Many people have asked the question, ‘Do we need to study the Old and the New Testament?’
Old Testament scholar Dr. John Goldingay says yes! He challenges us to renew our perspective of the Old and New Testaments, understand what story God is trying to communicate through the Old Testament, and how it continues on through the New Testament. He shares insights from his book .
What is God’s storyline about?
“The story is the story of how God having a purpose for creation of the world, created the world in the that it should be a place where He could bring blessing and be known. The story of the bible as a whole is the story of God working out that purpose.”
In the beginning of God’s story, human sin entered the world and that’s moment where reconciliation needed to also enter in. Dr. Goldingay explains where the Old Testament meets the New Testament.
“At the very beginning, God got immediately frustrated by human sin so through the Old Testament story, He is working via Israel to reveal himself to the world to be reconciled with the world, and is bringing that story to its completion when you come to the story of Jesus.”
Why are both the New and the Old Testaments essential in understanding a bigger picture?
Dr. Goldingay uses the imagery of act 1 and act 2 in a play as a helpful way to understand the importance of both Testaments.
“The Old Testament and the New Testament are like the two acts of a play. The Old Testament is Act one, the New Testament Act two. I might be inclined to say it’s like a four-act play because there are several acts in effect in the Old Testament.”
Dr. Goldingay reminds us that we need both of the Testaments to understand God’s story.
“One of the things about not being able to understand the New Testament without the Old, or the Old without the New, is that if you arrive in the intermission of a play and try to understand the second half without having been being there for the first half, you’re not going to get it! Not equally. If you walked out of a play at the intermission then you’re not going to get it either. You need both acts in order to understand the play.”
Comparable to watching a television show four episodes after its series debut, it is be rather difficult to understand what the series is about or who the characters are.
“You know how sometimes at the beginning of episode four, they’ll give you a sequence of images from the previous three episodes? Well that’s how the New Testament begins with the list of names at the beginning of Matthew; which to us often seems rather kind of redundant and boring or something, but is like one of those sequences at the beginning of a series.”
Whether you’ve been studying God’s word for 60 years or are just opening your bible for the first time; it’s never too late to gain a fresh perspective on the Testaments and learn how they powerfully intersect in God’s story.
