sarkakaiaima

Having studied Scripture and the history of the Christian church for many years, I have concluded that one of the most remarkable changes among Christians involves the Hebrew Scriptures (what Christians have long called the Old Testament). In the earliest centuries the Hebrew Scriptures, specifically through the medium of the Septuagint (a clunky and more literal translation into Greek), were the primary source for study and explanation of the meaning of the Gospel. They asserted that the Gospel explained the meaning of the Scriptures and the Scriptures bore witness to the Messiah, the Lord Jesus. The study and use of the Old Testament, along with most of the New Testament documents, as Scripture, became normative at a very early date after the resurrection of the Lord. (I would argue that this was the case certainly by the end of the 1 st century or at the latest into the 2 nd century.) This perspective was important because they took the Lord’s words in Matthew 5:17-20 serious