Both the New and Old Testaments are the
authentic Word of God. The Christian Bible is thus composed of two Testaments
and not just the New Testament. The two Testaments have dialectical
relationships between them.
“God, the inspirer and author of both
Testaments, wisely arranged that the New Testament be hidden in the Old and the
Old be made manifest in the New. For, though Christ established the new
covenant in His blood, still the books of the Old Testament with all their
parts, caught up into the proclamation of the Gospel, acquire and show forth
their full meaning in the New Testament and in turn shed light on it and
explain it” (Dei Verbum #16).
As followers of
Jesus, it is therefore necessary for Christians to understand the deeper
meaning of the inspired biblical texts when Jesus and the authors of the New
Testament make use to the Old Testament in their teachings. This will enable us
to gain a better comprehension on the plans of God in the overall scheme of
things, from His creation of mankind out of love and establishment of a
covenant with them to the liberation of the Israelites who are His chosen
people in the Old Testament; and from His only begotten Son’s undergoing the
paschal mystery for the salvation of the entire human race to the sanctifying
of the Church by the Holy Spirit to continue with the work of Jesus until the
end of time when there is a final and definite fulfillment of God’s plans for
mankind.
This paper describes of the use of the
Old Testament by Jesus and by the authors of the New Testament. The shared
fundamental themes of the two Testaments as pointed out in "The Jewish People and Their Sacred
Scriptures in the Christian Bible" of The Pontifical
Biblical Commission will be used as the basis of the discussions.
References are made primarily to the biblical passages in the New Testament. Where
relevant, a re-reading of the related biblical passages in the Old Testament
will also be made to illustrate how they acquire a fuller and deeper meaning as
manifested by the teachings of Jesus and the authors of the New Testament.
Revelation of God. Both
Testaments share the theme that the one and only God, who is our creator and
providence, speaks and reveals Himself to mankind, primarily through prophets
in the Old Testament, and through Jesus in the New Testament, who is the word
of God and our savior. Right from the beginning of the Gospel of John, the
biblical author wrote:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All
things come into being through him, and without him not one thing came into
being. What was come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of
all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome
it” (Jn 1:1-5).
It recalls God’s
creation in Genesis: “In the beginning when God created the heavens and earth”
(Gen 1:1) when He created all things through His Word. John identifies the Word
as Jesus when he elaborates him as “the light of the world” (Jn 8:12) and the
“the way and the truth and the life” (Jn 14:6). His introduction of the Word
also sheds light on God’s Wisdom in the Old Testament: “She is more beautiful
than the sun, and excels every constellation of the stars. Compared with the
light she is found to be superior, for it is succeeded by the night, but
against wisdom evil does not prevail” (Wis 7:29-30). Sin simply cannot prevail
over Wisdom. On this point, John goes beyond the formulations of the Wisdom
tradition, which has never suggested that Wisdom can be in any form equal to
God.
In his preaching, Jesus frequently
appeals to his followers that they should trust in God, who is our Father in
Heaven, “… so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes
the sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and
the unrighteous” (Mt 5:45). In the Old Testament, mankind is created in the
image of God, “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he
created them” (Gen 1:27). Jesus furthers the message of the Old Testament and
tells us that we are not only created in God’s image, but can actually become
his sons. He has also used an example of the riches of King Solomon to
illustrate this point:
“Consider the lilies of the field, how they
grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all this
glory was not clothed like one of these … do not worry, What will we wear? …
Indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive
first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will
be given to you as well” (Mt 6:28-33).
As our Father, God
has given us all our necessities for life and what we need to strive for is the
Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Adoptive sonship is also a theme in the
letters of Paul, “When we cry, Abba! Father! It is the very Spirit bearing
witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then
heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ” (Rm 8:15-16). It denotes that
Christians have become members of God’s family and have obtained a status – not
as a slave but as a son and heir of God. The relationship between God and man
has been drawn even closer than that in the Old Testament where the Israelites
are called the holy people and nation of God. The New Testament brings out a
deeper understanding on the intention of God’s creation of man.
