Thursday, March 19, 2020

The importance of Jesus' Knowledge of the Old Testament to His Understanding of His Mission and Increasing in Wisdom


Eastern Orthodox scholar Patrick Henry Reardon, commenting on how Jesus (1) increased in his understanding of the Old Testament and how (2) this was an instrumental means of His increasing in His understanding of his mission wrote:

Vocation and Biblical Understanding

We are told that Jesus, returning to Nazareth at age twelve, “increased in wisdom” (Luke 2:51-52). Surely we are right in supposing that an essential component of His increasing wisdom was deepening concern for His “Father’s business,” a point rather prominent in His mind on that recent trip to Jerusalem (2:49).

We are likewise correct, surely, in supposing that Jesus’ increasing wisdom had something to do with His further exploration of the Holy Scriptures. The Scriptures were publicly read in the synagogue, where Jesus regularly attended—“as His custom was,” kata to eiothos avtoi. Those same Scriptures, furthermore, were readily available for anyone who visited the synagogue to read them, and we do know that Jesus could read (4:16). He gained a proficiency in quoting the Bible, showing an early preference for Deuteronomy (4:4, 8, 12).

All of this goes to say, of course, that Jesus grew in familiarity with and understanding of Holy Scriptures, specifically as it addressed his life and mission. He knew, from His own self-consciousness, the meaning of the Scriptures: They had to do with Him. We are certain of this, because on the first occasion when we know our Lord publicly read the Scriptures—a passage from Isaiah—His striking comment was, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (4:21).

I suggest that there are two premises and two inferences especially to keep in mind with respect to Jesus’ understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures.

First, there is what we may call a vertical premise, having to do with Jesus’ personal relation to God. In the Scriptures, Jesus perceived His identity as the One sent forth by the Father to do with His work on earth. The Hebrew Scriptures, Jesus knew, held the key to who He was and what He was about. Called upon to declare whether He was “the Coming One,” Ho Erchomenos, our Lord answered by referring to the scriptural fulfillment rendered visible in His ministry: “The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them” (Luke 7:19-22).

Jesus’ understanding of the Bible was thus formed in the depths of His awareness of His vocation—the conscious knowledge of His identity in relation to the Father: “You are My beloved Son" (Luke 3:22). Our Lord’s interpretation of Holy Scripture was inseparable from the knowledge of Himself as God’s Son and the Savior of the world. (Patrick Henry Reardon, Reclaiming the Atonement: An Orthodox Theology of Redemption, Volume 1: The Incarnation [Chesterton, Ind.: Ancient Faith Publishing, 2015], 183-84, emphasis in bold added)

Such also shows the importance of believers being well-read in, and informed of, the Old Testament. One should strive to have the same appreciation of Scripture as Jesus did, especially the Old Testament.