The continuity between the two Testaments refers to the way in which ideas found in the Old Testament are taken up in the New and developed further. The discontinuity refers to the way in which new ideas appear in the New Testament which changes the total understanding of man's relationship with God. The relationship is deepened and more emphasis is given to such ideas as love being the primary characteristic of God (1 John 4: 8) and fatherhood being the primary metaphor suitable to use when we think of God. The very much greater emphasis in the New Testament on the individual's relationship with God, in addition to the communal relationship of God's people with God, is another important example of discontinuity.

As we attempt to understand the relationship of the Old and New Testaments, we need to keep in mind both the continuity and the discontinuity between the teaching and ideas of both. The direct connection is there, in both the continuity and discontinuity, but as well as ideas which lead us to understand more about the love of God, the fatherhood of God, the work of the Holy Spirit of God, and other important concepts, we find that Jesus also broke away from many of the established ideas of Judaism, or reinterpreted them radically.

One example is what he taught about the nature of sin. To the pious Pharisee sin was failure to observe what the Law and the Traditions of the elders required. There was an over-emphasis on the observance of the Law. Failure to wash the hands in the manner required by the Traditions of the elders, or failure to keep the Sabbath as it was interpreted by the Pharisees, for example, was understood to be sin by the Jewish community (Mark 7: 1-8 and Mark 3: 1-3). As Jesus showed in Mark 7: 14-23, sin was something much worse; it was essentially a state of rebellion against all that is good, which leads to a state of being unable to do good and to please God. Long before, the great prophets of the Old Testament had grasped this idea which is most clearly expressed by the prophet Micah-'The Lord has told us what is good. What he requires of us is this: to do what is just, to show constant love and to live in humble fellowship with our God' (Micah 6:8). But in the Judaism of the time of Jesus, outward conformity to customs and Law had become the most important things to many Jews.

Although, for example, in the book of Isaiah there are passages which speak of all nations being brought into the knowledge of God (Isaiah 51: 4-5), the pious Jew of the time of Jesus wanted no contact at all with those who were not Jews, and many Jews hated the Romans who ruled their land. If a non-Jew or Gentile became interested in the Jewish religion he could not join in Jewish worship unless he accepted the Jewish culture, circumcision and the Jewish Law and customs. But from Jesus we have the parable of the good Samaritan in which two pious Jews are contrasted unfavourably with a despised Samaritan, a man of mixed origins who would not have been allowed into the Temple at Jerusalem to worship.

figure 6:The Good Samaritan

Jesus healed the servant of a Roman officer (Luke 7:1-9), and the daughter of a Gentile woman (Mark 7:24-30), both of whom showed faith in Jesus which broke through racial barriers. These barriers prevented a Gentile from entering the main part of the Temple in Jerusalem; a Gentile who did so would be killed and there was a notice displayed to this effect.

Women, also, could not enter the part of the Temple where the men offered sacrifices. The traditional Jewish attitude to women required them to be obedient and subordinate to men and their spiritual inferiority was assumed. The attitude of Jesus to women who showed faith in him indicated that women were to be welcomed into the Kingdom of God equally with men (Luke 7:36-50, Luke 10:38-42, John 4:1-41, and other passages).

The idea that there is only Sheol, the realm of shadowy spirits, after death is found throughout the Old Testament. The idea of heaven and hell, such as we find in the parable of the rich man and the beggar Lazarus (Luke 16: 19-31), had developed in Judaism, but in the teaching of Jesus we find the great teaching that eternal life is God's gift to us from the time we turn to him in our present life: 'Whoever does what God wants him to do is my brother, my sister, my mother' (Mark 4:35). We need not wait till death to begin to live as those who know the secrets of the Kingdom of God.

A widely accepted idea in the Old Testament was that wealth was a sign of God's blessing and approval, although this idea is challenged in the book of Job and questioned in some other passages. Jesus taught that wealth could be a barrier to entering the Kingdom of God- 'It is much harder for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle' (Mark 10:25).

figure 7:Camel through the needles eye

As we continue in this book, we shall look at important ideas in the Old Testament where continuity between the Old and New Testaments is obvious, and where, from the root of the idea in the Old Testament, there is great development of the same idea in the New. But without the root, there would be no development.