There’s no such thing as a “New Testament Christian”. While the popular scepticism about parts of the Old Testament is understandable, we’re convinced by the arguments of our guest today: Christ isn’t just the hero of the New Testament … He is everywhere in the Old Testament.
Meet our guest
Professor Tremper Longman III is an Old Testament scholar, Emeritus Professor of Biblical Studies and a Distinguished Scholar of Biblical Studies at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California. Armed with a doctorate in ancient near eastern studies from Yale University and his name on the title of more than twenty books on history and historiography (while serving as a consultant on popular translations of the Bible), it’s not for nothing that Professor Longman is considered a leading authority on the history, construction and thematic of the Old Testament.
Links
This episode of Undeceptions is sponsored by Zondervan Academic’s Masterlecture series, with Delores Morris’ course ‘Believing Philosophy’.
You can find a full transcript for this episode here
WANT MORE?
To Read
- C.S. Lewis (that name again) famously posited the identity of Jesus as falling into one of three categories; Lord, Liar or Lunatic. Apologist John Clark helpfully breaks down the arguments here
- Our guest Professor Longman’s book Five Views of Christ In The Old Testament is also available online – you can order it here via Zondervan Academic
- Westminister Theological Centre has done plenty of work unpacking the more confronting sections of the Old Testament, including the Caananite conflicts, which some people view as genocidal. Check out some of their writing on the topic here
- Professor John Barton’s excellent Protestant Bible Scholarship: Antisemitism, Philosemitism and Anti-Judaism unpack the differences between Christian and Jewish approaches to the Old Testament. A whole chapter is available online via Brill – read it here
- For Us, But Not To Us is a collection of essays in honour of John H. Walton – one of John’s colleagues at Wheaton – and brings together some of the brightest thinkers in Biblical scholarship and their knowledge on the context of the ancient society that first heard (and experienced) the message of the Bible. Check out an excerpt here
To Listen
- In Episode 55 Just War we unpack the notion of warfare from a Biblical perspective – something that has many parallels with the Old Testament
- As John mentioned in the episode, we’ve got a wealth of material on Genesis for you to dig into; Six Days (episode 14) looks at creationism, The Flood (episode 72) explores the historicity of the story of Noah’s Ark and this five minute-Jesus on the importance of creation are helpful starting points – and we’ll have more to come in the near future
To Watch
- Dallas Jenkin’s TV adaptation of the Gospels in The Chosen has proven a surprise hit, and a rare success in the fraught world of Bible adaptations for the screen – Watch all episodes for free here
- The Bible Project is known for its helpful, concise videos, and its overview of the Old Testament is no exception. Watch it here
- They also provide a helpful and insightful commentary on the Canaanite conflicts – one of the more confronting parts of the Bible in their overview of the Book of Joshua
- And finally – their explanation of the different literacy styles of the Bible is a very helpful resource
- Professor Longman features in plenty of online content, including this fascinating video discussion; Can Genesis Be Compatible With Evolution? If you have a spare hour it’s well worth your time
- Miroslav Volf is one of the leading Christian thinkers on God’s justice, love and judgement in response to the evil of the world. This interview with UK charity Speak Life on the power of evil in the world is an excellent starting point for his perspective
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