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PRESBYTERIAN
The Presbyterian Church in Canada • presbyterian.ca ISSUE 26, SUMMER 2023
Jesus and the Old Testament
By the Rev. Patricia Dutcher-Walls, retired (2021) Professor of Hebrew Bible and Dean at Vancouver School of Theology. She continues to be active in preaching, teaching and ministry, including via her home congregation of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Burnaby and New Westminster, B.C.
When I am out and about, teach- ing and preaching in congrega- tions, I’m often asked: What does the Old Testament have to do with our Christian faith? It’s so long and difficult, do we really need it? Isn’t the New Testament enough for our faith in Jesus?
A short answer, which I some- times use, is that we wouldn’t be here as Christians if it weren’t for the Old Testament. A more thoughtful answer takes into ac- count what the New Testament witness says about the topic.
Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” Be- lievers in the Early Church asked, “What does it mean to say, ‘Je- sus is Lord’?” For the disciples and early believers, all of whom were Jewish, answers to their questions came from the Hebrew Scriptures, what Christians call the Old Testament. In the Hebrew Scriptures, the believers discov- ered the laws, stories, psalms and prophecies Jesus himself had known as scripture and quoted during his ministry. There, they found the rich heritage that allowed them to understand and express their beliefs about the astounding events of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.
The Hebrew Scriptures were the source of life and hope for God’s people, helping them to survive long centuries of exile and oppression. In the centuries of Persian, Greek and Roman domi- nation (about 540 BCE onwards), the Jews were oppressed in Ju- dah and scattered throughout the Near East. The scriptures became central to Jewish identity as they
were edited, collected and can- onized over the years. Judaism was a complex religion as various groups sought to be faithful to their tradition in the face of social disruption and political oppres- sion. The scriptures and their in- terpretation were topics of debate and discussion as rabbis, law- yers, scribes, sects, sages and common people sought to under- stand how to keep their identity as God’s people intact.
While the Hebrew canon was probably not yet closed in Jesus’ day, the scriptures he knew cer- tainly consisted of:
the Law, the five books of Moses (the Torah), Genesis through Deuteronomy;
the Prophets, the “Former Prophets” or the historical books, like Joshua through II Kings, and the “Latter Prophets” or prophetic books, like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and some portion of the 12 minor prophets; the Writings, the Psalms, wis- dom books like Proverbs and
Job, and other texts.
In the complex mix of Greek culture, Roman domination and Jewish faith in the first century CE, the New Testament writings show Jesus, the disciples and the Early Church joining in the swirl- ing debates about “the law and the prophets.” Jesus addressed these questions from the stand- point of one who announced and brought a new revelation— the Kingdom of God. The Early Church used the Hebrew Scrip- tures to understand and interpret who Jesus was and what his ministry, death and resurrection meant for them.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus commented on the rela- tionship between the scriptures and the Kingdom of God. “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17). The common witness of the New Testament is that Jesus fulfilled the true mean- ing of the scriptures. Each writer
of the gospels and the other New Testament books put their own emphasis on this witness. But all expressed what the proclamation “Jesus is Lord” meant by refer- ence to the Hebrew Scriptures.
The gospels draw on the He- brew Scriptures to explore two key topics: who Jesus is in God’s plan of salvation and what his ministry and preaching mean for life in the Kingdom.
Jesus in God’s
plan of salvation
One way to trace the scriptural roots of the gospels concerning who Jesus is, is to look at the names and titles used to describe him. For example, at Jesus’ trial before the high priest:
Again, the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” Je- sus said, “I am; and ‘you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power’ and ‘coming with the clouds of heaven’” (Mark 14:61–62).
Here, the gospel contains three titles for Jesus, all drawn from the Hebrew Scriptures. The high priest uses “Messiah” or “Anointed One” (see Psalms 2:2, 18:50 and 89:20) and “Son of the Blessed One” or “Son of God” (see Psalm 2:7). Jesus frames his identity as the “Son of Man” using Daniel:
As I watched in the night vi- sions, I saw one like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. And he came to the Ancient One and was presented before him. To him was given dominion and glory and king- ship, that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him (Daniel 7:13–14).
The familiar story of Palm Sun- day, when Jesus makes his trium- phal entry into Jerusalem, con- tains another scriptural witness that Jesus is the long-expected king of David’s royal line:
As [Jesus] rode along [on the colt], people spread their cloaks on the road.... The dis- ciples began to praise God joy- fully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power they had wit- nessed, saying, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!” (Luke 19:36–38)
Jesus’ actions, by entering Je- rusalem, demonstrated to his fol- lowers the fulfillment of Zechari- ah’s words: “Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a don- key, on a colt, the foal of a don- key” (9:9). The gospel writer Luke made this royal identity explicit at the beginning of his book when he reported the angel Gabriel’s words to Mary:
He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ances- tor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of
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