In Fulfillment of the Scriptures
Discovering the Resurrection of Jesus in the Hebrew Scriptures (1 of 3)
(Luke 24:24-27) Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see." And he said to them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
At the heart of the gospels’ testimony concerning the resurrection of Jesus is that it occurred in fulfillment of the Scriptures. Indeed, that the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus occurred in fulfillment of the prophetic promises of the Old Testament was part of the earliest creedal confessions of the Church, and those confessions were incorporated into the liturgical creeds (1 Corinthians 15:3-4) which formed the basis for the Nicene Creed recited weekly in the Divine Liturgy. That Jesus’ life occurred in fulfillment of the scriptures is as crucial as the historical fact of His resurrection. A resurrection which occurred in isolation from Israel’s story could be a strange event in history- without connection to the story of the human race that preceded it and without necessary implications for the story which follows. After all, strange events- which we would even designate as paranormal or supernatural- occur all the time. In Isaiah 44-45, God names the king who would sponsor the Jewish return from exile in advance in order to distinguish His Name from the idols of the nations. There are indeed many powers in heaven and on earth, and they all have some measure of influence. But in bearing witness of the history of the world before it happens, the God of Israel makes Himself known as the one who is sovereign over all history, who “turns all things to the counsel of His will” (Ephesians 1:11). That the resurrection of Jesus was woven prophetically throughout Moses and the Prophets frames its significance- it is revealed to be the central event in cosmic history, planned and realized by the very Mind who conceived the architecture of the world and shaped its history.
When we consider the nature of Old Testament prophecy, we should always remember that the prophetic threads in the Bible are not sprinkled at random throughout the text. The Bible is not simply a collection of individual verses- it has its own canonical structure and integrity, and the whole is far greater than the sum of the parts. For example, that Genesis 1-3 and Deuteronomy 30-34 stand at the beginning and end of a literary whole called the Torah is crucial for interpreting their significance. It is not that these passages are more important or authoritative in an absolute sense. Rather, they serve as the frame within which we are to interpret the rest of the Torah- the Torah which, in turn, frames the significance of the rest of the Bible. Moreover, that Genesis 1-3 and Deuteronomy 30-34 stand on opposite poles of the Torah suggests that verbal connections between the two texts are more likely to constitute a genuine literary relationship rather than coincidence. In Genesis 1:2, we are told that the earth was “formless and void” and that the Spirit of God “hovered” over the primordial sea. Referring back to Genesis 1:2, Deuteronomy 32:10 describes Israel’s birth from the “howling waste” (tohu, as in Genesis 1:2) of the wilderness and the way in which God “hovered” (racaph, as in Genesis 1:2- this word is only used three times in the entire Hebrew Bible, further underscoring the allusive significance of this word at the beginning and end of the Torah) over the Children of Israel. Similarly, we have references in Deuteronomy 32 to “serpents” and “asps” (Deuteronomy 32:33) in the context of the diabolical no-gods of the nations and their incitement of Israel and the nations to idolatry (Deuteronomy 32:8-9, 17), recalling the role of the serpent in Genesis 3 in leading mankind into death.
The central frame for interpreting the significance of Old Testament prophecy is the concept of exile. The coming of the messiah is placed in the latter days (Genesis 49:1-2, 8-12) which is the time of Israel’s regathering from exile (Deuteronomy 4:30). The regathering from exile is likewise the time when Israel’s inner nature, their heart, is altered so as to allow them to obey God with the entirety of their being (Deuteronomy 30:1-6), a prophetic thread which is developed in Jeremiah’s word about the engraving of the Torah on the heart of Israel (Jeremiah 31:31-34) and Ezekiel’s promise of a new heart and the indwelling of the divine Spirit (Ezekiel 36:36-37). The New Testament describes the fulfillment of these promises in Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul describes the law engraved on tablets of the heart (2 Corinthians 3:3) and says that some from the nations have had their heart circumcised (Romans 2:25-29). Likewise, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is contextualized in terms of the inheritance of the world as co-heirs with Jesus Christ in Romans 8:13-17. Ezekiel promised that the Spirit would dwell in Israel when they were brought back to their land- Paul sees the Spirit as indwelling the Church and leading the Church into the new creation. Recognizing these keys is crucial in accurately identifying the mode in which Jesus is present as the fulfillment of everything written in the Scriptures. Without recognizing the central role exile plays in the canonical story, finding the resurrection in the Bible is a fool’s errand.
I really enjoy the way you analyze the Bible with an understanding of the integral connection between the symbolic and typological structure of the Bible and that of creation itself. This serves to show how knowledge of creation really is a form of theological knowledge, and that truly understanding any event in the world requires grasping its situatedness within the symbolic and typological structure of creation.