Liberty Theological Seminary

Book Review:Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament

A Paper Submitted to Dr. John McLean

In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the course

Old Testament Orientation IOBST 515

ByDeborah M. Baskin23 November 2013

Table of Contents

Introduction 3

Summary 3

Critical Interaction 6

Conclusion 8

Bibliography 10

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Introduction

Christopher J. H. Wright was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He holds a doctorate in

Old Testament Ethics and currently serves as the international director of the Langham

Partnership International (known in the USA as John Scott Ministries), and is on staff at All

Souls Church in London.1 He is a prolific author having written commentaries on Deuteronomy

and Ezekiel, Old Testament and Ethics for the People of God, Knowing Jesus Through the Old

Testament, and several other books.2 Wright stressed that as one delves deeper into the Old

Testament, “the closer you come to the heart of Jesus.”3 This review will give a succinct

summary of Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament, followed by critical interaction with a

few of the salient theological perspectives presented in the book, and will conclude with some

personal observations.

Summary

Wright connected Matthew’s account of the genealogy of Christ with Old Testament

scriptures to set the stage for identifying Jesus as a real Jew, a real man, son of David, the end of

the time of preparation, and a new beginning. Wright asserted:

We see Jesus in the particularity of this context in Jewish history, and yet with the universal significance which was attached to that history since the promise to Abraham. We see him as the end and also the beginning. Only with such understanding of the meaning of the story so far, can we proceed to a full appreciation of the Gospel story itself.4

A concise Jewish history beginning with Abraham until the advent of Christ helps to

clarify the relation between Israel and Jesus. One of the major contentions of Wright is that

God’s promise of blessing all people through Abraham was fulfilled in Jesus. This theme of the

1 “Christopher J. H. Wright,” InterVarsity Press, November 22, 2013, accessed November 22, 2013,http://www.ivpress.com/cgi-ivpress/author.pl/author_id=343.2 Ibid.3 Christopher J.H. Wright, Knowing Jesus through the Old Testament (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 1995), ix.4 Ibid., 8.

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blessing of all people is continued through the entire text and made an impact on Wright’s

theological application, especially in regard to the missionary theology of Paul and the early

church, which was based on Jesus’ identity found in His understanding of the Hebrew

Scriptures.5 Wright spent a great deal of space dealing with how Jesus came to understand his

identity as God’s Son, which manifested itself in obedience to God.6

Another theological theme presented is the idea of promise instead of prediction. “A

prediction is a fairly flat affair. It comes true or it doesn’t… A promise is different. Because it

involves personal relationship and commitment.”7 Building upon the concept of promise, Wright

described in detail the following covenants: 1) the covenant with Noah, 2) the covenant with

Abraham, 3) the Sinai covenant, 4) the covenant with David, and ending with 5) the New

covenant.8 Through the servant songs, Jesus’ understanding of his mission was the same as

Israel’s mission in terms of Abraham’s covenant. He would bring God’s salvation to all nations.9

Wright defined typology as a way of viewing the relationship between the Old Testament

and Jesus. “The images, patterns, and models that the Old Testament provides for understanding

him are called types.”10 Typology is not simply a foreshadowing of things to come. Wright

pointed out that everything in the Old Testament should not be interpreted to have a hidden

significance that could be applied to Jesus.11 There are large portions of the Old Testament that

contain “enormous depths of truth and meaning for us to explore which are not directly related to

Jesus himself.”12

5 Ibid., 135.6 Ibid., 109.7 Ibid., 70.8 Ibid., 81-94.9 Ibid., 95.10 Ibid., 110.11 Ibid., 116.12 Ibid.

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Wright’s contention that promises can be fulfilled in various ways helped to solidify his

belief that not all of Old Testament is to be taken literally. When Jesus came on the scene, the

Jews were hoping for reestablishment of an earthly kingdom. However, this was not the intention

of God because God had a larger population that needed restoration. “The restoration of Israel

had already taken place (in the resurrection) and yet still lay ahead in its fullness.”13 Christ has to

be the Messiah of the Jews if He is the Messiah of the Gentiles for in Him was God’s promise

fulfilled to both the Jews and the Gentiles.14 Just as the Jews needed deliverance from the

spiritual oppression in Egypt, mankind needed the same type of deliverance when Jesus came.15

This is another important truth that Wright established.