The Human Person. As the image of
God, every human being, including the pagan, is attracted towards God. On the
other hand, because of our sins, we have to face pain and death and thus human
wretchedness is also a common theme in both Testaments. Prior to the
commencement of his public mission, Jesus was tested in the wilderness by Satan
(Mt 4:1-11). The forty days of fasting of Jesus recalls the testing of the
Israelites in the wilderness (Ex 34:28) where they began to worship the golden
calf after waiting Moses for forty days and nights. Their infidelity reflects
human weaknesses. On the contrary, Jesus makes use of his own temptation to
preach his followers that God is our rock and our fortress. All the responses
made by Jesus to Satan are taken from the Old Testament: Deut 8:3 on man living
not by bread alone but by God’s words; Ps 91:11-12 on the angels protecting him
to avoid dashing his foot against a stone; Deut 6:16 on not putting the Lord
your God to the test; and Deut 6:13 on serving the Lord your God alone. Jesus
sends out a clear message that man should seek for the true riches coming out
from the mouth of God and not the material riches of the world. Indeed, it is
hunger for the word of God that draws the crowds first to John the Baptist and
then to Jesus.
Nonetheless, the wretched state of the
human person continues to appear in various ways in the New Testament. Unlike
the physical and mental misery of the Jewish people in the Babylonian Exile,
moral misery is the focus of attention in the New Testament. In his contention
with the Pharisees, Jesus challenges the Pharisees and claims that oral
traditions such as hand-washing regulations are in effect replacing the law of
God with merely human tradition. He cites from the book of Isaiah, “Because these
people draw near with their mouths and honor me with their lips, while their
hearts are far from me, and their worship of me is a human commandment learned
by rote” (Isa 29:13). Essentially, he is saying that the Pharisees are only
paying a lip service without turning their hearts to God. Worse still, as
leaders among the Jewish people, they are mandating rules and regulations to
the ordinary people which are not according to God’s will. Jesus said to them:
“Do you not see that whatever goes into a
person from outside cannot defile … It is what comes out of a person that
defiles. For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions
come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly” (Mk 7:18-22).
The passion of
Jesus pushes the moral wretchedness of the human nature to the extreme. Most if
not all of the evil intentions emerge: envy, betrayal, denial, unjust trial,
insults and mockery, and wickedness to the extreme resulting in the murder of
Jesus on the cross.
In the Letter of Paul to the Romans, he
teaches that both Jews and Gentiles are under the power of sin by making use of
a long series of quotes from the Old Testament in the letter (Rm 3:10-18). The
citations from Psalms, Proverbs and Isaiah insist that no one may claim to
satisfy God’s standards. Paul furthers his claim on the human limitation: “I
can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want,
but the evil I do not want is what I do” (Rm 7:19). “Wretched man that I am!
Who will rescue me from this body of death” (Rm 7:24). The obvious answer is
through Jesus Christ our Lord. In this way, Paul reinforces the believers’
understanding that God’s liberation and salvation as initially revealed in the
Old Testament can only be substantially fulfilled in Jesus.
God, Liberator and Savior. Both
Testaments share the theme that God is the liberator and savior. In the Old
Testament, the Israelites already experienced the salvation of God who
delivered them from the hands of the Egyptians. The Babylonian Exile furthered
their experience and understanding on God’s salvific plan and created a
messianic hope among the people. In the New Testament, Mary praises the Lord as
her savior, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my
Savior” (Lk 1:46-47). The name Jesus means "God saves". The beginning
of the Gospel of Matthew reveals the mission of Jesus, “She will bear a son,
and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Mt
1:21). Matthew further points out that this is to fulfill what has been spoken
by God through the prophet Isaiah, “Look, the young woman is with child and
shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel” (Isa 7:14).
In Jesus’ public mission, his power and
authority to save manifest not only on the spiritual arena but also the
physical. He cures sick people, opens the eyes of the blind, makes the lame
walk and even sends the dead back to life. He promulgates the coming of the
Kingdom of God through his deeds and words. When John the Baptist sent his
disciples to ask Jesus whether he is “the one who is to come”, Jesus refers
them to two passages from the Old Testament, “The eyes of the blind shall be
opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; the lame shall leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy” (Isa 35:5-6). “The spirit of the
Lord God is upon me … he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed” (Isa
61:1). These are the deeds that are predicted of the Messiah in the Old Testament.
