Your recommendations for Christology-related Old Testament texts, please
Since July 2019, the Sunday group Bible study I lead has examined more than 400 New Testament passages in pursuit of insight into the question of whether Jesus was God. We expect to complete our NT review, now more than 100 sessions in duration, by the end of this calendar year and then move to the Old Testament. So I request your recommendations for relevant Old Testament texts.
My approach in choosing what turned out to be 440 NT texts was anything relevant - whether in the comfort zone of my personal Christology (Peter's Acts 2 sermon, for example) or not (the pre-existence material, for example). I am similarly open to OT texts, my preliminary list of which currently includes around 80 texts.
I invite you to submit to this thread OT texts that you believe are relevant to Christology. There's a chance that I may already have your recommended texts on my list, but then your recommendation will simply confirm the wisdom of including those readings in our study. My objective is to include every relevant text - whatever viewpoint you think they endorse - so please suggest away. I will edit submissions only for relevance to the topic, NOT for their ease of alignment with my own views. I want any and every relevant text on our list and in our study.
Thanks in advance for considering my request.
Comments
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Logos Bible Search for phrase "Yahweh of Hosts" in LEB finds 248 verses (search idea from redeemer in Isaiah 44:6)
Two subjects are in Isaiah 44:6-7 LEB => Thus says יהוה Yahweh, the king of Israel, and its redeemer, יהוה Yahweh of hosts: “I am the first, and I am the last, and there is no god besides me. And who is like me? Let him proclaim it! And let him declare it and set it in order for me since I established an eternal people and things that are to come, and let them tell them the things that are coming.
Revelation 22:12-16 LEB => “Behold, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with me, to repay each one according to what his deeds are! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” Blessed are the ones who wash their robes, so that their authority will be over the tree of life and they may enter into the city through the gates. Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the sexually immoral people and the murderers and the idolaters and everyone who loves and who practices falsehood. “I, Jesus, sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”
Some study group questions:
- Who is "The First and The Last" ?
- How truthful are the words Jesus spoke in Revelation 22:13 ?
- If Jesus did not pre-exist with Father (before God created world), can "the Alpha ..., the first ..., the beginning ..." be factually correct ?
Filtering my Logos library for prophecy Jesus includes:
Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus: Messianic Prophecy Objections-Volume Three by Michael L. Brown (five volumes)
Christ in the Old Testament by James A. Boreland (Christophanies)
Christ in the Old Testament by Charles Spurgeon
Every Prophecy about Jesus by John Walvoord
Messianic Christology by Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum
Messianic Prophecy in the Bible by Jimmy Parks (has O.T. source with N.T. fulfillment)
Library filter expansion ("old testament",prophecy) (Jesus,Christ) includes
Beginning at Moses: A Guide to Finding Christ in the Old Testament by Michael Barrett (2001 - first book by Old Testament Scholar)
Beginning at Moses: A Guide to Finding Christ in the Old Testament by Michael Barrett (2018 - revised book by Old Testament Scholar)
Procedures start with: Begin Every Session of Bible Study with Prayer
Searching titles on Logos.com includes:
The Moody Handbook of Messianic Prophecy: Studies and Expositions of the Messiah in the Hebrew Bible
Messianic Christology by Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum includes Other Lines of Evidence, which has:
The Unity of the Godhead
The Shema—Deuteronomy 6:4
Everything which has been said so far rests firmly on the Hebrew language of the Scriptures. If we are to base our doctrine on the Scriptures alone, we have to say that on the one hand they affirm God’s unity, while at the same time they tend towards the concept of a compound unity allowing for a plurality in the Godhead.
This idea of plurality within the Godhead is consistently rejected by Judaism despite all of the evidence discussed so far, and invariably the argument returns to Deuteronomy 6:4 as final evidence of the singular nature of God.
“Shema Yisroel Adomi Elohenu Adonai Echad.”
6:4 “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! (nasb)
Deuteronomy 6:4, known as the Shema, has always been Israel’s great confession. It is this verse more than any other which is used to affirm the fact that God is one and to contradict the concept of plurality in the Godhead. But is it a valid use of this verse?
It should be pointed out, first of all, that the very words “our God” are actually in the plural in Hebrew—literally “our Gods.” The main argument, however, lies in the word “one,” which is the Hebrew word echad. A quick glance through the verses in the Hebrew text where this word is used will show that the word echad does not mean an “absolute one,” but a “compound one.”
For example, in Genesis 1:5, the combination of evening and morning comprise one [echad] day. In Genesis 2:24, a man and a woman come together in marriage “and the two shall become one [echad] flesh.” In Ezra 2:64, we are told that the whole assembly was as one [echad], though of course, it was composed of numerous people. Ezekiel 37:17 provides a rather striking example where two sticks are combined to become one [echad]. Thus, use of the word echad in Scripture shows it to be a compound unity, not an absolute unity.
There is a Hebrew word which does mean an absolute unity and that is the word yachid. This word is used in numerous places with the emphasis being on the meaning of “only one.” If Moses had intended to teach God’s absolute oneness as opposed to His compound oneness, this would have been a far more appropriate word to have used. In fact, Maimonides noted the strength of yachid and chose to use it in his “Thirteen Articles of Faith” in place of echad. However, Deuteronomy 6:4, the Shema, does not use yachid in reference to God.
Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, Messianic Christology: A Study of Old Testament Prophecy Concerning the First Coming of the Messiah (Tustin, CA: Ariel Ministries, 1998), 108.
Keep Smiling 😊
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@Keep_Smiling_4_Jesus posted:
Logos Bible Search for phrase "Yahweh of Hosts" in LEB finds 248 verses (search idea from redeemer in Isaiah 44:6)
Thanks for your response!
The process of curating the OT passages my Sunday group will explore in the next phase of its study will continue for at least another month to six weeks, so if you have other input between now and then, I hope you'll share it.
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Why don't people from your church come to this forum?
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@Truth post:
Why don't people from your church come to this forum?
Probably for the same reason(s) people from your church don't come to this forum.
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What do you think those might be?
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@Truth posted:
What do you think those might be?
I don't know, which is why I asked.
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@Bill_Coley posted:
I don't know, which is why I asked.
I guess I didn't ask, per se. But I did raise the subject! So tell us why the people of your church don't come to this forum, and then I'll speculate as to whether the people of my church don't come to this forum for the same reason(s).
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I accept that you say you don't know.
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@Truth posted:
I accept that you don't know.
But I might know once I see the reason(s) the people of your church don't come to this forum! So please tell us.
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Another Logos Bible Search suggestion is (Yahweh WITHIN 3 WORDS redeemer) OR "Holy One of Israel" OR "Holy One of God" in the Lexham English Bible. Phrase "Holy One of God" finds three verses in the New Testament.
Keep Smiling 😊
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@Keep_Smiling_4_Jesus posted:
Another Logos Bible Search suggestion is (Yahweh WITHIN 3 WORDS redeemer) OR "Holy One of Israel" OR "Holy One of God" in the Lexham English Bible. Phrase "Holy One of God" finds three verses in the New Testament.
Thank you.
