Reading Jesus's Bible: How the New Testament Helps Us Understand the Old Testament

by John E. Goldingay

For Jesus and his contemporaries, what we now know as the Old Testament was simply the Scriptures—and it was the fundamental basis of how people understood their relationship with God. In this book John Goldingay uncovers five major ways in which the New Testament uses the Old Testament. His discussion paves the way for contemporary readers to understand and appreciate the Old Testament more fully.

Along with an overview of how Jesus and the first Christian writers read the Old Testament, illustrated with passages from Matthew, Romans, 1 Corinthians, and Hebrews, Goldingay offers a straightforward introduction to the Old Testament in its own right.  Reading Jesus's Bible  will shed fresh Old Testament light on Jesus, God, and the church for readers today.

Genres: Theology, Nonfiction, Christianity, Old Testament, New Testament

270 pages, Paperback

Published April 20, 2017

About the author

John Goldingay is David Allan Hubbard Professor of Old Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. An internationally respected Old Testament scholar, Goldingay is the author of many commentaries and books.

Reviews

[Derek Winterburn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book comes as a follow on to Goldingay's previous "Do we need the New Testament?" In the first book he demonstrated that much held dear in the New Testament might be found in the Old (or First.) In this book the argument flows in the other direction 'what do the New Testament writers take (and assume) into their own thinking?'

Working from the early chapters of Matthew, five connections are expounded
1. The First Testament tells the story of which Jesus is the climax
2. The First Testament declares the promise of which Jesus is the fulfilment
3. The First Testament provides the images, ideas and words with which to understand Jesus
4. The First Testament lays out the nature of the relationship with God that Jesus models.
5. The First Testament provides the foundation for Jesus's moral teaching

The structure works well in distinguishing ideas. However the tenor of big chunks of the book is list-like: as if having written a chapter summary as a bulletted list, the chapter then was finished by writing notes under the headings. Two things might have helped, first a more obvious hierarchy of points in the long chapters and second, summaries at the end of each chapter.

There is huge amount of knowledge in this book, (exhaustive and exhausting) perhaps there is a simpler one to emerge?

I rejoice that the author, while being very aware of how the currents of modern thinking (inside and outside the church) look at the First Testament with reservation is prepared to let it critique the ideas we take for granted.