Christians, why does the old testament of the Bible not matter?

Question

Did Jesus have a change of heart? Was he like "ok everyone, you can stop killing homosexuals and gouging out eyes and whatnot."

Answer 1

Thank goodness SOMEBODY said it...(Jesus, I mean...)

Answer 2

The old testament is important; it's just not completely applicable today anymore. First of all, it is more probably called 'the old covenant'. God made a covenant with Israel, which He fulfilled when Jesus died on the cross. Hence, Christ's words, "It is finished", meaning the old covenant was done.
Secondly, it was given to the Jews, not to Christians, not to Muslims, not to pagans. It was a covenant or contract made with a specific people for a specific time. For us to try to make the O.T. rule our lives, is like the bank saying that your paid off mortgage is no longer paid off- you have to start paying all over again. Once the old covenant was finished, the thousands of laws written in Deuteronomy and Leviticus were no longer necessary. Christ laid down a new law, which covered them all, "Love your neighbor as yourself". If we truly do that, we do not need all those laws anymore. Think about it.

Answer 3

He actually explained his ideas on that, you know...
And since when did the Old Testament matter? The ideas expressed in the Old Testament were by no means the consensus among the Jews of the 1st century. The Jews didn't even define the canon of the OT until some 60 years after the crucifixion.

Answer 4

Anyone who tells you that the Old Testament does not matter has not studied the Bible or does not understand. The only major change is that we are not under the law anymore. Hence no more killing homosexuals. Christ with His life and death fulfilled the law so that we are no longer under it. Without the OT we lose the prophecies about Christ. Daniel contains prophecies that refer to events that have not yet happened. The OT is still extremely important.

Answer 5

It does its important. Its the old covenant. much of it still holds true. However all along there was a new covenant coming. When Jesus came this new covenant was manifest. It broke some of the old holds the old covenant had on us. We are now free of the laws condemnation to death and separation from God. We are now under Grace by jesus Christ. The law was married with grace and the two became one.

Answer 6

It DOES matter, dear one. No Christian will say otherwise. It contains very valuable history and prophesy about Christ. Christ fulfilled Old Testament laws and prophecy and gave us a New Covenant, so now we live under the grace of God, rather than Mosaic law.

God bless!

Answer 7

Every word of the Old Testament "matters". There is no difference between the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament.

Answer 8

Does the 600 year old history of America matter? Yes, but what purpose? It serves as a reminder. The words itself don't affect much of life today, but we are where we are because of it and it doesnt hurt to remember.

Answer 9

The canon of the Old Testament that Catholics use is based on the text used by Alexandrian Jews, a version known as the "Septuagint" and which came into being around 280 B.C. as a translation of then existing texts from Hebrew into Greek by 72 Jewish scribes (the Torah was translated first, around 300 B.C., and the rest of Tanach was translated afterward).

The Septuagint is the Old Testament referred to in the Didache or "Doctrine of the Apostles" (first century Christian writings) and by Origen, Irenaeus of Lyons, Hippolytus, Tertullian, Cyprian of Carthage, Justin Martyr, St. Augustine and the vast majority of early Christians who referenced Scripture in their writings. The Epistle of Pope Clement, written in the first century, refers to the Books Ecclesiasticus and Wisdom, analyzed the book of Judith, and quotes sections of the book of Esther that were removed from Protestant Bibles.


In the 16th c., Luther, reacting to serious abuses and clerical corruption in the Latin Church, to his own heretical theological vision (see articles on sola scriptura and sola fide), and, frankly, to his own inner demons, removed those books from the canon that lent support to orthodox doctrine, relegating them to an appendix. Removed in this way were books that supported such things as prayers for the dead (Tobit 12:12; 2 Maccabees 12:39-45), Purgatory (Wisdom 3:1-7), intercession of dead saints (2 Maccabees 15:14), and intercession of angels as intermediaries (Tobit 12:12-15). Ultimately, the "Reformers" decided to ignore the canon determined by the Christian Councils of Hippo and Carthage.

The Latin Church in no way ignored the post-Temple rabbincal texts. Some Old Testament translations of the canon used by the Latin Church were also based in part on rabbinical translations, for example St. Jerome's 5th c. Latin translation of the Bible called the Vulgate.

The "Masoretic texts" refers to translations of the Old Testament made by rabbis between the 6th and 10th centuries; the phrase doesn't refer to ancient texts in the Hebrew language. Some people think that the Masoretic texts are the "original texts" and that, simply because they are in Hebrew, they are superior.

Some Protestants claim that the "Apocrypha" are not quoted in the New Testament so, therefore, they are not canonical.
Going by that standard of proof, we'd have to throw out Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Lamentations, Obadiah, Nahum, and Zephaniah because none of these Old Testament Books are quoted in the New Testament.


But there is a bigger lesson in all this confusion over not only the canon but proper translation of the canon , especially considering that even within the Catholic Church there have been differing opinions by individual theologians about the proper place of the deuterocanonicals (not that an individual theologian's opinions count for Magisterial teaching!).
The lesson, though, is this: relying on the "Bible alone" is a bad idea; we are not to rely solely on Sacred Scripture to understand Christ's message. While Scripture is "given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16-17), it is not sufficient for reproof, correction and instruction in righteousness.
It is the Church that is the "pillar and ground of Truth" (1 Timothy 3:15)!
Jesus did not come to write a book; He came to redeem us, and He founded a Sacramental Church through His apostles to show us the way.
It is to them, to the Church Fathers, to the Sacred Deposit of Faith, to the living Church that is guided by the Holy Spirit, and to Scripture that we must prayerfully look.

Answer 10

The OT is a record of what happened in the past. The NT is about the new covenant.

Answer 11

Sounds more like Islam then Pauls religion.


.