Jesus has used similar biblical passages from the Old Testament in his
preaching to the people in the synagogue of Nazareth. And added at the end,
“Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Lk 4:21).
Unfortunately, the people are still full of doubts.
Jesus
opens the salvation of mankind to other nations. In his encounters with the
Samaritan woman, he said to her initially, “You worship what you do not know;
we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews” (Jn 4:22). But the
time has come when “the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and
truth” (Jn 4:23). Eventually, because of the woman’s testimony, many Samaritans
come to Jesus, hear what he said, and believe in him. They said to the woman,
“It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard
for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world” (Jn
4:42). In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he adopts the analogy that the Gentiles are the “wild olive shoot” which were grafted in place
of some of the branches that were broken off from the olive tree.
Above all, the title Savior is
attributed to Jesus on his resurrection from the dead. Speaking before the high
priest, Peter boldly said, “The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you
had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as
Leader and Savior that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of
sins” (Ac 5:30-31). The Jewish people were expecting a national and political
savior but Jesus is a savior of another kind. Through his paschal mystery, he
brings about salvation not only to the Jews, but to the nations. The hope of
salvation, which is expressed so frequently and forcefully in the Old
Testament, finds its fulfilment in the New. But the actual realization, with
the Savior dying on the cross for the redemption of man’s sins, is beyond the
imagination of most of the contemporaries of Jesus. As Paul
wrote to the Corinthians, “but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block
to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews
and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor 1:23-24).
The
Covenant. God established a covenant with the
Israelites at different times in the Old Testament, notably His Promise to
Abraham, the Sinai Covenant and the Davidic Promise. In the New Testament, the
theme of covenant with His people is the fulfillment of God’s promises in the
Old Testament through Jesus Christ. Despite that the new covenant is building
on the old in terms of the relationship between God and mankind as well as the
promises for an ideal world with no more sins and sufferings, there are also
break points between the old and the new in terms of the institutions to
maintain the relationship with God and the ways to achieve the eventual goals.
In the New Testament, the covenant is established on a new foundation, the
person and work of Jesus. Peter quotes from Ps 118:22 and he said to the Jewish
leaders, “This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders; it
has become the cornerstone” (Ac 4:11). The “cornerstone” referred by Peter
enables the book of Isaiah to acquire a deeper meaning, “See, I am laying in
Zion a foundation stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation:
One who trusts will not panic” (Isa 28:16). God’s promise of security for
Jerusalem and the house of David will be realized in Jesus Christ. Through him,
the covenant relationship is deepened and broadened, and opened to all through
Christian faith.
At
the last supper, Jesus took a cup, after giving thanks, he gave it to his
disciples saying, “Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the
covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Mt 26:27).
The blood of Jesus where he shed on the cross thus becomes the foundation of
the new covenant. The blood as a covenant recalls the scene of Moses doing and
saying to the Israelites at Mount Sinai, “Moses took the blood and dashed it on
the people, and said, ‘See the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made
with you in accordance with all these words’” (Ex 24:8). In this sense, the new
covenant also suggests continuity with the Sinai Covenant. Of course, its
meaning is much deeper as the sacrifices in the Old Testament are animals while
that in the New Testament is the “Lamb of God” as John the Baptist declares,
“Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (Jn 1:29). By virtue of Jesus’ offering himself as the eventual sacrifice of
the Lamb of God, Christians can approach God through grace with Jesus as the
mediator and by living a life of self-giving.
Paul also mentions the new covenant in
his letters by repeating Jesus’ words in the last supper (1 Cor 12:25). Referring
to the Abrahamic Promise, Paul said that Christians become descendants of
Abraham not by blood relation, but by their faith in Christ, “it is not the
children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the
promise are counted as descendants” (Rm 9:8). Moreover, Paul associates his
apostolic ministry with the new covenant, “Not that we are competent of
ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God, who
has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of
spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Cor 3:5-6). This
echoes the “new covenant” in the book of Jeremiah:
“The days are certainly coming, says the
Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and Judah. It
will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them
by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt – a covenant that they broke
… I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I
will be their God, and they shall be my people … for I will forgive their
iniquity, and remember their sin no more” (Jer 31:31-34).
