Christopher J. H. Wright - Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament

InterVarsity Press
P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426

ivpress.com

Second edition: 2014 by Christopher J. H. Wright First edition: 1992 by Christopher J. H. Wright

Published in the United States of America by InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois, with permission from HarperCollins Publishers Ltd., London.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from InterVarsity Press.

InterVarsity Pressis the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, a movement of students and faculty active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, visit intervarsity.org .

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken fromTHE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIVCopyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

While any stories in this book are true, some names and identifying information may have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals.

Some of the content of chapter six is abbreviated and adapted from chapter four of Christopher Wright,The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bibles Grand Narrative(Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2007). Used by permission.

Cover design: Cindy Kiple

Images: Agnus Dei by Francisco de Zurbaran/Prado, Madrid, Spain/Bridgeman Images

ISBN 978-0-8308-9801-5 (digital)
ISBN 978-0-8308-2359-8 (print)

To the memory of Jim Punton

The convictions on which the book was first based, as expressed in the preface to the first edition, are as firm in my mind as they ever were. And they have been strengthened through ongoing teaching on the subject. Wherever I teach on this topic, there is usually a moment of eye-opening fresh insight on Jesus when he is presented in the light of how he saw himself in relation to the Old Testament. Somehow, and not surprisingly, the whole Bible comes to make much more sense when Jesus Christ, as the Bibles center of unity, is brought into focus in a way that affirms rather than overlooks all that went before him.

This edition of the book has an additional sixth chapter. When I wrote the original book with its five chapters, I had in mind readers for whom, as for myself, the deity of Jesus of Nazareth is an absolutely solid affirmation of faith and an assumption that author and readers could share. It goes without saying, I thought. Comments I have received from time to time have made it clear that it is dangerous to make that kind of assumption. If it goes without saying, it needs even more to be said! In fact, I have realized that the omission of any discussion of the way in which the Old Testament also shapes what we mean by speaking of Jesus as God was a serious defect of the original book. So I have added this sixth chapter, explaining how the Old Testament reveals the God whom Jesus embodied. Some of the content of the chapter is abbreviated and adapted from my book The Mission of God, chapter four.

I have added a few questions and exercises at the end of each chapter that I hope may be used either by individuals or by groups.

It is pleasing to hear from time to time that the book is being used in a number of institutions of theological education on the list of textbooks for courses in biblical theologyeven though it was intended for a more popular readership. For that reason, I have included a few more items in the bibliography at the end for those who wish to study further the whole vast field of historical Jesus research and the Old Testament background to the New Testament. Of these, by far the most significant in my view have been the magisterial works of N. T. (Tom) Wright. With enormous erudition and historical scholarship, he has argued in phenomenal depth for an understanding of Jesus in relation to Israel of the Old Testament and intertestamental period, with which my own much more amateur portrait here is in broad accord. For those who need to study further, most of the books listed provide comprehensive additional bibliography.

I express my thanks to Pieter Kwant and the staff of Langham Literature who have kept encouraging me to believe that this book has an ongoing future. I am delighted that at least part of that future will be within the global fellowship of Langham Partnership.

Chris Wright
March 2014