Mike Heiser and I have been talking a lot about the Old Testament’s “messianic profile” in several episodes at The Naked Bible Podcast. We wanted to do this because it’s so foundational for understanding Jesus’ ministry in the New Testament. It’s also important for understanding the way in which New Testament writers (such as Paul) interpreted the Old Testament. In the latest installment, we dive into Romans and begin the first of several discussions about how Paul reconfigures OT texts, concepts, and stories around Christ. But… don’t listen to this episode until you’ve first listened to the one we recorded on Malachi! You can find that here.
Episode description:
To this point in our series on Paul’s use of the Old Testament we’ve focused on Paul’s “storied reading” of the Old Testament—specifically, how the Old Testament profile of messiah emerges. In the last episode we talked about how Malachi sets up Romans in terms of Israel’s covenant failure and the expectation of a divine messiah. In this episode we look at how the theme of Israel’s elective vocation is reconfigured by Paul to focus on the work of Christ and the resurrection. In Romans 1-3, this will take the form of how Paul understands faith/faithfulness and Torah keeping.