Knowing Jesus through the Old Testament Critique - Book Report/Review Example

?Knowing Jesus through the Old Testament Knowing Jesus through the Old Testament is written by Christopher J.H. Wright, an ordained Anglican ministerholding a doctorate in Old Testament ethics. In this book, Wright discusses the life of Christ within the framework of the Old Testament writings, providing a connection to the identity and mission of Jesus. Through the scriptures of Old Testament, he offers readers a new way of understanding Jesus and shows how the God’s plan for Israel was lived out by Jesus. From the passages explained in the book, the readers would get to know the significance of Old Testament in pointing out the advent of Jesus for the salvation of the world. The author shows how the mission of Jesus was rooted on the God’s plan for Israel and how it was fulfilled through his coming as the Hebrew Messiah. The entire book provides a rich understanding of the Old Testament scriptures and its relationship to Jesus giving a deeper insight from a contemporary Christian perspective. Summary: Initially, the author connects Jesus to the promises and covenants of the Old Testament showing that only through these scriptures one could know Jesus’ mission to the world. He uses plethora of verses from the Old Testament correlating it to the biblical references for establishing the connection it holds to the point. He shows how Jesus was viewed as the son of Israel allowing the readers to get a clear knowledge about the history of Israel right from the period of Abraham. In addition, the author blatantly reinforces the ‘Jewishness’ of Jesus by establishing his identity as a Jew who fulfills the roles of Messiah and the Son of God for redemption and restoration of Israel. He rejects the notion that just because Jesus has fulfilled the God’s plans for Israel, the Old Testament is considered to be of ‘less value’. The author points out the Matthew’s verses of genealogy, summing up Jesus’s lineage, which gives a linkage between the story of Israel and the life of Jesus for fulfilling the Israel’s redemption. He mentions that this is a historical implication for the continuation of the Israel history towards the God’s act of salvation through his son. According to the author, Jesus was not only viewed as the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises but also as the beginning of a new covenant. The author clearly depicts background history of the three time-periods specified in Matthew – from Abraham to David, from David to the exile and from the exile to the Messiah –showing the God’s expectations towards his people, who are redeemed through His grace and unmerited favor. Wright illustrates the guaranteed promises of God to Abraham, Noah, Israel and David, along with His new covenant through Jesus. Here the author states that the declared promises involve God’s commitment to the relationship and requires a response of acceptance by the humans which then is followed with ongoing levels of promise-fulfillment. Wright clearly stresses on the father-son relationship between Jesus and the Almighty, at the same time, he also mentions the relationship of the humans with that of the God. He states obedience as an inherent theme which is essential for the people to acquire the blessings of the God. He states that when the Israelites failed in their obedience towards the Lord God, Jesus succeeded in his obedience as a son to his father and fulfilled God’s promise to the Israel. Further, he discusses the mission, goal and identity of Jesus, which are mentioned in the scriptures of the Old Testament. According to the author, Jesus combines the image of Hebrew Messiah, Son of Man and Servant of Lord in order to fulfill his mission, not to Israel alone but to the entire nations. Also, the author presents his readers with various exemplifications from the Hebrew Bible, which helped Jesus to understand the mission given to him by his Father and the values he needed to acquire as a Son of God. He states that these scriptures facilitated Jesus to know the values, priorities and convictions of his own life, and it was through these words that he was able to hear the voice of his Father God. Interpretation: Wright’s analysis about the Old Testament was to point out the understanding about God’s promises for redemption of mankind. After the fall of Adam, God’s makes a covenant with Abraham in Genesis to establish a relationship with the humans. (Gen:11).1 In order to show this, the author points out the chapters of Genesis where God promises Abraham to make him the father of nations. (Gen:12.1-3).2 Jesus was seen as the fulfillment of this promise and hope of Israel for redemption and restoration which god has in store for His people. Wright interprets the verses of Matthew, providing the readers with an understanding that Jesus is included within the Old Testament genealogy. He also produces few more implications from this, and points out that, the Israel’s history was not the end for itself but for the benefit of the nations. In addition, he states that this genealogy and the events of the history give a deeper meaning to the life of Jesus. Wright takes the first four chapters of Matthew to prove his point of Jesus as the fulfiller of the Old Testament promises. As the genealogy suggests the completion of Old Testament history, the infancy of Christ proves the fulfillment of the promise of God. The author stresses particularly on the Baptism as the climatic event for the confirmation of Jesus as the Son of God. The baptism also helped Jesus to understand His identity as well as His mission. Jesus’ understanding of himself as Daniel's Son of Man and Isaiah's Servant of the Lord proves that he lived the mission specified in the Old Testament mission. Finally, through the wilderness testing in Mathew 4, the author proves the obedience of Jesus to his father, which helped to gain the blessings of God. “Through the obedience to the law of God Jesus will fulfill the promise of the Old Testament and bring about the new covenant.” 