Book Review: Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament
Introduction
Christopher Wright’s book, Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament, transports readers through the Old Testament on a journey to find the heart and mind of Jesus. Wright is a prolific writer with a Ph.D. from Cambridge and currently the director of international ministries for Lanham Partnership International.[1] Wright recognizes that for the last two thousand years, an ongoing debate ensued regarding the relationship between the Old Testament and a proper understanding of Jesus. However, no scholarly consensus exists as to the exact nature of the Old Testament’s relevance to Christ. Until an understanding of the connection crystalizes, the message of Christ is in peril. Wright’s book provides a succinct and accessible answer to the relationship between Christ and the Old Testament that is both enlightening and edifying. The following analysis provides a brief summary and critical interaction with Wright’s work.
Brief Summary
Wright makes the thesis and purpose of Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament very clear. Wright explains that the entire book contends that a proper understanding of Jesus occurs only when students “clearly face up to the distinctive claims of the Hebrew scriptures.”[2] Moreover, Wright compliments his thesis by stating, the whole purpose is “to see how much Jesus was shaped in his identity, mission, and teaching by his Hebrew scriptures.”[3] With these two foci in mind, the author commences with Matthew’s genealogy.
According to Wright, Matthew wants the reader to view and understand Jesus through hundreds of years of Old Testament salvation history. As the author briefly reflects on the experiences beginning with Abraham and commencing to the reign of the Roman Empire, it becomes clear that Matthew’s genealogy requires an exploration of Christ’s redemption in opposing directions. In other words, reflecting on the Old Testament adds meaning to Christ, and simultaneously, reflecting on Christ adds meaning to the Old Testament. It is here that Wright first introduces his view of Israel, which rejects both the Two-Covenant Theory and strict supersessionism. Instead, Wright asserts Israel’s history was a particular vehicle for God’s universal blessing to all nations, just as through a particular Man, “God opened the way to the universalizing of his redemptive grace to all nations.”[4]
The connection point between Israel and Jesus is through God’s covenant promises. Although Wright believes in the fulfillment of the original promises, he contends that God’s covenant promises, as originally understood, evolve and adopt additional levels of meaning and fulfillment, “but still with continuity of meaning and function in line with the original promise.”[5] Ultimately, according to Wright, the fulfillments of God’s promises culminate in Christ as evidenced through the influence of the Old Testament on Jesus’s identity, mission, and values.
After a brief excursus into the value and limitations of typology, Wright explores the identity of Jesus as the Son of God stating, “It was the Old Testament which helped Jesus to understand Jesus.”[6] Accordingly, as the embodiment of Israel, Jesus’s obedience proved that Israel could finally fulfill God’s universal goal of blessing all nations through His redemptive work. Wright then addresses the mission of Christ’s redemptive work by using the Old Testament references to the Son of Man and Suffering Servant, which again, the author identifies originally with Israel, then extends to all nations, and finally, applies to modern Christians. Wright finishes his work by connecting Jesus’s ethical teaching to the Old Testament by highlighting the relational aspect of the law, presenting a number of motivations for obedience, and summarizing Christ’s values as follows: (1) “God comes first,” (2) “persons matter more than things,” and (3) “needs matter more than rights.”[7]
Critical Interaction
Wright’s thesis is that a proper understanding of Christ exists only in light of Old Testament scriptures, for “the deeper you go into understanding the Old Testament, the closer you come to the heart of Jesus.”[8] Wright’s ultimate goal is to prove his thesis, which he accomplishes in three significant ways. First, the author describes the genealogy of Christ and Christ’s relationship to the Old Testament through the lens of Matthew’s Gospel. Matthew’s genealogy provides an important continuity between the Old Testament and Christ by focusing attention on the story of redemption for all nations commencing with Israel and finding its completion in Christ. However, Wright notes that Matthew’s references to five prophetic childhood scenes of Christ actually move beyond a story that Jesus completes and “also declares the promise that Jesus fulfills.”[9] Accordingly, Wright’s second argument features the importance of God’s covenantal promises in the Old Testament and their relationship to Christ. Specifically, Wright explains that God’s covenants had dual levels of fulfillment. Initially, Israel had to understand God’s covenant promises in light of their current reality, but the ultimate fulfillment of the promises occurred in Christ “at a different level of reality”[10] Finally, the author shows that placing Jesus within Israel’s story and God’s covenantal promises provide a deeper understanding of Christ’s identity, mission, and values. By utilizing the story of Israel that Jesus completes, the covenants of God that Jesus fulfills, and the identity, mission, and values of God that Jesus embodies, Wright effectively proves that a strong knowledge of the Old Testament scriptures is essential to a proper understanding of Christ.
