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[Numbers]

What is the old testament and how is it viewed/understood today?

I'm reading a book that claims that the devil was not mentioned in the old testament. This book, Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari, really pokes a lot at Christianity as a whole and to me, seems to state Christianity started very "basic" and it's followers interpreted the text to add to it. The book claims that the old testament did not state there is an afterlife, heaven or hell. No devil and generally, less technical as this book seems to put it. I'm not a Christian or history major so I'm ignorant to this. I'm hoping that someone who has a good understanding could explain to me whether the above stated is at all true and what the old testament truly is/how it is taken by modern believers.

[jimwalton]

The Old Testament is God's revelation of Himself to the world through the people of Israel, and it's the written record of the covenant (the contract between God and His people).

The Old Testament is God-breathed just like the NT (2 Tim. 3.16), and the prophets of old spoke as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Pet. 1.21). The OT reveals God just as the NT does (Hebrews 1.1), and the OT is considered Holy Scripture just as the NT is. We have to remember that the early church used the OT as their "Scriptures," and that every reference to the Scriptures" in the NT is speaking about the Old Testament. The early church used the OT at every turn for its teaching and preaching because the NT hadn't been written yet.

The NT was created to tell the story of Jesus and to show how the OT was fulfilled by Jesus. It tells how salvation by grace through faith was always the plan (Gal. 3.6-14), and how the "rivers" of the Eden Problem (sin), the Babel Problem (deity falsely construed), God's covenant, God's presence, redemption, and resurrection are integral to the whole (both OT and NT) to reveal God to us and bring us to salvation.

The OT forms the basis of Jesus' credentials, but Jesus supplied his own credentials in what he said and did.

As Dr. Craig Evans says, "The Old Testament provides the context and framework for understanding the New Testament. In other words, the New Testament wouldn't makes sense to us without the Old Testament." Augustine said, "The New Testament lies hidden the Old and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New."

> I'm reading a book that claims that the devil was not mentioned in the old testament.

Yes, this is basically true. There may be a few places where he is alluded to, but probably not.

> This book, Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari, really pokes a lot at Christianity as a whole and to me, seems to state Christianity started very "basic" and it's followers interpreted the text to add to it.

Well, I don't agree with this, but it's too general to respond to.

> The book claims that the old testament did not state there is an afterlife, heaven or hell.

The OT does teach there was an afterlife (Sheol), but doesn't mention heaven or hell except briefly in Daniel 12.2.

[Numbers]

Thank you for the thorough explanation. Would it be correct in saying that the OT is followed just as carefully as the NT by Christians? I was under the impression that the OT was fallaciously "forgotten", but as the user above your reply explained, it is indeed followed, it's just that those old rules (like the one about not wearing linen with wool) that are commonly brought up in similar discussions are not meant to be followed by us.

[jimwalton]

> Would it be correct in saying that the OT is followed just as carefully as the NT by Christians?

It's not followed just as carefully because the NT is about Jesus and the fulfillment of the OT, so Christians generally spend more time in the NT. But they certainly don't ignore the OT.

> I was under the impression that the OT was fallaciously "forgotten"

No, it's not that, not at all. We spend more time in certain books (Joshua, Psalms, Isaiah, for example) and not so much time in others (some of the minor prophets, Leviticus, etc.), but we still have high regard for the OT.

> it is indeed followed, it's just that those old rules (like the one about not wearing linen with wool) that are commonly brought up in similar discussions are not meant to be followed by us.

Yeah, a lot of detractors and critics like to bring up one of about a dozen isolated verses and try to drill Christians on those, pretty much ignoring everything else, and that's just cherry picking in a superficial way. It's true, though, that we don't follow the rules of the OT. Those were mean too Israel during the theocracy and under the covenant, and they're not for us. We learn from the principles in them, but we are not under that law.

[Numbers]

I appreciate your explanation of my questions on the OT. So it's better for me to say that Christians regard the OT just as much as the NT, as there's really not much to "follow". You mentioned how many critics also think that Christians ignore some of the rules in the OT for convenience, is there any founded reason for that belief or is it just misinterpretation/ignorance? Is there a verse that explicitly state that those verses in the OT are not needed to be followed by us?

[jimwalton]

The NT is clear that the OT has been fulfilled (Mt. 5.17). Paul repeatedly states that we are no longer under the law (Rom. 6.14; Gal. 3.23-25; 5.18, et al.). In Mark 7.19, Jesus's action nullified the OT food laws, and it was confirmed by God's vision to Peter in Acts 10. We also know that there are no sacrifices and can be no sacrifices without the Temple, so the sacrificial law is also nullified.