The Old Testament

Books of the Jewish ancestors of Jesus
1. Interpret many prophecies about the coming of the messiah
2. Makes up more than half of the christian Bible
Why is the Old Testament important to christians?
1. The creation stories are in the OT
  1. These tell Christians the first beliefs on why God created the universe
2. God's developing relationship with mankind is recorded in the OT
3. The christian faith has grown out of the Jewish faith
  1. Created its own identity
4. It showed that a figure like Jesus was actually predicted by important Jewish prophets
Connections between the OT and the NT
1. Christians believe God had one plan for salvation that was revealed to the Israelites
  1. The OT and Nt tell one ongoing story of salvation.
2. At the same time, authors of the NT were proposing something radically new. Jesus' fulfilment of the Israelites hope in God's promise, For NT writers, the OT was the holy scripture
3. Estimated that the NT has over 4,,000 references to the OT.
  1. This shows how important the OT is for Christians
4. The OT shows what is going to happen but that does not mean they were actually looking to the future.
  1. They were expecting the final fulfilment of God,s promises.
5. The writers of the NT believed in the coming of the Messiah and also Christ being the Messiah

Resource summary

	Created by Arella Szlapak about 9 years ago