3 Wright holds a theological point that the promise-fulfillment has its significance to the life and mission of Jesus. According to Wright’s perspective, the Hebrew bible and the consequent incidents in the life of Christ has a prominent influence in knowing his own identity for completing his mission. He insists the fact that the Old Testament scriptures and Baptism has a major role in the life of Jesus which has influenced him into knowing his mission and without it he would not have accomplished it. This statement could be on contrary to the immortality and abiding existence of God from the beginning of the world (Gen 1.1).4 This perspective of Wright does not recognize the divinity of Christ and his existence with God, and failed to observe his point from the light of the John verses which states ‘He was with God in the beginning.’ (Jn.1.1,2).5 Wright focuses on the replacement theology in which he views Church as a replacement to the Israel. He also establishes the fact that the modern Christianity has overturned the notion of Jesus by disrupting him from the historical Jewish and the Hebrew scriptural context. “Recently, the New Age caricatures of him. He is cut off from the historical Jewish context of his own day, and from his deep roots in the Hebrew scriptures.”6 He views Jesus as superior level of promise-fulfillment with a different potential, which replaces Israel as the chosen people with the entire nations. The strength of the author was his ability to see Jesus as the center of all scriptures explaining that the entire Old Testament is like a preamble to the coming of Jesus. According to him, the Old Testament has much deeper interpretation than how the real audiences take it. His weakness could be observed in his ignorance to the divinity of Jesus and stressing over the influence of Old Testament for the understanding of Jesus as the Son of God. He states that “It was the Old Testament which helped Jesus to understand Jesus.”7 This view of the author questions the divinity of Jesus Christ and His existence from the beginning with God. Few works of other authors resembles to the concept of Wright such as Jesus and Israel: One Covenant or Two by David Holwerda, and Messiah in the Old Testament by Walter C. Kaiser. Both Wright and Holwerda see Jesus as the descendant of Israel, intended for redemption of the world. They also conform to the replacement theology. However, one of the book reviewers suggests that Kaiser has a different perspective than Wright in terms of his correlation of Jesus with the Old Testament. While Wright focuses solely on the replacement theology, Kaiser “sees the promises having present and future applications to both Israel and the Church.”8 But according to Wright, the promises are not to be taken literally as they are living and transformable and so replaces Israel with the Church. Through this book, the author helps the pastors and laypersons to know the importance of Old Testament by articulating its connection to Jesus and God’s promises-fulfillment. From this book, evangelists would know that Messiah is the binding element that leads all the people towards the God Almighty and would help them to preach the gospel, conforming to the covenant and promises of the Old Testament. Since the main idea of the book is about the understanding of Jesus through the Old Testament scriptures, Wright connects the Israel history with the life of Jesus through the prophecies and covenants of God to the people of Israel. Through the book, Wright states that the Old Testament influenced Jesus in attaining the knowledge about his identity, mission and values. However, this conception could be opposable to the divinity of Christ, as the omnipresent God from the beginning of the world. Also, his replacement theology should be observed with caution as it might neglect the church and Israel for the fulfillment of the promises. The author leaves the readers contemplating about their understanding of the Old Testament for knowing the mission of Jesus in a new way. He also provides the readers with ample interpretations which allow them to enrich their preaching of the Gospel. Bibliography: Horton, M. Stanley. “Book Reviews.” JETS, http://www.etsjets.org/files/JETS- PDFs/40/40-2/40-2-pp287-339_JETS.pdf Locke, Jason. “Book Review: Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament by Christopher J.H. Wright.” Liberty University http://www.academia.edu/2049796/KNOWING_JESUS_THROUGH_THE_OLD_TESTAMENT_BY_CHRISTOPHER_J.H._WRIGHT_Book_Review Wright, Christopher J. H. Knowing Jesus through the Old Testament. Monarch Books, 2005. The Holy Bible, New International Version, Hendrickson Publishers, 2004. Read More