Three important theological issues exist that accentuate Wright’s biblical perspectives, which include his views regarding atonement, Christology, and grace. First, Wright rejects the Two Covenant Theory, which claims that the new covenant of Christ applies exclusively to Gentiles, for three reasons: (1) it neglects the fact that Jesus’s identity originated from Israel for Israel; (2) it fails to acknowledge the connection between Jesus’s mission to Israel and the redemption of Gentiles; and (3) it undermines the New Testament concept that God created one new humanity (see Eph. 2:15-16).[11] Wright provides a strong argument against the Two Covenant Theory. However, Wright’s weakness is that he does not clearly define his views in light of alternative perspectives. Certainly, reflections of supersessionism exist and a literal eschatological fulfillment in the nation of Israel is absent, but in light of the author’s desire to write a book to non-experts without footnotes, it seems imprudent to ignore a direct response to the specific alternative views in light of his own views.
Second, Wright’s view of Christology encompasses an identification with Israel that reflects a lower form of Christology without appearing to usurp the deity of Christ. First, Wright states that “the Messiah ‘was’ Israel.”[12] However, Wright does not mean a completely integrated identification. Instead, Christ is both “distinct from Israel,” and simultaneously a personified representative “identified with Israel” to accomplish Israel’s original mission.[13] Next, Wright highlights Christ’s humanity by stating, “In wrestling with the future direction of his own calling, Jesus accepts that the values, priorities, and convictions of his own life must be shaped by the words of Moses to Israel.”[14] Both the “wrestling” and the “shaping” referred to by Wright may cause readers to interpret Wright as undermining Christ’s divinity. However, to suggest that Christ did not wrestle with issues and that surrounding influences did not shape Jesus’s responses would, just as likely, undermine Christ’s humanity. Again, the risk Wright faces is a potential lack of clarity when he faces theological issues addressed to a lay audience.
Finally, Wright’s view of the law negates any possibility that its intent was ever to achieve salvation by stating, “Obedience flows from grace; it does not buy it.”[15] In other words, God provided the law within a relational environment of grace that benefits Israel. However, Wright runs into challenges when explaining that the motivations for obedience are thanking God for what He has done, imitating God, being different, and making humanity happy.[16] John Piper highlights the risk of obedience motivated by gratitude in what he terms a “debtor’s ethic,” which has a tendency to create “subtle forms of religious self-reliance.”[17] Next, Wright correctly asserts that obedience does move toward an imitation of God, sets individuals apart, and benefits them, but if these are the motivations for obedience, grace may risk falling into a morass of human effort and selfish personal fulfillment. In other words, if the motivation for obedience is not solely and directly empowered by grace and grace alone, humanity risks, as Karl Barth states, the illusion of setting “ourselves by the side of God, with the intention of doing something for Him.”[18] Accordingly, although Wright’s arguments for grace are strong, he may undermine his own work by not addressing the risks of his related assertions of motivation adequately.
A number of published reviews of Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament exist. First, Stanley Horton quickly summarizes Wright’s content and then acknowledges that the author sympathizes with liberal higher critics, reflects a replacement theology, and supports a figurative rather than literal fulfillment of Israel; the latter Horton believes Wright overestimates. [19] Next, V. Philips Long supports Wright’s organization of the text, integration of Jesus into the Old Testament narrative, and circumvention of Messianic proof-texts while, simultaneously, extending a high recommendation. [20] William Dyrness supports Wright’s continuity between Israel and Christ, emphasis of promise over prediction, and importance of mission to both Israel and the Gentiles. [21] Fourth, William Sailer’s review highlights Matthew’s genealogy, Jesus’s identity in relation to Israel and beyond, as well as the book’s opposition to the Two Covenant Theory and a literal restoration of Israel, while acknowledging that Wright proves his thesis. [22] Finally, Frank Thielman briefly summarizes Wright’s work noting that the author avoids a literal fulfillment of prophecy, and instead, recognizes the Old Testament has a “transformable quality” allowing for fulfillments in new ways.[23] Thielman then analyzes Wright’s work within the context of two other important books written on similar subjects.
