Choose from these words to fill the blanks below:

Christian, pointer, substantial, friend, first, mystery, Isiah, Father, figured, hours, virginal, epistemic, Judaism, chosenness, master, Church, fulfillment, promise, typological, knowledge, person

•

the transition from Israel to Jesus

•

the relationship between the Old Testament and New Testament is of promise and                       fulfillment

•

prophecy found in           Isiah 7:14, "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel."

•

this is understood as being fulfilled by the                 virginal conception of the Christ child by Mary

•

but there is a problem with reducing the relationship between Old and New Testament to one of               promise and fulfillment

•

it makes the Old Testament become merely a               pointer to the New

•

there must be something of                       substantial value to its witness that does not come to an end with the arrival of Jesus Christ in the New Testament

•

the two testaments stand in a tight figurative or                       typological relationship

•

just as Jesus and Israel are both called God's           first born and beloved sons

•

one can ponder the               mystery of the identity of Jesus more deeply by considering his relationship to the Jewish people and their scriptures

•

in this view, a love for               Judaism is not just an ecumenical gesture on the part of the Christian

•

it has deep                   epistemic value

•

it tells us something about the             person of Jesus Christ that we would not have known otherwise

•

for instance, the Old Testament informs on the topic of                     chosenness

•

three mysteries

•

Israel

•

Jesus

•

the             Church

•

when we say "I know person X"

•

I have this person               figured out

•

I know how he will act

•

this type of knowing should be contrasted with knowing someone as a good             friend

•

you can spend           hours with a good friend and there is always something fresh that you can discover about them

•

there is a mystery to this kind of person

•

it draws us closer and closer

•

you can't box up this                   knowledge

•

this is the same with e.g. Israel

•

you can study it in depth but only begin to scratch the surface of what you can learn about it

•

this is the same for the topics Jesus and the Church

•

the Bible does not call us to             master the subject but to begin contemplating this mystery

•

one way into this mystery, at least from the                   Christian Bible, is to keep the question of Israel's identity alive in our hearts and minds as we turn to address the question of Jesus' identity

•

and continually reflect on Jesus e.g. on what he means by referring to a God as             Father