The new covenant prophesied by Jeremiah is inaugurated by the blood of Jesus. God’s
promise in the Old Testament is definitive and cannot be abolished. The
covenant announced in the Old Testament is fulfilled, not simply as a renewal
of the Sinai covenant, but by the establishment of a covenant that is truly
new, founded on Jesus offering himself as a sacrifice for the redemption of our
sins. Through this new covenant, God will “forgive our iniquity, and remember
our sin no more”.
The
Law. The Law is center to the Jewish scriptures and
in their religious practice from the days of the Old Testament to the present
age. In the New Testament, Jesus makes it clear that he comes not to abolish
the law but to fulfill it. In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, he said, “Do not
think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to
abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away,
not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is
accomplished” (Mt 5:17-18).
While Jesus affirms the validity of the
law, he also gives it a new interpretation and dimension in the Sermon on the
Mount. “You shall not murder” in Ex 20:13 is extended a much higher level of
conduct and ethics, “if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be
liable to judgment; and if insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to
the council; and if you say, ‘You fool’, you will be liable to hell” (Mt 5:22).
On “You shall commit adultery” in Ex 20:14, Jesus extends the commandment to
not only forbidding adultery with another person’s wife or husband, but also
demanding his followers to maintain purity of heart, “everyone who looks at a
woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Mt
5:28). On the command to love your neighbor in Lev 19:18, Jesus preaches us to
love our enemies, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so
that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes the sun rise on
the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the
unrighteous” (Mt 5:44-45). When Jesus is questioned by a lawyer on the greatest
commandment in the law, he gives a concise reply from Deut 6:5 and Lev 19:8,
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul
and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a
second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two
commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Mt 23:37-39).
Paul struggles with the role of the law
in his letters for the obvious question on whether the Gentile believers would
need to follow the Jewish laws. On the one hand, he acknowledges that the law
is holy and good, “So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and
good” (Rm 7:12). But he also appreciates that the Law of the Old Testament cannot
deliver him from the power of evil and sins, “I can will what is right, but I
cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is
what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but
sin that dwells within me” (Rm 8:19-20). In Paul’s view, Israel did strive for
righteousness in fulfilling the law, but the people only approached the law on
the basis of works, and thus they did not succeed in fulfilling the law. The
only way to fulfill the law is to attain righteousness through faith in Christ,
which is the regime of grace, “sin will have no dominion over you, since you
are not under law but under grace” (Rm 6:14). Paul also wrote, “For Christ is
the end of the laws so that there may be righteousness for everyone who
believes” (Rm 10:4). On cursory reading, it could mean that Jesus has terminated
or abolished the law, but a deeper sense is that Jesus is not only the goal
(end) of the law, but acting in righteousness through faith in him shall be the
way to fulfill the law.
Indeed, Jesus has personally taught his disciples
a new dimension of the law at the last supper, “I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one
another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love
for one another” (Jn 13:34-35). After having the last supper, Jesus undergoes
the paschal mystery with a complete sacrifice on the cross, demonstrating his
love for mankind to the extent of surrendering his life. The precept of love in
the light of Jesus’ example of self-sacrifice has given the law a new
interpretation. With this new commandment, the law is fulfilled.
Prayer and Cult. In the Old
Testament, the Israelites maintained their relationship and communications with
God with prayer and cult. The Temple in Jerusalem was the center of the Jewish
worship. In the New Testament, Jesus attaches great importance to prayer himself.
He prays often to the Father and teaches his followers to pray to Him. No doubt
the Lord’s Prayer (Mt 6:9-13) is an original invention of Jesus for the benefit
of his disciples, there are nevertheless many Old Testament references that
make up its various themes.
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your
name”: a reference is found in the book of Ezekiel on the Lord’s saying to
Israel on sanctification of His name, “I will sanctify my great name, which has
been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them; and
the nations shall know that I am the Lord” (Ezek 36:23). By appealing to his
disciples to sanctify the holy name of God, Jesus is in effect also asking them
to spread the good news to the rest of the world. “Your kingdom come”: a
reference is found in Mic 4:1-8 on the ideal age when “many nations shall come
and say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord … they shall beat their
swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks … The lame I will
make the remnant and those who were cast off, a strong nation”. The Lord said,
“the former dominion (kingdom) shall come, the sovereignty of daughter
Jerusalem”. Jesus is inviting us to pray for the arrival of the ideal Kingdom
of God to earth, i.e. yearning for eschatological salvation by complying with
God’s will, “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”.
