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| Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (based on 8 reviews)
Sales Rank: 15482
Category: Book
Author: Christopher J. H. Wright
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Studio: InterVarsity Press
Manufacturer: InterVarsity Press
Label: InterVarsity Press
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.7
ISBN: 0830816933
Dewey Decimal Number: 232.1
EAN: 9780830816934
ASIN: 0830816933
Publication Date: March 1995
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Tracing the story of Jesus as it is told in the Old Testament, Christopher J.H. Wright introduces the Jesus of history who is also the fulfillment of God's design for his people.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 Great grasp of Jesus back in the Old Testament October 21, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
An intriguing passage in the New Testament (NT) states, "Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted for them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures." (Luke 24:27). Christopher Wright's book titled `Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament' gives a reasonable answer to what Jesus may have told these disciples from Emmaus. Many NT Christians believe they can fully know Jesus without knowing the Old Testament (OT). On page two, Wright states "The Old Testament tells the story which Jesus completes." Even the NT needs to be read in light of the OT. Wright draws out the identity, mission and values of Jesus. Jesus completes the OT promises in surprising ways. Wright deals with the popular idea that Christians can know Jesus without knowing the OT.
This book sheds light on how Jesus used and completed the OT message in relation to His identity, mission and values. The author fleshes out 5 comprehensive themes each close to 50 pages in length. The NT book of Matthew chapters one to four are the primary text Wright uses to expound his five main points. The reader will gain a clear understanding of Jesus' life mission and destiny as the book is read through. The comprehensive vision of God's redemptive plan and purpose is the main theme throughout the book.
I highly recommend this book as a strong introduction to understanding Jesus in light of the OT. It goes well beyond the typical work that merely shows the OT types and how Christ was hidden all along waiting to be discovered in the OT. The hermeneutical principles used by the author focus on the biblical text in its original context and then the theological principles are extracted from the text. The author avoids a textual criticism approach. One will not see a discussion on looking for source material nor speculation on JEDP theory. He also goes beyond messianic proof texting and leaves out typology about the Temple and Tabernacle. The author's primary purpose in writing this text is for everyday Christians and he avoids an overly scholarly approach to the material. Wright's text serves as a contrast to R.T Frances' book on Jesus and the Old Testament which covers more criticism and has a lot of footnotes. Despite Wright's lack of explicit scholarly focus, the book still remains a scholarly and thought-provoking work. A strong explanation of typology is made in the chapter on Jesus' identity. A weakness of typology is when the reader of the OT fails to find much reality in the events and persons of the OT in themselves. This jump start to Christ away from the historical context is a Platonic view of the OT. The OT becomes a collection of shadows. Typology is defined by Wright as a way to understand Christ and events surrounding him in the NT by analogy and correspondence. Historic realities are seen as patterns or models. Typology should not be the sole way of understanding the OT.
A weakness of the book is that it meanders and the author many times seems to cover too much material in each chapter. This leaves the reader without clear handles on main points and it confuses essential material from peripheral material. One constructive criticism is for the author to edit out some of the redundancy in the book. A few more graphs and summary indicators would help as well. It is easy to get lost in the amazing breath of the material. Some chapters can be shortened. Knowing Jesus through the Old Testament is an excellent perspective on Jesus and how His life reflected theological concepts of the OT. The book is covenantal in nature and is mission orientated. The author achieved his goal to get me to see Jesus in the Old Testament and the NT. I will definitely be able to answer ways in which Jesus may have instructed the Emmaus disciples. When others make statements such as, "The Old Testament is not relevant for Christians today" or "We need to just read the gospels and the NT letters to learn all there is to know about Jesus.", I can now quickly add more perspective to these statements. I will also read the OT and ask the question, "How may this passage have been used by Jesus and how was it lived out in His life?" His redemptive purpose is our mission and it started in the Old Testament.
Mark J. Armstrong
Very impressive volume August 12, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
When Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament by Christopher J. H. Wright first arrived, I thought it looked oversized for its subject. 250 pages on Jesus in the Old Testament -- a collection of books written before he even came on the scene? But then I remembered the gospel writer's words as Jesus walked with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus: "And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself" (Lk. 24:27). And truth be told, when I finished the book I thought its length was just right. I was glad he wrote all that he did.
One of the first things I should mention that I found refreshing was that Wright wrote the book without inserting any footnotes or endnotes. Sometimes they are necessary, yes, but Wright's decision to withhold from using them made a difference in the content's flow. It gave the text an unencumbered momentum. Yet if I can mention something that I would have changed it has to be his chapter divisions. They seem a little long. At fifty pages each, he could have split them up one more time and had ten chapters at 25 pages each. And this would have worked because he included many sections and subsections within each chapter anyway, so he had the extra divisions had he wanted to use them to split up the chapters into shorter segments. But this is a minor quibble, and one, I don't need to point out, that has nothing to do with the book's content, which is phenomenal.
Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament is one the best books I've ever read on the Old Testament and on Jesus -- not even simply as a combined topic, but one of the best volumes on both theological subjects individually. Somehow, Wright finds a way to teach the reader a lot about the Old Testament in his survey of Jesus. And of course, he illuminates the person and work of Jesus in a way most works that focus almost exclusively on the New Testament can. Plus, Wright is a gifted writer. He isn't very flashy, but if I can coin a description he is an eloquent summarizer. Its easy to survey a topic by giving bare descriptions of the material. But Wright elegantly runs through the Old Testament in a way that is almost memorable. Here is an example of what I'm referring to: "By the middle of the eight century BC, Assyria had become the dominant world power and was rapidly expanding westward to the Palestinian states. After several rebellions, Israel was attacked by Assyria in 725. Samaria was besieged and eventually fell in 721. The bulk of the Israelite population (the ten northern tribes) was deported and scattered throughout other parts of Assyria's empire, while populations of foreigners from other parts were brought into Israel's territories. In this act of Assyria -- an example of its policy of imperial subjugation -- lies the origins of the mixed race of `Samaritans.' So the northern kingdom of Israel ceased to exist, its territory now nothing more than a province under the paw of the Assyrian lion -- a paw now poised ominously close to Judah" (p. 16). Notice with what ease Wright describes monumental events -- and with what elegance (e.g. the last line). He is a pleasure to read.
As far as the book's content, Wright covers all bases in the span of five chapters. In chapter one which is called "Jesus and the Old Testament Story" Wright explores five sections each with multiple subsections. In chapter two which is called "Jesus and the Old Testament Promise" Wright exposits the prominent theme of promise-fulfillment in the Old Testament. Chapter three is called "Jesus and his Old Testament Identity," and its the first chapter to really explore Jesus' self-understanding and traces it back to the key Old Testament passages. Chapter four, which is called "Jesus and his Old Testament Mission" goes hand in hand with chapter three. The former deals with the person of Jesus and the latter with the work of Jesus. Chapter five, the last chapter of the book, is perhaps the most interesting. It has to do with Jesus and his Old Testament values. Topics like Jesus' view of the Law, Jesus' view of the Prophets, and Jesus' view of the Psalms are all included here. By far Wright's most impressive ability is his comprehensive vision of God's redemptive purpose. And it is this grand vision that enables Wright to put each individual instance that he researches into proper perspective.
When the reader has gone through these five chapters any compartmentalization that once existed putting Jesus and the New Testament in one corner the Old Testament in another can no longer stand. Wright draws the connections between Jesus and the Old Testament in such a way that it is impossible to read about Jesus, about what he said, and about what he did without reverting back to the Old Testament for some pattern, expectation, promise, or precedent that informs us of Jesus' person, words, or actions. A fantastic book that no Christian involved in any kind of teaching ministry should fail to read. It really gets us to know about Jesus more. And as a topic for study, what could be better than that?
 Helpful Insights into Jesus October 18, 2007
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
In his preface, Christopher Wright reveals that his conviction that "the deeper you go into understanding the Old Testament, the closer you come to the heart of Jesus" underlies the theme of Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament. He states that he writes this book for people wishing to "deepen their knowledge of Jesus and the scriptures that meant so much to him." Wright uses the Old Testament to shine a light on the life and identity of Jesus. He uncovers how Jesus' knowledge of the Old Testament would have influenced him. Similarly, he looks at how the Old Testament scriptures influenced the Jews of Jesus' day and their reactions to Jesus' ministry. Through this, readers can develop a keener insight into who Jesus is and what Jesus accomplished on the cross when he said, "It is finished." (Jn 19:30 ESV)
Wright begins his book with the beginning of the gospel story about Jesus. He uncovers what is behind the genealogy of Jesus that begins Matthew's and Luke's gospel.
A major component of the identity of Israel that Wright discusses is its mission and ministry to be a blessing to all nations.
As Wright shares the story of Israel that is behind the genealogy, he emphasizes the promises of God to Abraham and to David. Seeing in his genealogy Abraham and David, Jewish readers of Matthew's and Luke's gospels would immediately associate Jesus with the promises made to these significant men in Israel's history.
Wright indicates that two characteristics of the Jews during Jesus' time were an increased devotion to the torah and an "upsurge in apocalyptic, messianic hope." (Wright 26) Jesus' hearers would have had significant knowledge of Old Testament scripture and would have been applying it to their times in hope of seeing signs of God's messiah.
In Wright's book, we see that the cross and resurrection are the answers to the problems of obedience to the law and to the prophesied deliverance and restoration of Israel. He writes, "The New Testament affirms that the Gospel of the cross and resurrection of Christ is God's complete answer to the totality of evil and all its effects within his creation." (Wright 30) Wright shows that the work of Christ is a universal work that offers deliverance and redemption to not just Jews but to Gentiles also.
Wright sums up the theme of the Old Testament and New Testament culminating in Christ, "Taken together both testaments record the work of God's saving work for humanity." (Wright 34) Wright asserts that God's redemptive history includes the following four principles: election, redemption, covenant and inheritance. Wright concludes that God, not man, fulfills this saving work in Jesus, Israel's Messiah and the world's Savior.
