The Christian Covenant: Affirmation of the Jewish Scriptures (The Bible: The Book that Bridges the Millennia)

The church did affirm the Jewish Scriptures as part of Christianity, designating them the Old Testament or Old Covenant, and understanding their purpose as preparing the world for Christ. Orthodox Christian theology developed and enhanced the teachings of Paul and the apostles, summarizing the Jewish Law as a whole, and interpreting its purpose as creating a faithful people who live out the will of God.

The legalistic details of Torah were submerged in the metaphor of the whole Covenant, which the coming of Christ completed. The New Covenant law of love freed believers from the details of the Old Covenant, with its sacred center in Jerusalem and its faith community, the Jews. For Christians the center of holiness and purity was the human heart and the entire community of believers that transcended race, culture, and class. Sin could separate a person from the community of the faithful brothers and sisters, but repentance and forgiveness could reinstate them. No obedience to a code of rules established holiness, if a person’s heart was not repentant; and no behavior was so grievous that it could not be forgiven, with repentance. Ritual purity had been replaced by purity of heart.

Ireneaus

One key expounder of this emerging theology was Irenaeus (c.130-200), who served as Bishop of Lyons in southern Gaul (France), although he came from a Greek-speaking eastern province. Irenaeus used the language of "Old" and "New" Covenants for the Jewish and Christian sections of the Bible. He insisted on the connection between them, interpreting the whole of biblical history as a series of covenants in which God revealed salvation in stages through history, as humanity was ready for it. The covenants with Adam, Noah, and Moses expressed God’s love for God’s own creation and desire to redeem human sinfulness.

Irenaeus argued that the same God was present within each covenant, and that each covenant progressed from the one before, until Jesus embodied the full revelation. The incarnation of God in Jesus reunites human beings to the image of God, which was the purpose of their creation, thus reversing the sin of Adam.

Tertullian

In addition to Irenaeus, the North African teacher Tertullian (160-223) also wrote extensively against the Gnostics. He was probably trained as a lawyer, and converted to Christianity in midlife.

Tertullian [left] was the first important theologian using the Latin language instead of Greek, and his legalistic interpretations of the relationship between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the roles of Scripture and the sacraments,* and the fate of heretics created the terminology that later characterized the Latin-speaking Roman church. He first used the word "Trinitas" or Trinity,* to describe the threefold nature of God.

Tertullian taught that the Bible should be read only within the church, for truth is established within the church and the church possesses the Bible. Heretics like Gnostics add new teachings, so they cannot claim to be in the apostolic tradition, and therefore have no right to interpret Scripture. Only the orthodox, apostolic church has the right to interpret Scripture and establish doctrine.

Paradoxically, Tertullian himself left the apostolic fold and joined the Montanists, a rigorously legalistic group who emphasized ecstatic prophetic gifts. This was not a break with orthodox teaching, but a choice of a more extreme interpretive position. Tertullian wrote some of his most powerful anti-heretical works after he became a Montanist. Montanism was eventually condemned as a heresy.

This study is a resource from:
The Women's Division
General Board of Global Ministries
The United Methodist Church
E-mail: umw@gbgm-umc.org.
Web: http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/

The Christian Covenant*

Ireneaus

Tertullian