Review of Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament by Christopher J.H. Wright

James Pruch Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary May 2012

Introduction Dr. Christopher J. H. Wright (Ph. D., Cambridge) is an Old Testament scholar, an ordained Anglican ministry, and is the director of international ministries with the Langham Partnership International. In Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament, Wright seeks to display the continuity between the Hebrew Scriptures and Jesus’ self-understanding. Wright maintains that Jesus’ self-understanding rooted in the history of salvation that God planned and worked for Israel. This review will show that Wright’s book provides the reader with a rich understanding of Jesus’ unique identity as the Hebrew Messiah and gives helpful insights for understanding how the OT should be viewed from the Christian perspective. Brief Summary Wright’s thesis is that one cannot fully know the story of Jesus unless he sees “it in the light of a much longer story which goes back for many centuries.”1 He works this out in five chapters, which he summarizes at the end of the book: We have seen that the Old Testament tells the story which Jesus completed. It declares the promise which he fulfilled. It provides the pictures and models which shaped his identity. It programmes a mission which he accepted and passed on. It teaches a moral orientation to God and the world which he endorsed, sharpened, and laid as the foundation for obedient discipleship.2 He argues that the OT does not merely point to Jesus but that from the Hebrew Scriptures Jesus “found his insights into the mind of his Father God...[and] found the shape of his own identity and the goal of his own mission.”3 Nevertheless, the OT also does look forward to Christ as “the fulfillment of the promise which [it] had declared.”4 Therefore, unless one understands the story of the OT, he will not