One Bible
I’ve spent a lot of time recently thinking about the New Testament’s reliance upon the Old Testament. The more I read, and the more I reflect, the more I conclude that without the Old Testament we simply would not have the New Testament. This may sound like an obvious statement and yet I am aware that within biblical scholarship (and the secular pretenders that surround it) nothing can be assumed. I am astonished that anyone would even attempt to make the argument that we as Christians do not need or benefit from the OT and yet I know it does happen. It is my contention that not only do we need the OT for the very growth of our souls, we also need it if we are going to have any hope of understanding what the NT is all about.
I am astonished how often the New Testament writers say that something happened “according to the Bible.” I will admit that for example when John mentions the Bible in 20:9 I am tempted to say, “Oh I know what Bible he is referring to, he’s talking about what he wrote a few verses earlier.” I have to stop and remind myself that no, this was not his Bible. He was referring to what we call the OT! And for him (as for us) that Bible speaks to the death and resurrection of Jesus. Isn’t it amazing that when Jesus talks to Cleopas and his wife (ok that’s just my guess) in Luke 24 that he considers them foolish for not understanding (according to the OT!) that he was to suffer, die, and rise from the dead! Or again in John 3 (we miss a lot if we skip to V. 16, don’t we) Jesus is upset with Nicodemus, a teacher of Israel, for not understanding spiritual truths. How would he understand, we might ask. Well, apparently Jesus assumed he would be using the OT.
And so not only am I convinced that the OT is necessary for us because it is unified in thought and content to the NT, I am also convinced that the OT is itself a unified whole. Or at least it is a unified unit of the Bible that makes up the whole council of God’s word. And furthermore I am convinced that the NT writers viewed the OT in this way. There is any number of examples I could give to prove this point but I will select just one from Mark 1.
All 4 of the Gospels begin by either quoting or referring to the OT. (Perhaps this is a little stretch for Luke but good luck understanding what Zechariah is doing if you don’t have the OT). For Mark, he begins with a quote: “See I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’” (Mark 1:2-3). Mark attributes this to “the prophet Isaiah,” but good luck finding it in the 66 chapters we refer to as “Isaiah.” Leaving aside Mark’s creativity with punctuation, what we find is that half of this quote is from Isaiah (sort of) but the other half is from Malachi! How could Mark, a Spirit-inspired writer of Holy Scripture make such a colossal blunder? I would be embarrassed to make such an error in a sermon; I would be chastised for making such a blunder in a paper or article (or blog!) and rightly so! How could Mark have made this mistake and how come no one has fixed it in 2000 years! Shouldn’t Mark 1:2 say, “According to the prophets Malachi and Isaiah”? Well I don’t think we have to be so concerned! Because again I believe that for Mark, the OT was a unit. Isaiah was unified to the Twelve (including Malachi) and the Twelve were unified to Isaiah. So when Mark says, according to Isaiah, I don’t think he is limiting his thoughts to the one specific scroll that includes Isaiah and Isaiah only. Rather what he is saying is, “According to the Bible – which obviously Isaiah is a part of and yes Malachi too. I don’t need to spell this all out because we all (1st Century believers) take that for granted.” For Mark – and thus for us – the Bible is one. One story, written by one God, to lead us to the only true salvation. And so brothers and sisters, let us immerse ourselves in the Bible. Not just Philippians, and John (I know they’re good!) but Leviticus and Daniel; Job and Chronicles. This is the Bible, this is our Bible, and it is food for our hungry souls.