Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament

by Christopher J.H. Wright

Essentially, Wright argues that it is not only appropriate to read the Old Testament in the light of Jesus, but to read Jesus in the light of the Old Testament. He argues that Jesus' story is rooted in the story of Israel, as it is told in the Hebrew scriptures. Thus, he seeks to understand Jesus' self-understanding as the Messiah, following the call that God had placed before Israel: to see how Jesus and the New Testament writers understood and explained Jesus' identity in the light of the whole of the OT. Ultimately, his point is that the deeper one understands the Old Testament, the closer he comes to the heart of Jesus.

He does this in five sections: Jesus and The Old Testament Story; Jesus and The Old Testament Promise; Jesus and His Old Testament Identity; Jesus and His Old Testament Mission; Jesus and His Old Testament Values. Overall, Wright does an excellent job of accomplishing this task. And he doesn't do so by merely proof-texting messianic prophecy with Jesus' fulfillment of those.

One of the few problems that I had with this book is his repeated reference to the temptation of Jesus, where he argues that Satan is trying to bait Jesus into sinning by trying to cause him to doubt his identity ("If you are the son of God"). While that approach to the temptation is a common one, it fails to take into account the Greek grammar of the conditional sentence, which is such that the point is not to question his identity but to assume it as a given for the rest of the argument.

But for the most part, I was impressed with this book and would recommend it to anyone who is looking either to study the life of Christ or to better understand the relationship between the Old and New Testaments.