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This Sunday my pastor spoke on Ephesians and one of the things that he said stuck out. We were in Ephesians 3:4-7, and Paul is talking about the mystery that has been revealed to the Christians. I Corinthians 2:6-7 states that God planned it to be a mystery until He was ready to reveal it (yet another reason why I’m not sure that anyone should be that dogmatic about how the end times will play out!).
And this got me to thinking about Paul and who he was writing to and when. You see, if we start to think about the fact that not every believer at the time Paul was writing this was able to read, let alone have a Bible, we can also start to surmise that the Scriptures that Paul wanted us to be reading through to find out about God were the books of the Old Testament. Shocking to Christians that believe that we should be focusing exclusively on the New Testament teachings, I know.
But if you’ll remember correctly, when Jesus appeared to the two walking home to Emmaus, it wasn’t new things that He taught them, but he was revealing the mystery to them– that He had to die that we might live.
So, the next time you find yourself in the midst of the Old Testament record of the Kings, the genealogies or the prophets, remember that Paul told the Christians of his time to spend time in the Word– meaning those Scriptures– to learn about the Living Word!
So true! I realized this several months ago, through something that I read. When Jesus referred to the Scriptures…He was speaking of the Old Testament, for the New had not even been written yet! (How did I miss that for so long?)
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Right, Holly. I don’t know why the light bulb just went off yesterday. I mean, I read it elsewhere in the midst of debate, but we tend to emphasize the New Testament so much that I think we forget that Paul was emphasizing the Old!
I don’t remember who I read this from, I think it was Rob Bell, but he was saying most Jewish boys had the entire Torah memorized by age 12 and every student who stayed in school at the synagogue had the entire Tanach memorized by adulthood.
(Torah = Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deutoronomy. Tanach = Old Testament.)
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That would truly be impressive, and would explain why Paul had such a great grasp of the OT. It’s hard to imagine what it would have been like to not be able to have a copy of the Word for yourself!
It also puts sermons like the Beatitutes into context. When Jesus addressed a large group, the majority of the men in that group knew the verses he was referencing when he spoke of the Old Testament.
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Which would have also helped his reputation as a Rabbi. That he could handle the Scripture as well as He did meant something to people who respected the teaching of the Word.
Good point. There was a reverence for the law that we’ve forgotten.
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