Some believed that there are so many good reasons to study the Old Testament. For one reason the Old Testament lays the foundation for our teaching and also laid the foundation for what was to come. The Old Testament texts were sacred to the Jewish beliefs and practices. The Old Testament provided us with important facts, details and information that were needed in order to understand the New Testament. So what is the point of studying the New Testament of the bible? Perhaps it was to gives us a better background and understanding of why the Jews had been waiting on their Messiah to come.
According to Robert H Gundry (2012), “A wide range of literature, including extrabiblical writing as well as the New Testament, helps us reconstruct the pagan and Jewish religion and philosophical backgrounds necessary for the reasonable complete understanding of the New Testament” (Gundry, R. H. 2012, Kindle Location 1686).
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And what is the point of studying the New Testament of the bible? The New Testament is the law and revelation from God, the New Testament covers the period of Jesus’ birth until his second coming here on earth. The New Testament “Is the second part of the Christian Bible, written originally in Greek and recording the life and teachings of Jesus and his earliest followers. It includes the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, twenty-one epistles by St. Paul and others, and the book of Revelation” (Google Search, 2015).
The Old Testament has thousands of years of covered history. The Old Testament scriptures covered what matter the most to the Jews which was also called the “the Hebrew Bible” because it was written in the Hebrew language. King Saul, David and Solomon ruled the over the twelve tribes of Israel before the nation split into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. The Persians took power of the Jews from the Babylonians and let the people return to the native lands it they wanted to do
The Christian Scriptures is the entire Christian Bible. It is composed of both the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Testament. The Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) is composed of several books all containing stories about Jesus, and the Christian Testament (New Testament) which contains the stories of Jesus and the earliest Christian Communities. Although these stories cannot confidently prove to us that they are true there are several distinct similarities, which are contained in nearly all of the books. These similarities are so frequent that their constant occurrence seems more than coincidence. Although these similarities occur often in the books of the Hebrew Scriptures, there are four short books included in the Christian Testament, which we must rely on to understand Jesus’ ministry and life.
The Old Testament and the Bible itself has been studied extensively for centuries. Archeologists and Scholars have labored and pondered over texts trying to decipher its clues. It does not matter how many times the Old Testament has been studied there will always be something new to learn about it or the history surrounding it. In the book Reading the Old Testament: an Introduction, the author Lawrence Boadt presents us with a few different authors of the Old Testament that used different names for God and had a unique insight into the texts. These four sources are titled P for priests, E for Elohim, J for Jehovah, and Y for Yahweh (95). These four unique sources help us realize that there is more than one author of the Pentateuch. These authors took the text and adapted for their culture. This independent source is used by scholars to help gain insight into what was behind the texts of the bible so we are not left with an incomplete picture of what went into the creation of the bible. Julius Wellhausen used these four sources to publish a book to able us to better understand the sources and to give it credibility with the Protestant scholars at the time (Boadt 94). These sources that is independent of the bible as in the DVD Who Wrote the Bible? and the Nova website aide in shedding light on the history that surrounded the writers who wrote the text and what inspired them to write it in the first place. The DVD shows the discovery of The Dead Sea Scrolls and the extensive history of the texts and all its sources in an effort to try to find exactly who wrote the bible (Who Wrote). These scrolls have aided scholars immensely by giving us some of the oldest known manuscripts of the bible in the world today. It shows that the bible w...
Metzger, B. (1997). The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development, and Significance. New York.
The Old Testament is divided into six major sections. During each of these sections, elements of Old Testament history foreshadow various New Testament themes and events. Some of these various accounts recorded in the Old Testament are prophetical in nature and foretell specific details about various events that will be fulfilled in New Testament times. Each of the six major sections carries its own unique overarching theme that will in some way tie into New Testament history and theology. The six major sections of Old Testament are: creation (Genesis 1-11), covenant (Genesis 12-50), congr...
a) The Old Testament is basic to understanding the New because the Old Testament shows what most people have gone threw before they had Christ in their life. Also a lot of the New Testament refers you back to the Old Testament to get a better understanding on how to follow threw with the New.
The Bible contains two parts, which are the Old Testament, the so-called the Jewish Bible, and the New Testament. Though many different writers involved in writing the Bible, the two Testaments are not independent; they are cross-referenced to each other. Christians often treat the Old Testament not only as the historical documents or literatures of the Israelites, but also as an important element of the foundation of the New Testament, because the writers of the New Testament lay strong emphasis on the relationship of Jesus with the prophecies of the Old Testament, which includes "the birth of Jesus, the place of His birth, the flight into Egypt, the return to Nazareth, the role of John the Baptist in preparing Jesus for His public ministry," the crucifixion of Jesus, and the resurrection of Jesus.
