When I first became a Christian, I was not familiar with the Bible because I had not read very much of it. I attended a church service in Baton Rouge and felt the calling of Christ to go forward and accept Him as my personal Lord and Savior. At that point I believed He was my God and was excited to begin my newfound journey to discover more about Him.
As I began to read the Bible, I had the inclination to begin at Genesis and read straight through to Revelation. However, a friend suggested I begin in the New Testament, specifically with the Gospels, because they would explain the role of Jesus in a believer’s life. They were right. The Gospels explained Jesus’ ministry from birth to His crucifixion and resurrection very clearly. They also exposed the fact that I was a sinner in need of a Savior and that Jesus paid the ultimate price to redeem me to a loving and passionate God. However, reading the Bible this way made me view the Old Testament as basically non-essential or irrelevant to my walk with Christ. It was this stigma that prohibited me from learning more about the divine revelation of Jesus that starts in the book of Genesis.
It took me a while to conquer my resistance to reading the Old Testament. I must admit the endless and seemingly meaningless genealogies, the myriad of animal sacrifices and celebratory feasts, coupled with the horrific evils it presents did not motivate me to read it. To be completely honest, I wasn’t an Old Testament fan until I attended several Old Testament classes at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and sat under the teachings of Dr. England. He revealed to me that Jesus is everywhere in the Old Testament and all I needed to do was to mine the Scriptures to find Him. Boy, was he ever right! Since then I have become what you might call an Old Testament junky, convinced that Jesus appears throughout the entire Bible, not just the New Testament. In fact, the entire Bible is the story of God’s redemptive plan to save mankind through His Son Jesus Christ.
I began my quest to find Jesus in the Old Testament. I had lots of questions as I started my research. How did the people in the New Testament view the Old Testament? How did Jews in Jesus’ day view the Trinity since they were monotheistic? In what ways did Jesus reveal Himself in the Old Testament? And there was more. What you will read in the following series are my findings. My hope and prayer are that you will come away with a renewed understanding of the entire Bible and the significant role the Lord Jesus Christ plays in it from beginning to end.
What did the Pharisees think of the Old Testament?
The Pharisees were Jewish religious leaders during the time of Jesus. Along with their partners, the Sadducees and Essenes, they ruled as a body called the Sanhedrin. It was their responsibility, so they thought, to not only interpret the laws of the Old Testament but to make sure the people adhered to them religiously.
They referred to the Old Testament as “the Law” and “the Prophets.” They treasured the Mosaic Law along with the prophets and oral traditions handed down to them from previous generations. From them they believed that Yahweh, the God of the Jews, would send a conquering ruler to free them from bondage to the Romans and lead them to a promised land, thus establishing a nation of their own ruled and governed by this futuristic God-King from the lineage of David. The underlying problem in their thinking was they never saw Jesus in the Scriptures. They were simply blinded by their own inhibitions.
Jesus spent a good deal of his time attacking the Pharisees for their failure to recognize Him for who He was and their lack of proper interpretation of the Scriptures. A quick search on the phrase, “have you not read” reveals several pointed attacks from Jesus questioning their ability to understand the Law of Moses.
But He said to them, “Have you not read …” -Matthew 12:3
“Or have you not read in the Law …” – Matthew 12:5
And He answered and said, “Have you not read …” – Matthew 19:4
“But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God:” -Matthew 22:31
“But regarding the fact that the dead rise again, have you not read in the book of Moses …” -Mark 12:26
Other verses also show Jesus questioning their interpretations and abilities to adhere to the Law.
“In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” – Matthew 7:12
And He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How does it read to you?” – Luke 10:26
“Did not Moses give you the Law, and yet none of you carries out the Law? Why do you seek to kill Me?” – John 7:19
What did the Pharisees think of the Old Testament?
The Pharisees held the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Writings in high regard. They had good intentions of interpreting and adhering to the commands of the Old Testament. However, it is quite apparent they clearly missed the signs of the coming Messiah hidden in its context.
In the next part of this series, we will look at what Jesus thought of the Old Testament.
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