More on the Covanents
(Please read the previous post for background information).
I'm going to make a quick defintion adjustment: when I use the word Bible, I mean only the Christian Bible, because the Hebrew 'Bible' only got that name retrocactively. It will regularly be called the Hebrew Scriptures.
We know that the Bible is diveded into two parts, the Old and New Testament. What, though, is the relation of those parts and how does that relation apply to Biblical foundations of literature?
St. Augustine probably said it best: "the new is in the old concealed; the old is in the new revealed." This means that, two the Christian writer, the New and Old Testaments are not really two separate and independant collections of books, but rather a single collection with separate emphasises (which I mentioned in my previous post).
The most telling part of this connection is found in the idea of Biblical Typology: that events in the Old Testament prefigure things that happen in the new. Most of these have to do with Christ, the Last Supper, and His Passion.
For example, one of the most obvious is the Sacrifice of Isaac. For the benefit of those of you who don't remember the story, God asks Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac on top of a mountain. Abraham loves his son but goes to do what God asks. When he is about to kill his son (who does not offer much in the way of objections) an angel stays his hand and God Himself provides a lamb for the slaughter. Very much in the same way is the Crucifixion of Christ presented in the New Testament, only God Himself is the Father and he does not stay his own hand.
Typology appears quite regularly in Medieval literature, particularly the Mystery plays. These tell Biblical stories and expand upon the information in the Biblical account, filling out more of the characters and what they do. Almost everyone of the plays has some reference to typology, and some (such as the Abraham Isaac play) is overloaded with imagery.
So my suggestion to you is this: while reading the Old Testament look how some of it is an echo of the New Testament. It will give you both a better grasp of the Bible as a whole and its importance to Christian Literature.
I'm going to make a quick defintion adjustment: when I use the word Bible, I mean only the Christian Bible, because the Hebrew 'Bible' only got that name retrocactively. It will regularly be called the Hebrew Scriptures.
We know that the Bible is diveded into two parts, the Old and New Testament. What, though, is the relation of those parts and how does that relation apply to Biblical foundations of literature?
St. Augustine probably said it best: "the new is in the old concealed; the old is in the new revealed." This means that, two the Christian writer, the New and Old Testaments are not really two separate and independant collections of books, but rather a single collection with separate emphasises (which I mentioned in my previous post).
The most telling part of this connection is found in the idea of Biblical Typology: that events in the Old Testament prefigure things that happen in the new. Most of these have to do with Christ, the Last Supper, and His Passion.
For example, one of the most obvious is the Sacrifice of Isaac. For the benefit of those of you who don't remember the story, God asks Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac on top of a mountain. Abraham loves his son but goes to do what God asks. When he is about to kill his son (who does not offer much in the way of objections) an angel stays his hand and God Himself provides a lamb for the slaughter. Very much in the same way is the Crucifixion of Christ presented in the New Testament, only God Himself is the Father and he does not stay his own hand.
Typology appears quite regularly in Medieval literature, particularly the Mystery plays. These tell Biblical stories and expand upon the information in the Biblical account, filling out more of the characters and what they do. Almost everyone of the plays has some reference to typology, and some (such as the Abraham Isaac play) is overloaded with imagery.
So my suggestion to you is this: while reading the Old Testament look how some of it is an echo of the New Testament. It will give you both a better grasp of the Bible as a whole and its importance to Christian Literature.
posted by J.M.R. Burgard @ 4:01 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home