Have the Hebrew Scriptures Become Second-Class Among Christians? Part 2
Introduction
In the last post, I compared running a race in which a runner hands off a baton to another runner to how many evangelicals view an alleged handoff between the Jewish Scriptures and the New Covenant.
In foot racing, a technique called the handoff, or baton pass, is used. One runner passes a strike (baton) to the next runner. The goal is to keep running without dropping the baton. Once the baton is handed over, the former carrier drops out of the contest and allows the handoffee to keep running.
This is how most Christians view the relationship between the two testaments. The baton is the redemption story that runs through both volumes. The Old Testament, or the first runner, hands off the redemption thread to the New Testament (second runner). Next, the Old Testament drops out of the race. Evangelicals will often say the Tenach has done its job and there is no longer a need for the Hebrew Scriptures.
Are these evangelicals correct? Did the Jewish Scriptures hand off the redemption story to the New Covenant and then drop out of the race? Does the Hebrew Bible still speak to us today, or has the ancient text completed its job?
As far as I can tell, the runner attached to the Jewish Scriptures is still part of the race and continues to speak to us today.
I propose that BOTH TESTAMENTS grasp the baton of the redemption story and run the race together, hand in hand. Despite what Christian theologians and pastoral figures teach, NT writers do not view the Tenach as outdated, discarded, or unnecessary.
I’ll address these issues in great depth in this post and the next. In the meantime, I want to clarify my terminology. The reader will note that I refrain from any overuse of the term “Old Testament.” The word OLD makes the Hebrew text appear outdated or even inferior to the NEW Testament.
Therefore, I prefer terms like Jewish Bible or Scriptures, Hebrew Text, or the Tenach. Tanakh is an acronym using the Hebrew letters that describe the three-part breakdown of the Hebrew text: Torah, Nevi’im (the prophets), and the Ketubim (the writings). The first letters of these three terms are as follows: TNK, or TeNaK, also spelled Tenach. When I do use the term “Old Testament” in this post, it is mostly for stylistic reasons.
