EDWARD'S LECTURE NOTES:
More notes at http://tanguay.info/learntracker
C O U R S E
Jesus in Scripture and Tradition
Gary Anderson, University of Notre Dame
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C O U R S E L E C T U R E Transition from Israel to Jesus Notes taken on August 29, 2016 by Edward Tanguay |
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the transition from Israel to Jesus
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the relationship between the Old Testament and New Testament is of promise and fulfillment
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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."
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this is understood as being fulfilled by the virginal conception of the Christ child by Mary
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but there is a problem with reducing the relationship between Old and New Testament to one of promise and fulfillment
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it makes the Old Testament become merely a pointer to the New
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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
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the two testaments stand in a tight figurative or typological relationship
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just as Jesus and Israel are both called God's first born and beloved sons
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one can ponder the mystery of the identity of Jesus more deeply by considering his relationship to the Jewish people and their scriptures
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in this view, a love for Judaism is not just an ecumenical gesture on the part of the Christian
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it has deep epistemic value
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it tells us something about the person of Jesus Christ that we would not have known otherwise
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for instance, the Old Testament informs on the topic of chosenness
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three mysteries
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Israel
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Jesus
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the Church
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when we say "I know person X"
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I have this person figured out
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I know how he will act
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this type of knowing should be contrasted with knowing someone as a good friend
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you can spend hours with a good friend and there is always something fresh that you can discover about them
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there is a mystery to this kind of person
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it draws us closer and closer
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you can't box up this knowledge
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this is the same with e.g. Israel
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you can study it in depth but only begin to scratch the surface of what you can learn about it
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this is the same for the topics Jesus and the Church
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the Bible does not call us to master the subject but to begin contemplating this mystery
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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
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and continually reflect on Jesus e.g. on what he means by referring to a God as Father