What are the differences and similarities between the Old and New Testaments?

Why are there two testaments?

Firstly, why is the bible split into two parts, the Old Testament (OT) and the New Testament (NT)? The word 'testament' comes from the Greek word diatheke and can also be translated as a contract (as in a will) or a covenant. Under the first or old covenant God's people were required to obey the law of Moses, and when they failed to obey the law forgiveness was obtained by shedding the blood of an animal (Heb 8-9) i.e. the animal was sacrificed. In the second or new covenant forgiveness was achieved through the shed blood of Jesus when he died on the cross (Mat 26:28, Heb 9:15). The new covenant is spoken of by the prophet Jeremiah (Jer 31:31-34) "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people". In 2 Cor 3:6 Paul contrasts the old covenant of the letter of the law, which kills, with the new covenant of the spirit, which gives life. God's revelation to mankind is progressive, part 1 followed by part 2, and much of what is hidden in the OT is revealed in the NT.

An Old Testament introduction.

The bible consists of 66 books written over 1600 years, the OT was written in Hebrew and contains 39 separate books. The Pentateuch, the first five books of OT, were written by Moses (circa 1500 BC). It can be assumed that the prophetic books were written by the prophet indicated by the title of the book e.g. Isaiah (Isa 30:8), Jeremiah (Jer 30:2), Ezekiel (Ezek 43:11), Hab 2:2. Some books were collected and edited by an unnamed editor such as 1 and 2 Chronicles, 1 and 2 Kings. The Psalms were written by a number of different, but sometimes named, authors (David, Moses, Solomon, Asaph). The OT was written between about 1500-400 BC (from Genesis to Malachi). It contains various literary types including pre-history, history, wisdom literature, prophecies and apocalyptic.

The Old Testament or covenant gives the history of God’s dealing with his chosen people the Jews. Genesis tells of the beginning of the universe, Adam and Eve and the Fall into sin and the great flood in which only Noah and his family was rescued. God’s call to Abraham (Gen 12:1), and God's covenant with Abraham to give him and his descendants the land of Canaan (Gen 17:8), and how his offspring would be a plentiful as the stars in heaven (Gen 15:5) and that the whole world would be blessed through him (Gen 22:18). Abraham's son Isaac follows this and his son Jacob who had twelve sons who would form the twelve tribes of Israel. In the book of Exodus he gave his people the Law, which they had to obey. The book of Leviticus describes in detail the Law, which consisted of moral law, civil law and ceremonial law. Deuteronomy gives an overview or summary of the law. Most of the rest of the OT gives the history of the children of Israel and describes how they generally failed to obey the law that God gave them. The major and minor prophets were sent by God to bring his people back to him, usually they did not heed the warnings of the prophets and thus brought God’s judgement on themselves. We should remember that much of the OT deals with people in the Bronze Age (Moses) and Iron Age (David).

The OT deals with the line of people who would bring forth the Messiah, who was descended from Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Boaz, David, and Solomon (Mat 1:1, Luke 3:23). Hence the book of Ruth, since Jesus was descended from Boaz (Mat 1:5) who married Ruth. The book of Esther is unusual because the name of God is not mentioned, but it tells of the preservation of God’s people through the obedience of Esther.

The Wisdom and poetic literature consists of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs. The remarkable perseverance of Job in the face of suffering is described together with the invisible backdrop of God's conversation with Satan, which demonstrates that Job's suffering was permitted by God, but inflicted by Satan. The 150 psalms in the Book of Psalms covers the complete range of human emotions from deep depression, anger to praise and are a source of solace to believers when Paul's deep theology is too much for us. Proverbs gives God's wisdom while Ecclesiastes shows us man's wisdom, both were written in part by Solomon. The Song of Songs can be seen to portray love between a man and woman, or between Jesus and the church.

Reading the OT can be like mining for gold, every now and then we find a nugget.

Recommended books of the OT for beginners are: Genesis, Exodus, Joshua, Ruth, Esther, Psalms, Proverbs, Daniel, Jonah.

A New Testament introduction:

The NT contains 27 different books and was written between about 50-95 AD. The majority was written before the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. Paul and Peter died in Nero's persecution of 65AD. Luke finishes his book of Acts while Paul was still alive in Rome in about AD62 and we can reasonably assume that Luke's gospel was written before Acts, which is essentially the second part of the gospel. Mark is thought to be a collection of the preaching of Peter who died around AD 65. Only the gospel of John, John's letters (epistles) and Revelation may have a late date. Revelation is usually thought to be written at a late date (AD 95) but there is a group of scholars who think it was written before the fall of Jerusalem.

The four gospels are usually split into two groups the three synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) which have much common material and John's gospel which is of a different style, being more theological than the others. John's gospel shows us the relationship between the Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) clearer than any other book in the bible. The gospels can be described as a literary type, being the life and teachings of a great Rabbi (teacher, master). Luke though writes much more as a historian, especially in Acts where he describes the origin and spread of the church. Luke and Acts is based on eyewitness testimony (Luke 1:1-4). Most of the rest of the NT is made up of letters (epistles) from the apostles to many of the churches, the epistles contain theology and practical application for Christian living. Paul wrote 13 letters or epistles (not including Hebrews), John wrote three, Peter wrote two, Jude and James both wrote one. There are many debates on the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, which shows how Jesus fulfilled and abolished the ceremonial law given in the book of Leviticus. Finally we have the book of Revelation which is a completely different literary type, being apocalyptic, which uses a series of highly symbolic visions to show the church what is shortly to take place. Fortunately the symbols are mostly taken from the rest of the bible. Its purpose is to encourage the church through difficult times until the Second Coming of Christ in glory.

