sees its climax and fulfillment in Jesus, without needing any other promise.21 In doing this, Dr. Wright presents a good foundation prior to the discussion of the Old Testament covenants.
In featuring the weaknesses, a statement made by Dr. Wright provokes an internal debate. In his declaration that Jesus was a real man with a real human life and history, Wright states that Jesus read the Hebrew Scriptures, and
“They were the depths of wisdom and revelation and prophecy that shaped His whole view of ‘life, the universe and everything’. This is where He found His insights into the mind of His Father God. Above all, this is where He found the shape of His own identity and the goal of his mission.”22
It is understandable that Dr. Wright desires to transmit the reality of the life that Jesus lived on Earth. Undoubtedly, He was one hundred percent human, and one hundred percent the Son of God, but with fore-knowledge of the mission to accomplish. When the writer refers to the Hebrew Scripture as the shaper of Jesus’s “view of life, the universe and everything”, it has the undertone that Jesus had no previous knowledge of the grandeur of the creation nor any understanding of the intentions of the Father. Jesus was present during the creative process, watched the human history unfold, and heard every word uttered by the Father. If the author is referring to Jesus’ state before incarnation, then, it is true that those words shaped Jesus’ wisdom, revelation and prophecy, because He was with the Father (John 1:1-5: 3:35; 5:20; 8:28; 10:15; 10:30; 12:49-50; 14:11; 14:24), but it is difficult to find biblical evidence to support Dr. Wright’s claims in this statement because according to the Gospel of John, Jesus came to Earth with full knowledge of the plan outlined by the Father in heaven‒ the words He heard from the Father, the extent of His ministry, the suffering, and the triumph (Phil. 2). This is not to deny the historicity of Jesus’ life on earth (Luke 2). In addition, the gospels and the extra-biblical records testify of the historic Jesus and of His many acts.23 But this matter may still continue to be open for debate. Overall, the author makes a formidable presentation of the duplicity of Jesus’ identity portraying Him as the fulfillment of the promise, His obedience to the end, suffering and ministry. These are notions captured in Jesus’ own words, when He expressed, “For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). This act was the channel used by the Heavenly Father to influx blessings upon the Jews and the rest of humanity.
CONCLUSION
It is the consideration of the reviewer that this book is a good example of profitable material that can enrich the walk of any believer serving in any capacity within the Kingdom of God. The thought provocative content will help provide a broader understanding of the plan of God for the salvation of world, what is expected of the believer, and may aid in producing a new consideration of the concept of holiness in Christian life. Wright brought new light to it, at the same time challenged my convictions on who Jesus is. In the end, I have to accept that the Old Testament is vital to Christianity. It is his concern to develop interest in the study of the Old Testament and a closeness to Jesus in his words,
“It is ironic that this widespread lack of biblically informed knowledge of Jesus is growing at the very time when there is a new impetus and enthusiasm in scholarly circles, both Christian and Jewish, for historical research on Jesus”.24 Dr. Wright demonstrates an outstanding dominion of the Old Testament Scriptures as he encourages the reader to move forward while strengthening his faith.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Spicer, Fr, Jack. "The Identity of Jesus." Edmonton Journal, Feb 07, 1998, http://search.proquest.com/docview/250612394?accountid=12085 (accessed on February 2, 2013).
Wright, Christopher J. H., “Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament”, (Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity Press, 1992).
A CRITIQUE OF CHRISTOPHER WRIGHT’S
“KNOWING JESUS THROUGH THE OLD TESTAMENT”
AN ESSAY SUBMITTED TO DR. CURTIS FITZGERALD
IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR
THE COURSE OBST 591
LIBERTY BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
BY
MARTA N. LUNA
LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 3
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE BOOK 3
CRITICAL INTERACTION 5
CONCLUSION 9
BIBLIOGRAPHY 10
INTRODUCTION
Dr. Christopher J. H. Wright, (Ph.D., Cambridge), author of Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament,1 is an academic scholar of Old Testament ethics, who taught at the Union Biblical Seminary (1983-1988) and served as Director …show more content…
of All Nations Christian College (1993-2001). At this time Dr. Wright is leading the Langham Partnership International, and is a team member at All Souls Church in London, England.