Wright concluded the book with a discussion on how Christ formed his values and

priorities by studying the Hebrew Scriptures.16 Through the scriptures, Jesus learned He could

trust God. The trust of God is delivered in messages to his followers and is also shown in his

obedience.17 His teaching on the treatment of the poor alluded to the Wisdom tradition.18 Another

teaching was that persons mattered more than things and this included the letter of the law.19

Christ’s character and His ministry were based upon Old Testament teachings.20

Critical Interaction

One of the theological themes throughout the text that was stressed was that Christ

fulfilled a promise and not a prediction. Wright’s view allows the Old Testament promises to

13 Ibid., 171.14 Ibid., 176.15 Ibid., 29.16 Ibid., 182.17 Ibid., 184.18 Ibid., 199.19 Ibid., 212.20 Ibid., 251.

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have a transformable quality.21 Thielman asserted, “If Wright is correct about this, he provides

some basis for Holwerda’s approach… that the New Testament ‘universalizes’ the prophetic

promises of a geographically restored Israel and a gloriously restored temple.”22 Horton disagrees

with Wright’s replacement theology. He believes that Wright “goes too far in this and would

rather agree with Kaiser, who sees the promises having present and future applications to both

Israel and the Church.”23 Wright, however, does make a strong case about the way in which a

promise can be fulfilled. “But the fulfillment of the promise, with all these varied forms, through

what God actually did in Christ, is at a different level of reality. A different level, but still with

continuity of meaning and function in line with the original promise.”24

Another idea that Wright reiterated in the book is the following; “Above all, this is where

he found the shape of his own identity and the goal of his own mission.”25 Wright correlated the

baptismal declaration found in Matthew 3:17, “This is my Son, whom I love, the one in whom I

delight,” with three Old Testament texts: Psalm 2:7, Isaiah 42:1, and Genesis 22:22 to show how

Jesus would have understood his position as the Son of God.26 “Presumably God the Father knew

that his Son, by age thirty, was so steeped in his Hebrew scriptures that he would not only

recognize the texts but also understand all that they meant for his own self-identity.”27 Long

appears to agree with this line of thought, “He also describes how Jesus’ own sense of values of

21 Frank Thielman, “Jesus and Israel: One Covenant or Two?”, Christianity Today 40, no. 3 (March 4, 1996): 58, accessed November 22, 2013,http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/detail?sid=5beed84c-ed31-4262-b6bd-f9cea2f585be%40sessionmgr115&vid=2&hid=128&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=rfh&AN=ATLA0000313188.22 Ibid.

23 Stanley M. Horton, “Knowing Jesus through the Old Testament.”, Journal Of The Evangelical Theological Society 40, no. 2 (June 1, 1997): 287, accessed November 22, 2013, http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rfh&AN=ATLA0000340387&site=ehost-live&scope=site.24 Wright, 75.25 Ibid., ix.26 Ibid., 104-107.27 Ibid., 106.

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his mission were deeply rooted in his close study of his Bible, the Old Testament. To read this

book is to be led on a most wonderful and worthwhile journey by a guide adept at discovering

the best vantage points…”28

This could be viewed from a different theological perspective. As one reads the baptismal

accounts in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, it becomes evident that a crowd was present when Jesus

approached John. “When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized, too.”29 It could

be surmised from the New Testament that Jesus already knew both His identity and mission. At

the young age of twelve Jesus astounded the teachers in the temple courts with his astute

understanding of the scriptures. When his mother asked him why He had not traveled with the

company, Jesus replied in Luke 2:49, “Why were you searching for me? Didn’t you know that I

had to be in my Father’s house?” God did not have to presume that Jesus knew enough of the

scriptures by the time He was thirty to be able to assess his position as the Son of God. The Luke

2 passage would seem to suggest that He knew his position as a lad.

