Why do Christians read the Old Testament?
Christians read the Old Testament because it too is part of God's inspired word and is indispensable for understanding Jesus Christ. The New Testament is built on the language, stories, promises, and concepts of the Old Testament. Without it, major themes such as creation, sin…
Christians read the Old Testament because it too is part of God's inspired word and is indispensable for understanding Jesus Christ. The New Testament is built on the language, stories, promises, and concepts of the Old Testament. Without it, major themes such as creation, sin, covenant, sacrifice, temple, kingship, and messianic expectation are only partially understood.
Jesus himself used the Scriptures and told his disciples that the writings of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms spoke about him. The early church also kept returning to the Old Testament as it explained the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. For that reason, in Christian reading the Old Testament is not merely information about an earlier era. It is a witness that prepares for Christ and reveals God's character. The law shows God's holiness and human sin. The historical books display God's patient dealings with his people. The wisdom books address the complexity of life. The prophets speak both judgment and hope.
Reading the Old Testament is not only a matter of learning the source of quotations. It is seeing how God's plan of salvation unfolds across time. The promises to Abraham, the Passover, the Davidic kingdom, and the expectation of a new covenant do not appear randomly in the New Testament. They belong to a long story, and that story gives Christian faith its sense of continuity. The Old Testament also provides foundational language for prayer, justice, and holiness.
An important balance is needed here. Christians take the Old Testament seriously, but they do not read it as independent from Christ or disconnected from the New Testament. At the same time, it is not right to treat the Old Testament as if it were unimportant. Church history has seen such tendencies from time to time, but mainstream Christianity has rejected them.
Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant traditions all use the Old Testament in worship, preaching, and teaching. Their canons differ somewhat in scope, but their shared conviction is clear: Christians are nourished not only by the New Testament, but by God's larger story of salvation. The Old Testament is the first and foundational part of that story.