The writings of the Old Testament take central importance as the author elaborates the concepts of the promise, Jesus’ identity, His mission, and the values found in the Old Testament, while taking the reader from father Abraham to the lineage of David, continuing with the exile account, and climaxing with Jesus’ era. It is the intent of this essay to convey, in agreement with the author, the value of the Old Testament in understanding the life, purpose and scope of the ministry of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and how devaluated the study of the Old Testament has been in many of the Christian churches.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE BOOK
Dr. Wright’s book begins by presenting his position and reason for writing the book, focusing on the life of Jesus and the purpose for His coming.2 It is immediately followed by a presentation of Jesus’ humanity (Matthew 1-4)3 seen as member of the house of David, raised in the ways of the traditional Jewish upbringing. First, the history and genealogy of the Hebrews is utilized to explain the importance of God’s decision in choosing Abraham, to whom He issued the promise to …show more content…
give him descendants, make him a great nation, and bless the entire human race through him. Matthew covered the genealogy of those who followed until the time of the incarnation of the Messiah. Later, Wright discusses the different covenants presented in the Old Testament and its significance to the history of Israel and to the believer. He defines “promise” and “prediction”: a promise from God requires a response, it comes by grace, has to be accepted, responded by faith and demonstrated obedience4; a prediction does not require a response, and it may come true or not.5 Even though the Old Testament has many “predictions”, the covenants do not fall in that category, because there is an established relationship between God and man, and were guaranteed to be fulfilled. Next, the author observes that all of these covenants ‒Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic and New Covenant6‒ are linked by the active involvement of creation and mankind in it as well as the universality of the scope, for God’s desire is to bless all nations of the earth, deliver from their enemies and spread justice to humanity. The themes in the New Covenant run through prior covenants. Second, Jesus’ identity becomes the focus of discussion, for He is the Son of God and the faultless representative of Israel, corroborated by the Old and New Testament writers.7 Israel’s relationship with God was of a father-son type, symbolic of the personal-individual and national bond with Yahweh, and what is expected of Israel in this correlation. Then, the author presents Jesus’ mission within the New Covenant. The Son of Man from the book of Daniel and the Servant of the Lord from the book of Isaiah, are portrayed and given a new dimension and meaning.8 Wright states that the role and duties delegated to Israel are now assigned to the believers: “Christian mission, it is true to the whole biblical pattern, cannot be confined to verbal proclamation alone. The mission of the Servant included justice, compassion, enlightenment, liberation.”9 This theme is enhanced with emphasis on the obedience demonstrated by Jesus while pursuing the completion of His mission in reaching the Jews and the rest of the world.10 Finally, the Old Testament values depicted in Jesus’ ministry on earth include themes like the primacy of God above all things, how important it is to give attention to people than to material things, and the importance of meeting the needs of people than any right.
CRITICAL INTERACTION
The concept of the fulfillment of the promise given to Abraham and his seed, and its transcendence beyond the Hebrew community becoming a global outreach, is unveiled in this well worked presentation, divided into five subsections, titled according to the main arguments he discusses in detail; this major theme is portrayed by Matthew in the first four chapters of his gospel. This mechanism proves to be an ideal tool providing an outline of what the chapters and sections will discuss. Dr. Wright uses theological reflection in his consideration of the life of Christ as seen through the Old Testament. The language is simple and direct, provoking expectancy as he introduces the topics in a fiery tone, although there are sections where it takes longer than necessary to make a point. Wright states that Matthew focuses the attention of the readers on the events and genealogies that prepared the way to the story he is unveiling, i.e. connect the story of Jesus with the story of their forefathers and prophecies of the Messiah in the Old Testament,11 and explains that Jesus is the end of the Old Testament story and the fulfillment of the promise; He was a Jew, a man, lineage of King David, realization of the promise, and the beginning of a new era for humanity.
“So then we can see that when we take Old Testament history seriously in relation to its completion in Jesus Christ, a two-way process is at work, yielding a double benefit in our understanding of the whole Bible.”12
With the coming and manifestation of the Messiah, that covenant and its blessing have been extended and presented to the Gentiles.13
In consideration of these matters, it is important to signal Dr.
