Do you want to understand the life and times of Jesus and his followers but realize that you don't know a lot or have forgotten a lot about the Old Testament (the Hebrew Scriptures)? Here's a summary that will be very useful for you as you begin your study of the New Testament (a quick 20-25 minute read!)
Understanding
Our Jewish Spiritual Ancestors
I sometimes refer to the New Testament as a
kind of “village” in which some of our "spiritual ancestors" (such as Jesus,
Peter, Paul, Matthew, John, etc.) continue to live. When we read, study and
reflect on different New Testament texts, we can actually encounter the spiritual
ancestors who were responsible for starting the beginnings of the Christian
tradition—a tradition that became the foundation of civilizations, cultures,
and societies in history, among which is the Western civilization in which we
are living today.
These spiritual ancestors were all first
century common era (CE) Jews (with the exception perhaps of “grand-uncle” Luke).
As Jews who were born and lived during the time period that historians call “Second
Temple Judaism” (from around 515 BCE to 70 CE. Let us also include the immediate
aftermath of the Jerusalem temple’s destruction in the years after 70 CE up to
the turn of the century), they themselves were heirs of a long and venerable tradition
that was already considered “ancient” at the time and therefore even begrudgingly
respected in some way by their Roman conquerors. (The Romans had a deep esteem
for “antiquity,” that is, traditions that had a long, venerable history.)
Ancient Jews as a group had several common characteristics
that we will have to keep in mind if we are to understand—what can be
considered—a common Jewish worldview at the time. How do we do this? By
familiarizing ourselves better with some key areas of life as expressed by the following
questions:
- What were the stories, laws, poems, and other oral and written traditions that lay at the foundation of their worldview?
- What were the dominant religious-cultural symbols and practices that they valued?
- What were their most cherished hopes and dreams?
Components
of the Worldview of Our (New Testament) Spiritual Ancestors
We will be able to answer these questions
by studying what Jews call “TaNaK” or “the
Hebrew Bible/Scriptures” or what
is widely known among Christians as “The
Old Testament” (OT). What
this means in practice is that, for Christians and Westerners in general, some
knowledge of the OT is necessary in order to get to know their spiritual ancestry.
That is why the OT is an essential part of the Christian Bible which, as a
whole, is composed of two parts: The Old Testament (which is like a Part 1); and
the New Testament (which is tantamount to a Part 2).
So here are some of the key points (key
words will be in bold letters or italics) to keep in mind regarding this Jewish
background for us to understand our New Testament village ancestors which, it
should be remembered, even include Jesus (as a historical person).
First of all, ancient Jews were proud that
they were part of “Israel” (taken here primarily as a people-nation) which,
they believed, had been chosen in a special way by God to be the
Creator’s own special people and nation. (Technically, this idea of being
chosen is sometimes called divine election.) The people of Israel were bound
to God by a special “Covenant,” the primary component of which was the “Law” (Torah) that God had given them through
Moses and was, in turn, elaborated upon by the many prophets, sages, and various
other teachers throughout Israel’s history. In the Jewish Tradition, it is
often said that there are 613 commandments of this “Law” (That number includes
the Ten Commandments that are more familiar to Christians).
Ancient Jews also valued immensely the
geographical “Land” (also referred to as “Israel”) which, they
believed, God had given to them as Abraham’s descendants. The Land (of Israel) was
holy but its cultic center, Jerusalem, was especially so because on it stood the Temple where God—they believed—was present in a special
way.
Moreover, it is also necessary to know the
general plot of an extended “sacred
story” that—we can say—was the
foundation of how our first century Jewish spiritual ancestors understood
history or the story of the world. I often refer to it as the “story-plot” or
simply “the story” that was told by parents to their children as an
essential part of raising them as Jewish and, hence, every Jewish boy or
girl at the time would have learned the gist and main lessons of this storyline
as they grew up. This was in turn the basis of the worldview by which ancient
Jews viewed, understood, and mentally organized everything: God, the world,
life itself and all the other details in their world. Having a grasp of the
basic flow of this story found in the OT is, therefore, essential for us to
understand the common mindset of our spiritual ancestors whose voices are preserved
in the New Testament village.
I divide this extended storyline into several
sub-headings using the following key themes. They are: Creation, Nation,
Flight, Fight-Settlement, Kingdom(s) and Exile, Return-Rebuilding, Further
Struggles with Empires, and Hope. These notions, I think, can summarize
well the spirit of the story that parents told their children at the time. This
is the same narrative plot that the wider culture expected everyone to know
well during what is called Second Temple Judaism.
This then is the main outline of the
extended story that all our spiritual ancestors in the New Testament village
were familiar with. (Let me use the “historical present” to narrate the
extended plot for vividness.)
The
Extended Story-Plot from the Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament
[Creation] God
creates the world and everything in it,
culminating in the fashioning of the first humans—male and female— who bear God’s
very “image” (Western Christians refer to this as Imago Dei "God’s
image"). The seventh day is special because God rested after all the work of
creation. That—it is pointed out—is the origin of the all-important Sabbath
practice. The humans are entrusted with the care and stewardship of creation. They
are put in an idyllic world described as a garden with the proscription, however,
that they should not eat of a forbidden “fruit” (Gen 1-2). The first male and
female fail in this, giving in to the prodding of a serpent in the garden, and end
up partaking of the forbidden fruit. This event has often been described in
Christianity as “the Fall.” This act damages the once perfect relationship
between God and humans and, thus, the first ancestors (commonly called “Adam”
and “Eve”) are driven away from the garden (Gen 3). They and all their
descendants after them are burdened with suffering and eventual death as a
result of this disobedience. The point of this story for ancient Jews (as well
as those who continue to read this story) is arguably to explain the origin of the
many unfortunate things that assail humanity and why evil and suffering are so
pervasive in human life. The entry of evil into the human story is portrayed
eloquently in the stories that follow in quick succession: Cain (Adam and Eve’s
son) murders his brother Abel (Gen 4); in time, the world becomes so evil that
God decides to destroy everything and, as it were, restart creation with a
clean slate through a flood. God spares a limited number of beings from the
flood’s destruction. Thus, Noah and his family and a limited number of species
of animals survive the destructive waters by riding out the storm in an ark (Gen
6-9); humans build a tower aiming to “reach the sky” but God confounds their
plan by mixing up their languages at Babel (Gen 11), and so forth.
