Why do christians quote from the old testemant so much?

Question

Errr... wasn't the whole point of the christ that he was going to clarify mankinds' mistakes & misunderstandings? (i.e. the old testemant was wrong.)
I am an atheist, so any abuse from fundamentalists (any religion) is most welcome :)

Answer 1

What an incisive question. I fear there is no one simple, succinct answer. In fact, there will be as many answers as there are Christians. Why does anyone, Christian or otherwise, quote from any scriptures? I think basically there are three answers.

They speak to us; they speak of us; they speak for us.

(1) In what sense does the Hebrew Bible speak to Christians? [By the way, I'm sorry the biblia (=little books) are generally seen now as the Bible (=the book). These little documents reflect the age in which they were written; each was written in its own form, for its own purpose, with its own message, for its own people. We probably should read them in such a context.]

Remember, Hebrew scriptures were the only ones available in the time Jesus lived in Israel--the law (Torah), the prophets, and the psalms. So when Jesus quoted scriptures, it was the Hebrew Bible. Jesus himself said he came not to destroy but to fulfill the law and the prophets. Before his ascension, he used them: ". . . beginning with Moses and from all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24.27) But just as the prophets reinterpreted the Law ("I desire mercy and not sacrifice"), so Jesus reinterpreted the Hebrew scriptures. Of the Golden Rule, for example, he said, "THIS is the law and the prophets."

The Law includes explicit commandments and instructions given TO the people. Christians sometimes tend to pick and choose among those "laws," sometimes quoting certain rules out of context, ignoring others from the same context. To be honest, it would be possible to support jihad, using some of these scriptures taken out of context just as Westerners claim Muslims do from the Koran.

But some passages, including those that Jesus saw as the heart of the law and prophets, still speak TO us in ways that are simple and sublime: "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Leviticus 19.18),. The primary message of most of the prophets is to uphold justice and mercy and to condemn oppression. “Let justice roll down as waters.” (Amos 5.24) “ . . . to do justly and to love kindness and to walk humbly with thy God” (Micah 6.8)

(2) In what sense does the Hebrew Bible speak of us? In the same sense that good literature often does. We see ourselves in these stories; we hear our voices among these characters; we observe our deepest motives acted out in their lives. Who does not like to lord it over his brothers as the young Joseph did? Who does not feel resentment as his older brothers did? Who would not grieve the loss of a son as Jacob did? Who does not suffer the taunts and revenge of bullies as Joseph in the pit? Who does not exult as the boy David did in overcoming a giant? Who does not celebrate victory exuberantly as David dancing before the Ark of the Covenant?

One of my favorite "scriptures" is this one: "There's a divinity that shapes our ends / Rough-hew them how we will." It's what Hamlet learns from his tragedy in Shakespeare’s play. For the young prince has suffered and learned from his suffering: “. . . the readiness is all.” Classic literature always speaks OF us. So do the scriptures.

(3) In what sense does the Hebrew Bible speak for us? I think the book of Psalms is unique, for it does not report what the priests and prophets say to us nor what the storytellers say of us. It gives us words ourselves to address to the Infinite One. I can turn randomly to it and find a plea, a cry: "Let me not be put to shame; let not mine enemies triumph over me." (Ps 25.2) The psalms give us words for our hopes, our fears, our concerns, our longings, even our resentments and hatreds. The speak FOR us.

Why do I quote from the Old Testament so much? I grew up a fundamentalist Christian; as a young man I turned to evangelical Christianity; now I am what most would call a "liberal," to my old fundamentalist comrades, even an "anti-Christian." I have discovered Lao Tzu and Gautama Buddha, the Muslim poets Rumi and Hafiz, the visionaries William Blake and Emily Dickinson. They still speak to me, of me, and for me. As I grow older, and language begins to fail, perhaps the most important scriptures are those that speak FOR me. “I will lift up mine eyes unto these hills / from whence cometh my help.”

Answer 2

Its like a movie, You can watch the last five minutes and know how it ends, but that doesn't mean that you had an enjoyable experience going to watch the movie. You weren't entertained. Likewise, the New Testament completes the "movie" begun in the Old Testament. The NT certainly does not invalidate the OT, but rather completes it.

With out the OT there would be no foundation for the NT. You can't have one with out the other and have it make sense.

Study it and you'll see that. Even as a philosophical (not religious) book, it is still worth study.

Answer 3

Sensible, educated Christians revere the OT because it is a collection of sacred stories and legends from the ancient Near East that explains the origins of the Hebraic world view. Or at least sort of explains if you don't pay too much attention. In no way is the Old Testament related to the modern world, and nobody with one brown lick of sense has ever taken it as a literal description of history or a scientific explanation of how the world was made or how things work.

In fact the ancient Hebrew poets who compiled the stories in the OT would be taken aback if they learned that illiterate dolts in the 20th and 21st centuries had taken to proclaiming the OT--Genesis or any other part of it--as the correct story of creation. They would laugh out loud if they listened to Jerry Falwell or Tim LaHaye.

So the winners don't. It's the losers that call themselves Christians without knowing what they are talking about that quote the OT and try to use it to define their version of morality. They just don't understand the world they live in, and don't have a clue what the Christian faith is about.

So you can ignore them. Right...(!)

Answer 4

Old testament isn't wrong... It still contains many moral lessons for people to learn from. The New Testament was Christ's fulfillment of the Old laws, not the eraser of the stories. Christians value both books, but probably put more emphasis on the New simply because it contains the teachings of their Messiah.

Answer 5

the old testament is simply a prophecy of the Christ to come....understanding the new testament is not possible without the history of the old testament.....we are studying the old testament right now in bible study.....so sorry you grew up in an unpleasant Christian upbringing......keep searching for something greater than yourself......"seek and ye shall find"......good question.....

Answer 6

It must make them feel impotent!

Answer 7

Because they don't understand that Jesus came to fulfill it, and that it no longer applies to them.