Comments on: The Old Testament and Christ http://www.theocentricpreaching.com/2007/11/15/the-old-testament-and-christ/ "The most difficult lie I have ever contended with is this: Life is a story about me." Donald Miller Fri, 21 Nov 2008 23:13:32 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Glen http://www.theocentricpreaching.com/2007/11/15/the-old-testament-and-christ/#comment-3079 Glen Wed, 21 Nov 2007 15:27:28 +0000 http://www.theocentricpreaching.com/2007/11/15/the-old-testament-and-christ/#comment-3079 Liking your posts. (I'm a preacher in the UK also very committed to proclaiming Christ from all of Scripture.) I really like Kaiser's clarity on this issue. John Sailhamer quotes from Kaiser and from Gordon McConville in this excellent article for JETS "Messiah in the Hebrew Bible": http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3817/is_200103/ai_n8935232/pg_1 [Sailhamer quotes Kaiser] “ . . . if it is not in the OT text, who cares how ingenious later writers are in their ability to reload the OT text with truths that it never claimed or revealed in the first place? The issue is more than hermeneutics,” says Kaiser. “The issue is that of “the authority and content of revelation itself!” Another evangelical OT scholar, Gordon McConville, has also stressed the importance of the Messiah in the OT. McConville says, “If the Old Testament is the problem of Christian theology . . . , [then] the Messiah is at the heart of that problem.” McConville goes on to say that “the validity of a Christian understanding of the Old Testament must depend in the last analysis on [the] cogency of the argument that the Old Testament is messianic.” Sailhamer says in the article: "The NT is not so much a guide to understanding the OT as it is the goal of understanding the OT. Unless we understand the OT picture of the Messiah, we will not understand the NT picture of Jesus. The OT, not the NT, is the messianic searchlight.” Liking your posts. (I’m a preacher in the UK also very committed to proclaiming Christ from all of Scripture.)

I really like Kaiser’s clarity on this issue. John Sailhamer quotes from Kaiser and from Gordon McConville in this excellent article for JETS “Messiah in the Hebrew Bible”:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3817/is_200103/ai_n8935232/pg_1

[Sailhamer quotes Kaiser] “ . . . if it is not in the OT text, who cares how ingenious later writers are in their ability to reload the OT text with truths that it never claimed or revealed in the first place? The issue is more than hermeneutics,” says Kaiser. “The issue is that of “the authority and content of revelation itself!” Another evangelical OT scholar, Gordon McConville, has also stressed the importance of the Messiah in the OT. McConville says, “If the Old Testament is the problem of Christian theology . . . , [then] the Messiah is at the heart of that problem.” McConville goes on to say that “the validity of a Christian understanding of the Old Testament must depend in the last analysis on [the] cogency of the argument that the Old Testament is messianic.”

Sailhamer says in the article:

“The NT is not so much a guide to understanding the OT as it is the goal of understanding the OT. Unless we understand the OT picture of the Messiah, we will not understand the NT picture of Jesus. The OT, not the NT, is the messianic searchlight.”

]]> By: Bob Bliss http://www.theocentricpreaching.com/2007/11/15/the-old-testament-and-christ/#comment-2985 Bob Bliss Thu, 15 Nov 2007 22:05:32 +0000 http://www.theocentricpreaching.com/2007/11/15/the-old-testament-and-christ/#comment-2985 I have Kaiser's book waiting in line to be read (probably 5th right now). I've been trying to read all those influenced by Haddon Robinson. Kaiser is without a doubt one of my favorite authors on the Old Testament. This is a series I'm am definitely looking forward to reading. Thanks in advance. I have Kaiser’s book waiting in line to be read (probably 5th right now). I’ve been trying to read all those influenced by Haddon Robinson. Kaiser is without a doubt one of my favorite authors on the Old Testament. This is a series I’m am definitely looking forward to reading. Thanks in advance.

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