The two other books are Jesus and Israel: One Covenant or Two? by David Holwerda and The Messiah in the Old Testament by Walter Kaiser. Similar to Wright, Holwerda contends that Jesus, as Israel, finished the mission Israel failed to complete and that a literal fulfillment of each Old Testament prophecy is not necessary – the fulfillment may occur in ways “different from those in which they were originally understood.”[24] However, in opposition to Wright, Holwerda asserts that unbelieving Jews somehow live within God’s salvific sphere.[25] Furthermore, in complete contrast to Wright, Kaiser’s literal approach identifies and analyzes each potentially Messianic Old Testament passage assuming the original readers could have understood each passage as Messianic.[26] Wright would likely consider Kaiser’s work an exercise in proof-texting. However, Thielman concludes all three works are an important contribution to Old Testament study.[27]
Wright’s book provides a number of opportunities for Bible study, ministry enhancement, and life-application. First, regarding Bible study, within both Old and New Testaments, the participant may attempt to place the study within the context of the Old Testament narrative by identifying the relevance and continuation of the story. Moreover, each Bible study may also include an analysis of how God’s covenant promises remain intact. Second, regarding ministry enhancement, Wright importantly states, “It is one of the great tragedies of history that the Christian church has so often fallen back into the triumphalistic and domination patterns of the world and then baptized them and called them ‘mission’. We have imagined that the best way to save the world was to run the world.”[28] Accordingly, an application of Wright’s work missionary efforts might include a focus on listening rather than dominating conversation, caring rather than controlling behavior, and serving rather than forcing conversion. Third, regarding life-application, Wright highlights the importance of the direction of grace by stating, “Obedience flows from grace.”[29] Wright’s observation suggests a chronological connection is necessary between grace and obedience, otherwise obedience risks perpetuating a religion of arrogance and disobedience risks perpetuating a cycle of shame. In other words, Christians must examine whether their thoughts, emotions, and actions inappropriately result from human efforts of sin management (grace from obedience) or appropriately result from the empowerment of grace through the working of the Holy Spirit based on an identity forged in Christ (obedience from grace).
Conclusion
By utilizing Matthew’s Gospel and examining God’s covenants, Wright masterfully proves his thesis that an understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures is necessary to comprehend the meaning of Christ. Additionally, by connecting Christ’s identity, mission, and values to the Old Testament, Wright also accomplishes his purpose of displaying how the Old Testament shaped Christ. Moreover, although minor differences as noted above do exist, none of Wright’s theological perspectives significantly clash with my personal preconceptions. However, the book caused me to think more deeply about the interconnected relationship between Christ and the Old Testament regarding Israel and the covenant promises, as well as the impact the Old Testament may have had on Christ himself. Wright left me with the desire to further my knowledge regarding the intricacies of the Two Covenant Theory and replacement theology as they pertain to Christ and Israel. Without question, Wright’s book is an invaluable resource for students looking for an edifying and accessible answer to the relationship between Christ and the Old Testament.
Bibliography
Barth, Karl. The Epistle to the Romans. Translated by Edwyn C. Hoskyns. 6th ed. Oxford: Oxford University, 1968.
Dyrness, William A. “Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament.” Ashland Theological Journal 28 (January 1996): 149–50.
Holwerda, David E. Jesus and Israel: One Covenant or Two? Grand Rapids: W. B. Eerdmans, 1995.
Horton, Stanley M. “Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament.” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 40, no. 2 (June 1997): 287.
Kaiser, Walter C. The Messiah in the Old Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995.
Long, V. Philips. “Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament.” Prebyterion 19, no. 1 (March 1993): 61–62.
Piper, John. Future Grace. Colorado Springs: Multnomah, 1995.
Sailer, William S. “Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament.” Evangelical Journal 13 (September 1995): 89–90.
Thielman, Frank. “Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament.” Christianity Today 40, no. 3 (March 1996): 58.
Wright, Christopher J. H. Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 1992.
[1] Christopher J. H. Wright, Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 1992), 1.
[2] Ibid., 35.
[3] Ibid., 242.
[4] Ibid., 44.
[5] Ibid., 75.
[6] Ibid., 108.
[7] Ibid., 210–13.
[8] Ibid., ix.
[9] Ibid., 56.
[10] Ibid., 75.
[11] Ibid., 176–77.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Ibid., 162.
[14] Ibid., 186–87.
[15] Ibid., 193.
[16] Ibid., 195–209.
[17] John Piper, Future Grace (Colorado Springs: Multnomah, 1995), 47.
[18] Barth, The Epistle to the Romans, 84.
[19] Stanley M. Horton, “Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 40, no. 2 (June 1997): 287.
[20] V. Philips Long, “Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament,” Prebyterion 19, no. 1 (March 1993): 61–62.
[21] William A. Dyrness, “Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament,” Ashland Theological Journal 28 (January 1996): 149.
[22] William S. Sailer, “Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament,” Evangelical Journal 13 (September 1995): 89–90.
[23] Frank Thielman, “Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament,” Christianity Today 40, no. 3 (March 1996): 58.
[24] Ibid.
[25] Ibid., 58.
[26] Ibid.
[27] Ibid., 58.
[28] Wright, Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament, 178.
[29] Ibid., 193.