The question that should be asked was who needed affirmation that this was the Son of

God? Evidently the people needed to realize that this man, Jesus, was the one that John had been

preparing them to receive. Christ was cognizant of this fact and did not need to be assured of his

position. Yet, the people had no assurance. In describing the Jews, Christ’s feelings were

revealed in Matthew 9:36, “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they

were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” This verse clarifies the mindset and

the plight of the crowds following Christ. Therefore, the Matthew 3:17 passage was not for Jesus

to figure out his identity, but was a declaration of his identity to the crowd. Perhaps, God was

28 V. Philips Long, “Book Notices: Knowing Jesus through the Old Testament, by Christopher J.h. Wright”, Presbyterion 19, no. 1 (March 1, 1993): 61-62, accessed November 22, 2013, http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rfh&AN=ATLA0000644460&site=ehost-live&scope=site.29 Unless otherwise noted, scriptures will be taken from the NIV of the Bible.

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presuming an adequate amount of the crowd would be familiar enough with the Hebrew

Scriptures to understand that Jesus was, in fact, his Son.

Another area of concern with Wright’s thought process is that it seems to deny or bring to

question the deity of Jesus. John 1:14 asserted, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling

among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father,

full of grace and truth.” If Christ is the Word, it was not necessary for Him to realize his identity

and mission through the Old Testament scriptures. He was intimately acquainted with them. The

audible declaration was not to allow Jesus to begin to realize that He was God. He knew His

position in that He was with God at the beginning of creation. Nowhere in the scripture is there

an indication that Jesus developed amnesia when He was born. One should presume that Jesus

knew that He was God. In John 10:30, Christ asserted, “I and the Father are one.”

Conclusion

Wright’s book did an excellent job in connecting the Old Testament scriptures to the

person of Christ. He viewpoint of the need for Christ to realize the connections could be negated

through an analysis of other New Testament passages. Yes, these were the words and songs that

Christ said and sang, but He was the author of them from the beginning of time. If Wright had

used footnotes to show where he was getting some of these ideas, it might have convinced me

more of their validity. The book was enjoyable to read and challenged me to assess my

understanding of the need to connect Christ with the Old Testament canon. Wright’s

understanding of promise was enlightening and helped me to clarify some of my thoughts on

exactly who God’s chosen people are and their position in today’s world. Wright’s book was a

thoughtful and large undertaking and I would recommend it to any serious student of the Bible.

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Bibliography

“Christopher J. H. Wright.” InterVarsity Press. November 22, 2013. Accessed November 22, 2013.http://www.ivpress.com/cgi-ivpress/author.pl/author_id=343.

Horton, Stanley M. “Knowing Jesus through the Old Testament.” Journal Of The Evangelical Theological Society 40, no. 2 (June 1, 1997): 287. Accessed November 22, 2013.http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rfh&AN=ATLA0000340387&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Long, V. Philips “Book Notices: Knowing Jesus through the Old Testament, by Christopher J.h. Wright.”Presbyterion 19, no. 1 (March 1, 1993): 61-62. Accessed November 22,

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2013.http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rfh&AN=ATLA0000644460&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Thielman, Frank. “Jesus and Israel: One Covenant or Two?” Christianity Today 40, no. 3 (March 4, 1996): 58. Accessed November 22, 2013.http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/detail?sid=5beed84c-ed31-4262-b6bd-f9cea2f585be%40sessionmgr115&vid=2&hid=128&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=rfh&AN=ATLA0000313188.

Wright, Christopher J.H. Knowing Jesus through the Old Testament. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 1995.

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