The Burr in the Burgh

It seems that there is a scarcity of Old Testament scholars in our church body. I visited a Hebrew class this morning at Concordia University - Irvine, CA. It was good seeing the fresh young fellows crunching away at it. I confess that my Hebrew is rusty. I'm much better at Greek and always have been. There seems to be less interest in our seminaries and pre-seminary programs in studying the Old Testament.

I remember a couple of times as a parish pastor being asked questions like, "Pastor, why should we care about the Old Testament. Let's just focus on Jesus." The trick is to demonstrate that the Old Testament IS about Jesus. In any case, the OT is 2/3 of your Bible. Neglecting its study is a very serious problem.

There is a second century heretic named Marcion. He denounced the Old Testament and all within the New which he considered too Jewish, basically. He was sort of hyper-Pauline and ejected Matthew, Mark and John. Luke being an associate of Paul was OK, I suppose.

Are we in danger of becoming Marcionites today when we ignore or neglect the Torah, the prophets, the hebrew poetry and hymns collected in what we call the Old Testament? Does it in some way discolor our understanding of Jesus?

I say yes it does. For the last couple of years, during Lent, I have made reading Leviticus part of my personal devotional schedule. If you ever want to gain a graphic new insight into the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, spend some time mulling over Leviticus. Consider also the psalms, the hymnal Jesus grew up using and had memorized. Remember that Jesus Himself explained to his followers that Moses, the prophets and the psalms all speak of Him.

I will even say that it is absolutely essential to know the first 39 books of our bible in order to correctly understand the last 27.