On our daily necessity, Jesus teaches us
to say, “Give us this day our daily bread”: a reference is found in Proverbs,
“give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that I need” (Prov
30:8). God will take care of our daily needs and we should not ask for more
than what we actually need. “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven
our debtors”: a reference can be found in the Sabbath Year in Deut 15:1-18,
which is the year for granting a remission of debts. “Debts” can be extended spiritually
to sins, where Jesus is asking us to imitate God the Father who is always
merciful on His forgiveness of people who has sinned against Him. In fact, we
are all sinners and Jesus tells us that he would welcome all sinners to repent,
“I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Lk 5:32).
“And do not bring us to the time of trial”. It refers to a desire to escape
from the “fearful day of the Lord”, symbolizing great distress and pain.
Allusions can be found in Jer 30:7, Isa 13:6 and Joel 2. “But rescues us from
the evil one”: a reference is found in Psalms, “The Lord loves those who hate
evil; he guards the lives of his faithful; he rescues them from the hand of the
wicked” (Ps 97:10). When it is read in conjunction with the previous phrase,
Jesus is asking us to pray for resistance to the temptation of Satan so as to
escape from the dreadful punishment of the Lord. He did it by example during
his own trial at Gethsemane before he was handed over to be crucified. The
different themes come perfectly together as an ideal prayer to God the Father.
In his Letter to the Thessalonians, Paul
invites Christians to pray incessantly to God, “Rejoice always, pray without
ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thess 5:17), which echoes Jesus’ teaching in Mt
7:7-11, “Ask, and it will be given you; search and you will find; knock, and
the door will be opened for you …”. At the end of the Sermon, Jesus concludes
with the “Golden Rule”, “In everything do to others as you would have them do
to you; for this is the law and the prophets” (Mt 7:12), which is a useful
summary of Jesus’ ethical teaching to his contemporaries (by referring
explicitly to the law and prophets) and to all Christians.
As for cult, Jesus makes use of Hos 6:6:
“For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice” to tell the people that he is
the “Lord of the Sabbath”, i.e. his authority exceeds even that of divinely
established institutions. He preaches that acts of mercy outweigh ritual
observations in God’s eyes, “But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire
mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the
Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath” (Mt 12:7-8). As Jeremiah had prophesied the
destruction of the first temple, Jesus predicted the destruction of the second
temple but pre-announced that it would be replaced by a new temple, his risen
body in three days (c.f. Mt 24:1-2, Jn 2:13-22). Paul tells the believers that
they are members of Christ’s body and their own bodies become the “temple” of
the Holy Spirit, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s
Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that
person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple” (1 Cor 3:17). With
the paschal mystery, the animal sacrifices in the Old Testament were invalidated
and the only efficacious sacrifice remains is the personal offering of Christ as
the High Priest, “since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood
of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain
(that is, through his flesh)” (Heb 10:19-20). And as Christians, we can unite
with Christ in the offering to God, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and
sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Rm 12:1).
Divine Reproaches and Condemnations.
The election of Israel as God’s holy nation resulted in demands for
faithfulness and holiness. But the unfaithful people in the Old Testament
entailed reproaches and even condemnations by the prophets – the messengers of
God. In the Gospel, John the Baptist resembles the harsh warnings of the Old
Testament prophets to rebuke the Pharisees and Sadducees who come for baptism,
he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to
come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance” (Mt 3:7-8). On the inauguration of Jesus’
ministry, he also calls for repentance, and emphasizes on its urgency, “Repent,
for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Mt 4:17). However, he is shocked with
the people’s disbelief, and announces a judgment that is even more severe than
that of Sodom, the example of an evil and unrepentant city in the Old Testament
(Gen 19:1-29). He said, “But I tell you on the day of judgment it will be more
tolerable for the land of Sodom than for you” (Mt 11:24).
