We speak of the "New Testament", or, more precisely, the "Holy Scriptures of the New Testament". The word "testament" here represents an expression of frequent occurrence in the Hebrew of the. From what has been said, it is clear that the New Testament Scriptures grew within the life of the Church.
It is as "The Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament" (covenant) that we receive the thirty-nine books that make up the first part of the Canon. That is the main theme of the Old Testament, in stories, poetry and prophecy. We of today are not the first to encounter difficulties in the Old Testament, for they are obvious.
In the second century, at the time when the Canon of the New Testament began to form, there was a.
The Approach to the Bible
It was believed that the Old Testament as a whole should be interpreted in the light of the new teachings of Christianity. There is therefore a good basis for using the allegorical method in interpreting the. Be that as it may, it came from the Bible itself and was not imposed on it.
The restoration of the Bible to the laity was an important plank in the Reformers' platform. But in making the Bible available to the uninstructed, they took a fateful step. Looking back, we can see that this presupposition has often distorted the work of critics.
It is only by understanding this fact that we arrive at a satisfactory answer to the problem presented by the grossness and imperfections of certain parts of the Bible.
The Old Testament
Dodd is recognized as one of the great New Testament scholars of the twentieth century. But the books of the Old Testament, as we know them, were compiled in the period beginning with the great prophets Amos, Hosea, Micah and Isaiah. But the books in which they came down to us were deeply marked by the influence of the prophets.
There is a vivid description of the negotiations in the Second Book of Kings and in the Book of Isaiah. On the “Day of the Lord,” the God of Israel would assert His authority over all nations. At this point, all seemed well, but the Prophet was well aware of the threatening international situation.
It is the judgment of the just and living God, who is the Lord of history. Unlike him, he was a native of the more civilized northern kingdom where they both worked. Ezekiel had taken Jeremiah's teaching about the essential role of the individual in the heart to himself.
The Testament, in its complete form, was drawn up in the prophetic period or later, and bears the seal of the prophets upon them. Of the events of the Exodus, we have no written account that is anything like the contemporary one. The stories of the Exodus and the conquest of Palestine presuppose a more distant background of events.
Similarly, the works of the prophets were collected, arranged and edited for the use of later generations. 'The Son of Man', it is explained, stands for 'the people of the saints of the Most High'.
The New Testament
- Fulfillment
- The Story
- The Consequences
- The Appeal
The New Testament writers take these ideal attributes and apply them to the Church. The Church is an heir of the Kingdom of God, only because it is "in Christ," who is the true Son and Heir of the eternal Father. This is actually a large part of the meaning of the title "Christ" or "Messiah" as used in the New Testament.
The Old Testament tells episodes in the history of the people of Israel, interpreted and directed by prophetic men. The books of the New Testament were written in response to the changing needs of a fast-moving situation. The Proclamation begins with an announcement that the long-awaited climax of the history of God's people has arrived.
The result of the events narrated was the emergence of the Church itself as the new 'Israel of God'. This is often stated in the actual form of the precepts given in both the Gospels and the Epistles. Since Christ's work can be comprehensively described as an expression of the divine.
In the letter to the Romans, Paul devoted eight chapters to a detailed account of the. The Kingdom of God is thus no longer a visionary ideal, or a distant goal of the historical. The New Testament writers hint at the paradox by referring us to a famous prophecy of the "Second Isaiah."
This prophetic image of suffering that heals became a reality in the suffering of Jesus. The whole weight of evil present in the situation fell upon Him.
History as Revelation
Second, the personal experience of the prophets is also organically linked to the course of history in which they played a part. When Ezekiel says, "The hand of the Lord God fell upon me," Paul says, "I was arrested by Christ Jesus." Paul speaks more simply but no less impressively of "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."
The Word of God comes, characteristically, as an interpretation of the situation, with an obligation to act. This is as true of the Church in the New Testament as it is of Israel in the Old Testament. We can approach the question again from the standpoint of the prophetic interpretation of history.
Through the obedience of the One, says Paul, 'many shall be made righteous'; (Romans 5:19) while the Author of Hebrews puts into the mouth of Christ the words of an ancient Psalm: (Hebrews 10:5-10). In the volume of the book it is written about me - To do your will, O Lord. Finally it is realized in the unity of the one Personality; and henceforth this becomes the center around which the whole movement of history turns.
The Last Judgment and the end of the world, if they are not strictly myths, have a similar symbolic character. The story of the building of Babel is the last of the myths about the 'first things'. They universalize the idea of God's word, which is both judgment and renewal.
Then in the story of the fall a word of renewal will balance the word of judgment. When God walked in the garden in the cool of the day, Adam and his wife hid themselves.
Bible and the Historical Problem of Our Time
But for devout Marxists this interpretation of the past is not merely academic theory. Thus, we refer to the Bible (among other literature) to provide a clue to the historical problem of the rise of civilization. His philosophy, unlike that of Spengler and others who have written about the 'decline of the West', is not deterministic.
Their interest in the more distant future is limited to the one certainty of the ultimate triumph of God's purpose. Fisher's 'one sure rule for the historian: that in the development of human destinies he must recognize the play of the contingent and the unforeseen'. This is because the Bible regards man as morally responsible within the framework of divine purpose.
Even clearer is the way of divine judgment in the story of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, which is the theme of the Gospels. It is told, alternatively, as an episode in the emergence of the "proletariat" of ancient society and its clash with the ruling class. It is conveyed, not primarily in words, but by the part that individuals take in the action of the drama.
It is more like 'an inexhaustible capacity for new growth, embedded in the plastic foundations of the universe'. Examining the immanent possibilities of the situation, we must admit that the outlook is not promising. To take a specific example, consider the significance of the gospel's precepts of forgiveness for the historical problem of our time.
Here, then, lies the basis of the "transfiguration" of the situation that the current crisis calls for. In the Netherlands, the Church staunchly opposed orders from the usurping government that violated the Law of God.
History and the Individual
So there should be no division between the "historical" and the "devotional" study of the Bible. Jeremiah's successor, Ezekiel, as we saw, emphasizes the moral responsibility of the individual almost to the point of exaggeration. In the characteristic literature of the period after the return from exile, the individual note is well marked, if not predominant.
In a sense this later literature, after the extinction of the kingdom of Judah. There is no doubt about the pervasive individualism of the Hellenistic world of the New Testament. Throughout the Bible, the individual is considered in the context of the community, although the emphasis shifts to some extent.
On the other hand, the role of the individual is more significant in the earlier literature than has sometimes been acknowledged. that men may declare the name of the Lord in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem. Again, Psalm 106 is a poetic overview of Israel's history from the Exodus to the Babylonian.
We can borrow his image, and say that the Bible depicts God's ways with man in the 'big letters' of the history of a community. This Catholic Church is, as we have seen, the final historical form of the people of God. This is represented in the services of the Church by the regular reading of passages from the Old and New Testaments.
In hymns, prayers and sermons, the living voice of the Church answers and adds her voice. In baptism, the individual is, as it were, given freedom from the city of God. included in the historical community of God's people.