In addition to looking at the Old Testament in relation to Jesus' death and resurrection, Wright also examines in depth how it shapes his identity, mission and values. He asserts through his book that it is impossible to fully know Jesus apart from knowing the essential parts of the Old Testament. He writes that Jesus completes the story that the Old Testament begins, "It declares the promise which he fulfilled...provides the pictures and models which shaped his identity...programs a mission which he accepted and passed on...teaches a moral orientation to God and the world which he endorsed, sharpened and laid the foundation for obedient discipleship." (Wright 252)
Wright contends that Israel, as the recipient of God's promise, was to be a conduit of that promise to all nations. He calls Israel the intended priesthood of God in the midst of the nations bringing them to the saving knowledge of God.
Although Israel was a recipient of God's promise and election, the people could only walk in the promise and election by grace and faith. Wright writes, "The promise comes as the initiative of God's grace and always depends on God's grace. But that grace has to be accepted and responded to by faith and obedience." (Wright 68)
In his discussion of the necessity of faithful obedience, Wright continues, "No doctrine of election, no covenant theology, no personal testimony of redemption, can relieve us of the imperative necessity of faith proving itself in active obedience." (Wright 70) He elaborates that the initiative of God's grace or promise demands a response of obedient faith now from Jews as much as Gentiles. Wright continues to emphasize God's requirement of faithful obedience in regard to his covenant promises to Israel. Despite Israel's disobedience, the covenant continued, because it was grounded in God's grace and purpose for humanity. According to Wright, God's covenant promises reveal his intense desire to bless people.
I think Wright lacks clarity in his discussion of obedience in the context of the new covenant in Jesus. Israel's repeated failures are indicative of Christians' similar inability to live up to the standards of the law. Obedience for the Christian, Jew or Gentile, is to a new call, as Christians are the recipients of a new covenant that comes through faith by grace. The difference that Wright does not explicitly note is that Jesus has fulfilled not only Israel's role as servant but has fulfilled the requirement for obedience for the recipients of the promise. Jesus answered, `The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." (John 6:28-29 NIV)
It seems that Wright does not distinguish between the requirements of faithful obedience to the law under the prior covenants to Israel and faithfulness under the new covenant. What Jesus requires is not works or behavior but belief and faith for salvation. Although Wright points to the prophets' promises of a new heart and the law written on hearts, he seems to be advocating the idea that the new covenant through Jesus merely makes it easier for followers to obey the law rather than rest in Christ's work on the cross finally acknowledging that all of our righteous works are but "filthy rags." (Is 64:6 NIV)
Wright looks at how the Old Testament would have revealed to Jesus his role as savior of the world. Wright points out three roles that Jesus would have seen, "sovereignty, servant hood and sacrifice. All three are built into the calling of Jesus. All three are given depth and meaning by the Old Testament characters whose identities are merged in Jesus." (Wright 110)
Wright profoundly relates the conflict between man's earthly vision and God's eternal, spiritual vision. He writes,"We have imagined that the best way to save the world was to run the world. With the tragically ironic result that Christian mission in the name of the Servant has been indelibly associated in the minds of many with power--military, cultural economic and political. It is an image that is hard to live down. "(Wright 178)
He contrasts this with God's prescribed mission of service and sacrifice for the world. The way of Jesus, the way of sacrifice and service, is what we can learn from the Old Testament. Wright concludes that Jesus' message is the message at the heart of the Old Testament. It is the message of the Jubilee year of the Lord and of restored relationships to God, the sovereign king over all--what Wright calls an "Old Testament concept" now at hand. (Wright 243)
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Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament October 11, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book by Christopher Wright is excellent. I came away with a much greater appreciation of how Jesus is seen throughout the Old Testament, and a sense of how the whole history of God's people was leading up to the coming of the Redeemer.
level headed reading: Jesus in his own context July 26, 2006
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
in order to properly understand the Jesus of the new testament, instead of making a Jesus of our own liking, it is necessary to understand Jesus as he himself indicated. Jesus himself, according to the new testament, made constant reference and allusion to the hebrew scriptures, ( old testament ), as he sought to explain himself, his actions, his teachings and his significance. Understanding the old testament is therefore of paramount importance for understanding what Jesus was and is about. This means far more than knowing some of the messianic proof texts or knowing about Noahs ark or the temple and sacrificial system of the ancient hebrews. Understanding the old testament involves knowing the overall aim and purpose of it, and how it all is held together by connected themes that form a unified whole. Christopher Wright's book, Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament, is an absolute Godsend towards getting the drift of the old testament and how it carries forward to the Jesus of the new testament. This book is a little bit technical at times, it is not a devotional work, but reading this book will educate a person to accurately understand what the old testament is about and how it flows into the person of Jesus, thereby expositing the true meaning and intent of Jesus according to the background that Jesus himself referred to. Thanks Chris Wright for this fabulous book. Also, for serious bible study of the best sort, see his excellent magnum opus, The Mission Of God. It is truly outstanding!! For some other great little books on Jesus that are sane and sober, see: Jesus and His World by Peter Walker, The Original Jesus by N.T. Wright, and for a bit of a larger work see Jesus and The Gospels by Craig Blomberg.
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