Jesus also tells the parable of the
vineyard (Mt 21:31-41) to allude to the rejection of himself as the Son of God
by the Jewish people and prophesize his own death. He makes use of the familiar
metaphor of a vineyard which is frequently adopted by Old Testament prophets. The
denial of Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom of God by the Jewish leaders
eventually leads to his crucifixion. Despite this, Peter continues with the
appeal for repentance, he said to the people:
“you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and
asked to have a murderer given to you … I know that you acted in ignorance, as
did also your rulers. In this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through
all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer. Repent therefore, and turn to
God so that your sins may be wiped out” (Ac 14-19).
Indeed, the
necessity that the Messiah would suffer was foretold by Second Isaiah in the
fourth Servant Song, “… although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit
in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain … he bore
the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isa 52:13-53:12).
Among the Christian communities, reproaches though to a much lesser extent than
the Old Testament, are still there for those who turn away from God.
Nonetheless, the Church incessantly appeals to their conversion and repent
under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. This is in full accord with Jesus’
teaching that he comes to call sinners, not the righteous.
The Promises. The promises made
by God in the Old Testament are re-read in the light of Jesus in the New
Testament. God’s salvific plan is substantially fulfilled with the paschal
mystery of Jesus. However, His plans for mankind have not ended with Jesus’ glorious
ascension into heaven. Jesus instituted the Church which continues with his
mission on earth until the end of time when there is a final salvation and
restoration. Peter said, “Jesus, who must remain in heaven until the time of
universal restoration that God announced long ago through his holy prophets”
(Ac 3:21). He elaborates that Jesus is the successor of Moses as well as David
to convince the people that Jesus is the Messiah as promised by God. Thousands
of people believed and were baptized.
Matthew frequently speaks of the
“Kingdom of Heaven” in the Gospel. He recognizes Jesus as the Messiah through
his teaching and healing, casting out demons and even raising the dead to life.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus preaches the crowd on what they should do to
enter the kingdom of heaven. Focusing on deeds without love is simply
insufficient, he said, “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that
of the scribes of Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt
5:21). The parables told by Jesus present a view that the Kingdom of Heaven has
come and will continue to grow, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed
that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds,
but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree” (Mt
13:31-32). Some other parables have an eschatological dimension, “the kingdom
of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every
kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into
baskets but threw out the bad” (Mt 13:47). The parables on the Kingdom of
Heaven echo and provide an extended meaning to the prophecies of Daniel, “The
kingship and dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall
be given to the people of the holy ones” (Dan 8:27), “many of those who sleep
in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to
shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan 12:2). As the earthly head of the Church,
Peter and his successors receive the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven from Jesus,
“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on
earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed
in heaven” (Mt 16:19).
With the Church continuing with the work
of Jesus on earth, it is our belief that at the end of time there will be
fulfillment of the Old Testament in terms of an eschatological salvation – a
new heaven and a new earth: “For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth;
the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind … I am about to
create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight … no more shall the
sound of weeping be heard in it; or the cry of distress …” (Isa 65:17-25). The
second coming of Jesus the Messiah at the end of time marks the definitive
fulfillment of the Old Testament in the New Testament, as prophesized in the
book of Revelation, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our
Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign forever and ever” (Rv 11:15).
God’s salvific plan is indeed a
progression from the Old Testament to the New in the overall scheme of things
because it is through Jesus and the Church established by him that the “incomplete
and temporary” nature of the Old Testament can be fulfilled. God has revealed
Himself directly to mankind through His only begotten son, “Long ago God spoke
to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last
days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things,
through whom he also created the worlds” (Heb 1:1-2). “In him, salvation takes
on a new dimension. The emphasis changes from a predominantly earthly salvation
to a transcendent one that surpasses the conditions of temporal existence. It
is addressed to every single human being, to the entire human race” (The Jewish People and Their Sacred
Scriptures in the Christian Bible #63).
Bibliography
Collins, John J. Introduction
to the Hebrew Bible. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 2004. Print.
Coogan, Michael D. The
New Oxford Annotated Bible: New Revised Standard Version with Apocrypha. N.p.: Oxford UP, 2010. Print.
Raymond E. Brown, Joseph A. Fitzmyer, and Roland E. Murphy. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1990. Print.
"The Jewish People and Their Sacred Scriptures in the
Christian Bible." The Pontifical
Biblical Commission N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Dec. 2013.
<http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/pcb_documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20020212_popolo-ebraico_en.html>.
