This Week's Homily....

Lenten Homilies AD 2009 – The Scriptures

4th Sunday of Lent –
The Relationship between the Old and the New Testament

In the early-Church period there were heretical groups who would have nothing to do with the Old Testament and which claimed that Jesus was a different God to that of the Old Testament. Given some of the strange teachings that masquerade as theology today we can say that such views have nearly always been around, but we can also say that they are heretical and that they have no place within the deposit of Faith.

A minor example which goes to show how ignorant such people are is that there are those who claim that the New Testament Nativity events do not record any animals in the stable when Christ was born and therefore the figures of animals that Christians put in their crib scenes are simply sentimental nonsense – and if you don’t believe me then I can tell you that Sister Janet and I once worked with a very liberal priest who taught his parish such things. He also taught that the Church was far more interesting than the Bible which goes to show why he didn’t know the biblical reason for putting the ox and the donkey in the crib. The reason is in the very first chapter of the Book of Isaiah, verse 3 reads: “The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib.”

There is an ancient teaching which states: “The New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New.” The Lord Jesus said that he came to fulfil the law not to destroy it. The dramatic events of the Life of Christ and especially what happens to him during Holy Week and Easter are difficult to appreciate fully without reference to their Old Testament background.

There are four important points that we should note when considering the relationship between the Old and New Testaments:

a) Jesus uses many Old Testament references and quotations in his teaching
b) Jesus and the writers of the Gospels and Epistles allude to the Old Testament time and time again
c) There are Old Testament foreshadows of the life, death and resurrection of Christ
d) Old Testament Prophecies are fulfilled in the life of Christ

In the early-Church it was the last two that were used especially in the teachings of the early-Church Fathers. They were basically classed as:

1. The fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy
2. Typology

Now there are lots of examples of each of these and time does not allow me to list them all, but here are a few of each:

1. The Fulfilment of Prophecy

Here are a few examples of prophecies from the Old Testament that are explicitly used in the New Testament.

· Psalm 2:7 refers to God’s Son
· Isaiah 9:5 refers to the messiah being born of a woman and in 7:14 the Emmanuel is to be born of a virgin
· The early-Church Fathers saw several prophecies in Genesis that showed that the messiah would be descended from Abraham
· Micah 5:1 refers to the birth in Bethlehem
· Numbers 24:1 refers to his birth being heralded by a star and along with Isaiah and the Psalms shows that he would be given homage by the Gentiles
· There are the various references in the Gospels to John the Baptist being the herald that prepares the way for the messiah
· There are the Suffering Servant passages in Isaiah
· His betrayal and his silence; his being beaten and his humiliation, his being insulted and taunted; his being killed without his bones being broken and his burial in a strangers tomb are all to be found in the Psalms and Isaiah.

All these and more were used by the Gospel writers and the authors of the Epistles to show that Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies.

2. Typology:



Hans Holbein's painting Allegory of the Old and New Testament gives visual expression to this way of biblical interpretation. The pictures and text on the left come from the Hebrew Bible and represent the old (e.g., law given to Moses). This side is contrasted with the new found in the images on the left (e.g., grace, resurrection, etc.). The prophet Isaiah on the left side (with the text of Isa. 7:14 alluded to in the writing under his feet) points man to Christ on the right side and represents the way that the old finds fulfillment in Christ.

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  In this understanding Christ is revealed on the basis on figures, or types – what we might call historical people who foreshadow a person or event.
  
  So the New Testament writers see these events surrounding the life of Jesus foreshadowed in many of the Old Testament events. There are many of them, but here are a few:
  
  The Annunciation is seen as being foreshadowed in the story of Moses and the burning Bush as well as the announcements of the births of Isaac, of Samson and of Samuel.
  
  The Incarnation is seen as being foreshadowed in the story of Jacob’s ladder with the angels ascending descending and in the story of God’s presence in the Temple.
  
  The Nativity of Jesus is seen as being foreshadowed in the story of the flowering of Aaron’s road, in the birth of Eve and of Moses in the bulrushes.
  
  The Transfiguration is seen as being foreshadowed in the story of the angel appearing to Abraham, in Moses shining face, and in Nebuchadnezzar seeing the three young men in the blazing fiery furnace.
  
  Jesus cleansing of the Temple is foreshadowed by the cleansings by Ezra and Judas Maccabeus.
  The events surrounding the Passion, Death, Burial and Resurrection of the Lord are all linked to types in the Old Testament; e.g. the seamless garment worn by Christ is linked with Joseph’s many-coloured coat; the piercing of Christ’s side with Eve coming from Adam’s side and Moses bringing forth water from the rock; the Resurrection appearances are seen foreshadowed in Joseph revealing himself to his brothers and in the story of the Prodigal Son, who was forgiven by his Father, as were the disciples for their cowardice.
  
  Melchizedek is seen as a type of Christ, and his action of bringing bread and wine to Abraham, along with Elijah being fed by angels and the manna in the wilderness are seen as foreshadows of the Mass.
  

The Old Testament was the Bible that the earliest Christians looked to find out more about Jesus as the contents of the New Testament were not agreed until the 5th Century. The early-Church Fathers excelled at finding prophecies and foreshadows of Christ in the pages of the Old Testament, and I want to read an example of this to you from the writings of St Irenaeus (2nd Century):

That which had been done typically through his actions by the prophet, the apostle proves to have been done truly by Christ in the Church. Thus, too, did Moses also take to wife an Ethiopian woman, whom he thus made an Israelitish one, showing by anticipation that the wild olive tree is grafted into the cultivated olive, and made to partake of its fatness. For as He who was born Christ according to the flesh, had indeed to be sought after by the people in order to be slain, but was to be set free in Egypt, that is, among the Gentiles, to sanctify those who were there in a state of infancy, from whom also He perfected His Church in that place (for Egypt was Gentile from the beginning, as was Ethiopia also); for this reason, by means of the marriage of Moses, was shown forth the marriage of the Word; and by means of the Ethiopian bride, the Church taken from among the Gentiles was made manifest; and those who do detract from, accuse, and deride it, shall not be pure.

We dismiss the Old Testament at our peril, because it informs our understanding of the New Testament which, as we will see next week in the final instalment of this series of Homilies, records God’s fullest and complete revelation of himself in the person of his Son: our Lord Jesus Christ.