Wright’s strengths in his argument: as he discusses the Old Testament and Jesus’ identity, Wright manages to dissolve the erroneous belief of foreshadows or pre-figurations of Jesus that many find in the Old Testament; yet, it is known that there are types, but their objective is not to pre-figure.14 He advises Christians not to consider typology an exegetical tool “…because it is selective in the texts it uses form the Old Testament…” and “…it is limited in the meaning it extracts from those selected texts”, but as study tool to understand who Jesus is in “light of the Old Testament.” 15 Another argument is the belief that Israel had all merits necessary to be the chosen people,16 and that this is the reason why God chose them among all nations. To this misconception, Dr. Wright responds stating that Israel’s reason for being is concealed in the promise given to Abraham, which included being a blessing to other nations.17 He also makes a good defense on the matter of salvation being attained by the mercy of God and His over abundant grace towards men, not attained by works.18 Wright’s prominence on the theme of obedience provides a clear understanding of its benefits to whosoever follows it.19 Finally, great defense was presented in his explanation of holiness as being more than a ritual, rather it is to love your neighbor as you love yourself.20 In discussing the fulfillment of the promise, the reader
encounters the analogy of the motor car and the horse used to illustrate the work of a promise, in which Dr. Wright conveys that once a promise is declared and given, it could occur that the circumstances may have been altered by historical events, then elements of the promise may have also been modified to fulfill the promise, but the core of the message, its intention, had not change. The author makes a strong case in the discussion of the process he calls promise/fulfillment and fresh promise/fresh fulfillment, in which he states that when a promise is given and is partially fulfilled, another new promise is given reinforcing and broadening the scope of the original and the new promises with an expected future realization that sees its climax and fulfillment in Jesus, without needing any other promise.21 In doing this, Dr. Wright presents a good foundation prior to the discussion of the Old Testament covenants.
In featuring the weaknesses, a statement made by Dr. Wright provokes an internal debate. In his declaration that Jesus was a real man with a real human life and history, Wright states that Jesus read the Hebrew Scriptures, and
“They were the depths of wisdom and revelation and prophecy that shaped His whole view of ‘life, the universe and everything’. This is where He found His insights into the mind of His Father God. Above all, this is where He found the shape of His own identity and the goal of his mission.”22
It is understandable that Dr. Wright desires to transmit the reality of the life that Jesus lived on Earth. Undoubtedly, He was one hundred percent human, and one hundred percent the Son of God, but with fore-knowledge of the mission to accomplish. When the writer refers to the Hebrew Scripture as the shaper of Jesus’s “view of life, the universe and everything”, it has the undertone that Jesus had no previous knowledge of the grandeur of the creation nor any understanding of the intentions of the Father. Jesus was present during the creative process, watched the human history unfold, and heard every word uttered by the Father. If the author is referring to Jesus’ state before incarnation, then, it is true that those words shaped Jesus’ wisdom, revelation and prophecy, because He was with the Father (John 1:1-5: 3:35; 5:20; 8:28; 10:15; 10:30; 12:49-50; 14:11; 14:24), but it is difficult to find biblical evidence to support Dr. Wright’s claims in this statement because according to the Gospel of John, Jesus came to Earth with full knowledge of the plan outlined by the Father in heaven‒ the words He heard from the Father, the extent of His ministry, the suffering, and the triumph (Phil. 2). This is not to deny the historicity of Jesus’ life on earth (Luke 2). In addition, the gospels and the extra-biblical records testify of the historic Jesus and of His many acts.23 But this matter may still continue to be open for debate. Overall, the author makes a formidable presentation of the duplicity of Jesus’ identity portraying Him as the fulfillment of the promise, His obedience to the end, suffering and ministry. These are notions captured in Jesus’ own words, when He expressed, “For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). This act was the channel used by the Heavenly Father to influx blessings upon the Jews and the rest of humanity.
CONCLUSION
It is the consideration of the reviewer that this book is a good example of profitable material that can enrich the walk of any believer serving in any capacity within the Kingdom of God. The thought provocative content will help provide a broader understanding of the plan of God for the salvation of world, what is expected of the believer, and may aid in producing a new consideration of the concept of holiness in Christian life. Wright brought new light to it, at the same time challenged my convictions on who Jesus is. In the end, I have to accept that the Old Testament is vital to Christianity. It is his concern to develop interest in the study of the Old Testament and a closeness to Jesus in his words,
“It is ironic that this widespread lack of biblically informed knowledge of Jesus is growing at the very time when there is a new impetus and enthusiasm in scholarly circles, both Christian and Jewish, for historical research on Jesus”.24 Dr. Wright demonstrates an outstanding dominion of the Old Testament Scriptures as he encourages the reader to move forward while strengthening his faith.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Spicer, Fr, Jack. "The Identity of Jesus." Edmonton Journal, Feb 07, 1998, http://search.proquest.com/docview/250612394?accountid=12085 (accessed on February 2, 2013).
Wright, Christopher J. H., “Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament”, (Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity Press, 1992).