Does the New Testament disregard the Old Testament?
Upvote:3
The very first book of the New Testament begins with:
The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Without the Hebrew scriptures, this verse would make no sense at all.
Most Christians know that Jesus was the son of God, and the adopted son of Joseph, so who is this "David" person?
And in looking up who David was, one will find that David was actually the son of Jesse, so who is this "Abraham" person?
And what does "son of" mean if it doesn't really mean "son of"? One can't properly understand even this first verse of the Greek scriptures without knowledge of Hebrew idioms.
And why were David and Abraham explicitly singled out? What is so special about them?
(The Bible has been described as the story of one man's family, that man being Abraham (or perhaps of his grandson Jacob). David was one of Abraham's descendants, and was the first King in a dynasty that was prophesied to end with the Messiah.)
If one doesn't know and understand the history contained in the Hebrew scriptures, most of what is presented in the Greek scriptures will either not make sense or be misunderstood.
Not only are the two sections of the Bible linked (the first contains prophecies of events in the second, and the second contains references to events in the first), neither one can be fully understood without the other.
Upvote:4
The clear answer is NO, since the New Testament relies on the Old Testament to show God's progressive revelation of Himself culminating in Jesus Christ. Christianity teaches that Jesus is God incarnate. Who is this God? It's the God of Israel described in the Old Testament. The same God, who delivered Israel from the slavery of Egypt around 15th to 12th century BC (The Exodus story), delivered the whole world from the slavery of sin and from the consequences of the Fall of Adam (explained in the New Testament) in the 1st century AD.
The New Testament also shows more clearly the character of the God of Israel as being faithful in his unconditional covenant with the people of Israel, and full of mercy and unfailing love. The New Testament is the continuing saga of this love story, with the God of Israel himself coming into the world by being incarnated in Jesus Christ so we can literally see God with our own eyes (John 1:1-18), and more importantly, see this love exhibited in the flesh that was crucified on the cross for us.
If the New Testament were to stand alone without the Old Testament, it wouldn't make much sense on its own. Or worse, it could be used to justify heresies such as Gnosticism, Marcionism, etc. Christians need both the Old and the New Testament books, and they were bound together since the earliest time in a single canon. That's why in all printed Bibles the two sections are labelled with the names "Old" and "New" to signify the relationship: God's previous covenant mediated through Moses with the people of Israel (recorded in the Old Testament) was "replaced"/"added" with a better one through Jesus so that the Gentiles can be included in the New Covenant (as recorded in the New Testament).
NOTE on "replaced/"added": the exact status of the Mosaic covenant for the Jews is not 100% clear but that the Gentiles are included in the New Covenant is certain (cf. Rom 11) as the New Covenant (which was promised in the OT, cf. Jer 31:31-34) is not only for the Jews but for the Gentiles as well. It was also very clear that Israel was planned to be "the light unto the nations" (cf. Isa 42:6, Isa 49:6, Isa 60:3), and therefore by the end of the OT (the book of Daniel was written in the 2nd century BC), the faithful remnant of Israel was waiting for God's "next move" to fulfill the role of Israel vis a vis the rest of the world ("the nations" = "rest of the world"). This "next move" is the New Covenant.
About the OT teachings, the relevance of some OT teachings for the New Covenant people of God is still a matter of debate, although the Ten Commandments and the Great Commandment, both revealed in the OT, are still binding for Christians today. For more details on the debate, I refer you to books such as the 2010 book Five Views on Law and Gospel.
More post
- 📝 Is there Catholic exegesis on Mark 8:22-26 that explains why people looked like trees?
- 📝 How did literature contemporaneous to the New Testament understand the "Second Death"?
- 📝 Is this statuette supposed to be St. Nicholas of Myra, or Father Christmas, or somebody else?
- 📝 Which is the book in the Protestant Bible containing most quotes of verses from other Bible books?
- 📝 What does Hebrews 10:26 mean?
- 📝 Did Jeremiah lie in Jeremiah 38:27
- 📝 Is the genealogy in Matthew a complete Genealogy, or did he abreviate it for a specific reason?
- 📝 Have there been any attempt in Christianity to draw a set of rules or principles on how the Bible must be interpreted?
- 📝 Do Christian proponents of Intelligent Design hold it to be a scientific position, and if not, do they see this lack of scientific rigor as an issue?