The OT prophets foretold of coming messiah who would save his people, a suffering servant (Isa 53:11) and a triumphant king (speaking of the first and Second Coming of Christ). The OT looks forward to the Messiah and the NT tells of the coming of the Messiah Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection. What is hidden in the OT is revealed in the NT (Rom 16:25-26, Eph 1:10, Eph 3:4-9, Col 1:26). When the Messiah did come many people were expecting a triumphant king but Jesus came as the suffering servant bearings the sins of his people on the cross. His first coming was in humility as a little baby in obscurity, his Second Coming will be public and in great glory and inaugurating the eternal state. Because Jesus did not conform to the expectations of the people the chief priests and elders had him crucified by the ruling Roman authorities. The remains of the NT tell of the formation of the church (Acts) which started as Jewish but as it spread out over the world it became increasingly Gentile (non-Jewish). Jesus was born a Jew and was circumcised as a child and later participated in the Christian initiation rite of baptism

In order to fully understand the NT it is important to understand that it deals firstly, in the gospels, with God's dealings with his chosen people Israel (the Jews). The ministry of Jesus was to the Jews in particular rather than the Gentiles (Mat 15:24). Jesus was rejected by the leaders of his people (Mark 8:31, Luke 19:41, John 1:11). It was after Jesus death and resurrection that the gospel is to be spread to the whole world starting with Jerusalem (the Jews) and to the ends of the world (the Gentiles Acts 1:8). Therefore some of the NT deals with conflicts that arose, as Gentiles became converts to the gospel, especially in Acts and Galatians (Acts 10:45, 15:14 Gal 2:9 ff.). Ephesians 3:6 shows us that "through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus". Revelation ends by showing us that there will be representatives from "every nation, tribe, people and language" in heaven (Rev 5:9, 7:9). God's promise to Abraham that all nations would be blessed because of him will be fulfilled.

It is frequently thought that the OT depicts a God of anger and judgement, while the NT depicts a God of love, however a careful reading will probably show a similar balance between love and judgement in both testaments. Jesus spoke a lot about hell, but he also went to the cross to save us from hell. He also gave us the parable of the prodigal son, which shows us the Fathers willingness to forgive us of our sin and rebellion.

Recommended books of the NT for beginners are: Mark; Luke; Acts; John; 1 Peter and 1 John.

The gospel of the New Testament:

The gospel (euaggelion) means good news, and Mark starts his gospel with the words "The beginning of the gospel (euaggelion) about Jesus Christ, the Son of God" Mark 1:1. The OT describes the fall of Adam and Eve and their expulsion from the garden of Eden. It describes how God chooses a people for himself, and giving his Law to them. It then describes how they failed to keep the law. The NT testament tells the "good news" (the gospel) of what God has done to rescue man from the fall and his failure to keep the law. The NT gives the centerpiece of God's rescue plan, namely the birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. It is at the cross that God's love for the world and his holiness and justice are reconciled. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness for sins. Man has sinned and its penalty is death. The death of Jesus on the cross was a substitutionary death, the innocent died for the guilty. During his life he fulfilled the demands of the law by obeying it perfectly, he committed no sin. Unlike us he was born without sin, hence the importance of the virgin birth.

The Law given at Sinai (Exo 20) could save no one (Gal 3:2, 1Heb 7:19), it simply shows us our need of a saviour who paid the price for our sin. The OT describes in great detail how God's chosen people failed to keep the law and frequently went off into idolatry and ignored God's prophets who called the people back to God. We cannot obey the Law, so God sent Jesus as our human representative, who perfectly obeyed the law and died in our place on the cross (as our substitute 2 Cor 5:21, 1 Pet 2:24, 3:18, Isa 53:4-7). The NT shows that because Christ paid our debt of sin in full on the cross our salvation is a free gift of God (Rom 5:15-17). We are saved by grace, through faith, for good works (Eph 2:8). Grace is God's unmerited favor towards us, not counting our sins against us. The alternative way to salvation to that of grace is works, in which we work to obtain salvation by keeping the law. But if we could do this we can boast that we obtained our own salvation (Rom 4:2, Eph 2:8-9) rather than thank God for his salvation given through his mercy. Keeping the law does not save us, the purpose of the law is to show us the demands of a holy God and our failure to live by the Law. Since we cannot keep the law God sent Jesus to fulfil the law’s demands on our behalf, in his death on the cross he bore sins penalty on our behalf. Therefore, keeping the law of God cannot save us, because we cannot keep it perfectly, hence we must receive the gift of salvation freely, not because we deserve it but because Jesus Christ has paid the price of our sin already, in full, on the cross. What God requires of us is that we repent, turn from our sins and self-seeking, we surrender to God and believe the gospel (Acts 20:21, 26:20).

Similarities and differences:

Literary types

List of the books of the bible.