This critique will consider the style and substance of Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament, written by Christopher J. H. Wright. Wright is a former Anglican pastor and accomplished academic, serving as John Stott’s successor through Langham Partnership International. This volume is still in its first edition, published in 1992 by InterVarsity Press in Downers Grove, Illinois. In his preface, Wright decries how Jesus Christ has been “cut off from the historical Jewish context of his own day, and from his deep roots in the Hebrew scriptures (ix).” The purpose of this critique is to evaluate the degree to which Wright successfully places Jesus Christ in religious context.
Summary
The main purpose of Wright’s volume is to consider Jesus in Old Testament context. His view is that Jesus will be fundamentally misunderstood if he is not studied in the context he actually existed in. Perhaps his main themes are best summarized by his own chapter divisions: Old Testament story, Old Testament promise, Old Testament identity, Old Testament mission, and Old Testament values. These topics all stem from the prime thrust of Wright’s work: understand Jesus in Old Testament context.
This book sets out to offer a more contextual understanding of Jesus, placing him in the culture he existed in which was so shaped by the Old Testament. Wright contextualizes Jesus primarily by putting him in linear historical perspective in Chapter One. This linearity offers a solid structure for secondary emphases to relate back to. Wright explains how Christ fulfilled the Old Testament prophecy, how his very understanding of himself was so shaped by the Old Testament Scripture, and finally how his purpose and priorities flowed from the Old Testament.
If the crying need that gave birth to this book is a Jesus out of context, the wrestling of the text is to argue for a full-orbed historical and religious placement of Jesus. Beyond Wright’s thematic emphases lies the practical thrust seen throughout this book, an emphatic conviction that Jesus Christ both as God and as man was in some sense concretely rooted in the Old Testament. His primary emphasis and secondary explanations are saturated throughout by the peripheral details that thoroughly place Jesus Christ in relation to Scripture as he knew it.
Critique
Wright’s perspective is formed by a high view of the inspiration of Scripture. Throughout this volume his prejudice is apparent because the Bible is practically the only source he consults. It is also apparent that Wright is writing this volume as an academic yet with the goal of reaching a more popular audience. Wright says in the preface that “it saddens me that so many Christians…know so little about who [Jesus] thought he was and what he had come to do (ix).” Later on he refers to “our average carol-singing Christian (8).”
Wright’s not-so-modest goal in this volume is to bridge the enormous information gap that exists for many Christians in regard to Jesus Christ in Old Testament context. He effectively accomplishes a great deal toward this goal for anyone who holds the Scripture in high regard. His information might not be as readily accepted by some scholars because it lacks significant sourcing beyond an evangelical perspective of the Bible.
Wright is able to effectively create a bridge between the contemporary Christian and the Old Testament; he does this by approaching Jesus in Old Testament context from so many angles. By exposing the Old Testament from various angles, Wright lays clear the impact and meaning this understanding adds to clarify Jesus Christ as God and man.
Wright’s arguments hold significant substance based on their utter reliance on Scripture itself. One inherent weakness which Wright himself acknowledges (x) is the entire absence of footnotes and secondary references, which is somewhat mitigated by a four-page bibliography.
Numerous reviews of Wright’s volume are available in print and online, but few delineate truly helpful or critical perspective of his work. Key reviews include those by Paul Alexander[1] and Jason Morrison.[2] Alexander notes that Wright’s style is “very readable” with “short and powerful sentences.” Morrison’s review is blithely uncritical, and offers a summary of this volume.
There are other significant works in the study of Jesus Christ in relation to the Old Testament. Walter Kaiser’s The Messiah in the Old Testament and N. T. Wright’s Jesus and the Victory of God treat this subject from different perspectives. Another helpful resource for individual study would be G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson’s Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament.
The words of Wright himself, the overwhelming tenor of reviews of this volume, and the personal evaluation of the writer of this critique unanimously point to the accessibility of Wright’s work. The question remains: in what specific ways might an average reader apply the knowledge gained in the reading of this volume?
There are at least three specific ways this volume is of use for the average reader. First, rather than coercing Old Testament passages into a Jesus-shaped decoupage, Wright lays bare the reality that the Old Testament is about Jesus. This realization gained from reading Wright’s book might very well transform the reader’s perspective of Jesus.
Second, for the reader who follows Wright’s primary emphasis and secondary considerations, this volume provides an approach from many angles to the question at hand. The reader is more suitably prepared to understand and share his new perspective of Jesus along any one of these lines.
Finally, Wright offers a common-sense explanation of Jesus that also provides the contemporary Christian with a holistic and meaningful understanding of the Old Testament. Not only has he exposed Jesus in the Old Testament context, but he has also exposed the Old Testament in the Jesus context. This provocatively dualistic realization should utterly transform the average reader’s understanding and therefore application of the Old Testament.
Conclusion
Wright’s volume is a compelling and readable bridge from today through the Old Testament to Jesus Christ. Since Wright’s goal was to offer a readable, non-academic treatment of the subject, he has satisfactorily accomplished his end. This book is not useful for those purposes which demand a thorough academic approach.
Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament was an eye-opening experience for the critique writer. This is at least in part more a tribute to the writer’s ignorance than to Wright’s competence. The Old Testament in its intrinsically valuable state is revealed by this volume, and in turn Jesus Christ in his historical and religious context gains dimension and value that rightly belongs to him.
Wright’s volume answers a profound yet subliminal question of the usefulness and relevance of the Old Testament. His book may leave the average reader wondering in what ways he should be more critical or aware of Wright’s particular emphasis or perspective. The book is highly recommended to anyone who values Scripture as God’s Word, and wishes to form a more biblical understanding of Jesus as God and man.
Wilbur