There are many Christians, whether you believe or not that question why they should read the Old Testament/Hebrew bible. They feel it is unnecessary because of todays’ times and how things have changed, so they think that the Bible is far behind in what is going on in today’s world. Nevertheless, the Bible is current and is never outdated; therefore, we should never assume, especially as Christians that there is nothing new we can learn from the Bible. Reasons why Christians should read the Old Testament is because we should know that the Bible is still relevant in today’s world, to know God and his nature which in turn can transform one’s life, and to get wisdom and understanding so that they can apply to their lives.
The Old Testament serves as a foundation for the teachings of God, while the New Testament continues to build and preserve God’s principles. The Old Testament and New Testament have a very unique relationship, as they are complementary to each other. The Old Testament contains many prophecies that are fulfilled in the New Testament. God can be viewed as fearsome in the Old Testament, whereas God portrays a friendlier and more compassionate persona in the New Testament. Although there are many differences between the two, there are also many similarities due to the heavy influence that the writings of the Old Testament had on the books and passages of the New Testament. An example of similarity between the Old Testament and the New Testament can be examined between passages from the First Book of Samuel and the Gospel of Luke, located in the Old Testament and New Testament respectively.
The Hebrew Bible or the Tanak is a collection of sacred literature that profoundly influences the Jewish people. Composed of numerous books, its origins span back to 90 CE, where the destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem in 70 CE, forced the Jewish people to scribe the traditions of their temple-based religion. Much of what has been scribed was previously passed down orally through sermons and rituals within the temple, but with no temple, and no way practice their beliefs, a canon had to be agreed upon for Judaism to survive. The books of the canon have somewhat varied as the Jewish people
The New Testament teaches about who Jesus is and what he did on the earth. John wrote the last of the four gospels which recount Jesus’ life and what is to come. The gospel of John is somewhat different from the other three gospels, in that it is more symbolic and less concrete. For example, John expresses Jesus as the Passover Lamb when Matthew, Mark, and Luke do not. This gospel is showing that Christianity is moving away from the long-practiced Jewish traditions. John’s gospel can be laid out into four parts: the prologue or the incarnate word, signs of the Messiah with teachings about life in him, the farewell teaching and the passion narrative, and the epilogue or the roles of Peter and of the disciple whom Jesus loved. The Gospel of John is arguably the most
Why does the New Testament contain some books, but not others? Why do we have Timothy, but not the likes of Judas? What makes Ezra worthy but not Judith, Tobit or the Maccabees? There have been a variety of answers to this question proposed by laymen. Not all of them possessing merit. Perhaps some can recall the story in which some Christians claimed that at the First Council of Nicaea they took all the books they had and set them upon a table. In some renditions the books that fell off where not included and in others renditions they closed the door and the gospel magically appeared on the table while the others vanished. Neither of these accounts are of course accurate. In this paper we’ll have an examination of the real history, if not brief, of the New Testament Canon.
God created the testaments ultimately, he did not write them himself but he had created them. He sent his message through prophets so the word would spread. It is ironic that the Bible has two separate parts called testaments. The word testament means “covenant” and the Old Testament is filled with covenants with men and women. Some covenants God had made are with Abraham, Noah and Moses. God had made these covenants to prepare for the coming of his son, the messiah. “The principal purpose to which the plan of the old covenant was directed to prepare the coming of Christ, the redeemer of all and of the messianic kingdom, to announce this coming by prophecy, and to indicate its meaning through various types.” The books in the Old Testament
relevant to life, such as do not kill and do not steal. The bible also
With the Old Testament’s authorship inspired by a divine presence in mind it would be an assumption that the scriptures would not plagiarized, free of contradictions, without errors and historically accurate. It is now obvious how little most of us really know about the who, what, where, why and how of the contents written in the Old Testament.
Scripture holds a prominent role in the sermon. In 2 Timothy 4:2, it states to “preach the word in season and out of season”. The Greek word for preach is ‘Kerusso’. It means to be a herald (proclaim) and to preach (announce) a message publicly and with conviction (persuasion). In this verse, Paul gave Timothy and the others ministers a charge and a commission to preach the Word. In order to be an effective preacher, the Word of God must be the foundation. In 2 Timothy 3:16, it states that “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness”. In other words, the Word of God was written by man, God-breathed and divinely inspired. The Scripture is important because it creates an argument or appeal that is persuading the audience to do something. The substance of our preaching must come from the Bible because the Bible comes from God. As messenger and ambassadors of God, we are obligated to speak the mind and thoughts of God.