- 📝 How do Trinitarians explain that Jesus himself claims He is a man who has heard things from God at John 8:40?
- 📝 Does Jesus's soul exist before his incarnation?
- 📝 What is the meaning of the strange fire in Leviticus 10:1?
- 📝 How do Trinitarians explain verses where Jesus claims to have a God?
- 📝 Do the Eastern Orthodox think the state of virginity is more meritorious than marriage?
- 📝 How does the Westminster Confession address the paradox of the Bible canon?
- 📝 2 John 1:9 — What does it mean to "continue in doctrine?" (Protestantism)
- 📝 Did Pope Francis overstep any official Catholic boundary when he criticized Trump?
- 📝 What is an overview of the main interpretations of "day" in Genesis 1?
- 📝 What is the basis for the claim that Ezekiel 44 is about Mary the Mother of Jesus?
- 📝 According to Trinitarian theology of Calvinism, was the Word (2nd person of the Trinity) missing from heaven when He (the Word) incarnated on Earth?
- 📝 What do the Eastern Orthodox say about the 4 Marks from the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed?
- 📝 What is the biblical basis for the Eastern Orthodox concept of Aerial toll houses?
- 📝 Why do adherents to the priesthood of all believers still have organized congregations?
- 📝 How do Southern Baptists who believe in the immortality of the soul explain what death means in scripture
- 📝 What were the ages of the Apostles Peter and John when Jesus was crucified?
- 📝 What was Samuel Rutherford's view on the role of pastors in wedding ceremonies?
- 📝 How would Biblical Unitarians answer the questions of Proverbs 30?
- 📝 Where did the Young Earth Creationist doctrine originate?
- 📝 What is the biblical basis against Sola Fide (salvation by faith alone, apart from works)?
- 📝 Why not directly confess our sins to God?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Does the New Testament disregard the Old Testament?
- 📝 Does the New Testament override the Old Testament?
- 📝 How many times does the New Testament quote the Old Testament?
- 📝 Does the New Testament mention Christians worshipping the Holy Spirit?
- 📝 Was casting out of demons done in the Old Testament by any Prophets or was it started in the New Testament?
- 📝 Does the Old Testament law prohibit marriage among step siblings?
- 📝 Does the Christian Old Testament have the exact same list of books as the Jewish Bible?
- 📝 Why does the Old Testament never mention unclean spirits and demon-posessed people?
- 📝 How does the New Testament define a Christian and a non-Christian, a brother in Christ and not a brother in Christ?
- 📝 Does the Old Testament foretell the time in history in which the Messiah would come (the first time)?
- 📝 Where does the Old Testament mention "the devil"?
- 📝 What in New Testament invalidates God’s commandments from the Old Testament?
- 📝 Does New Testament accounting language have any Old Testament backing?
- 📝 Why is the Bible divided into Old Testament and New Testament?
- 📝 When did the insertion of title-page for Old Testament and New Testament started?
- 📝 Can a person prove that Jesus Christ is in the Old Testament without going to the New Testament?
- 📝 Greek or any other language New Testament edition or document(s) predating the Old Latin (Vetus Latina) translation?
- 📝 How does the Catholic church deal with the differences between the God described in the old and new Testaments?
- 📝 Does the New Testament have any mention of Kolob and if not, how come?
- 📝 The New Testament teaches that Christ was baptized to “fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:14–15)--what does this mean?
- 📝 Does the Old Testament anywhere imply that the Law of Moses may be abrogated?
- 📝 Old Testament verses other than Genesis 3:15 speak of the "seed" of a woman. How, then, does it indicate a virgin birth?
- 📝 What specific thing in the Bible separates the Old Testament from the New Testament?
- 📝 What purpose does the Old Testament have today?
- 📝 Which monk states that the Old Testament is about the Father and the New Testament about the Holy Ghost
- 📝 Do Pentecostals include the Old Testament in their Bible? Or do they only follow the New Testament?
- 📝 What does the quote from the Old Testament in Luke 2: 23 refer to?
- 📝 Does a legal compilation of all laws included in the New Testament exist?
- 📝 What New Testament events after Pentecost have been claimed to have typological precursors in the Old Testament?
- 📝 What is an overview of the differences between Old Testament and New Testament?