How do competing Jewish and Christian claims to the Old Testament Essay

How do competing Jewish and Christian claims to the Old Testament create a problem for Biblical Theology Is there a solution to - Essay Example On the other hand, Judaism highlights the right conduct or orthropraxy which focuses on the Mosaic Covenant which the God of Israel established with the Israelites as seen in the Torah and the Talmud (Bloom, 2005). These are but a few of the differences between these two religions. More details shall be discussed in this paper, highlighting how the competing Jewish and Christian claims to the Old Testament create a problem for Biblical Theology. This essay will also discuss if there is a solution to this problem. Body Based on the teachings of the Bible, Christians would be able to gain individual salvation from their original sin by faithfully repenting and by spiritually accepting that Jesus Christ is God (Jacobs, 1973). On the other hand, the Jews individually as well as collectively take part in a continuous dialogue with the God of Israel by applying their traditions, rituals, as well as prayers (Jacobs, 1973). Christians also pay homage to a Triune God who was also birthed as a human. Judaism highlights the Oneness of God and does not agree with the Christian ideals of God having taken form as human (Goldsworthy, 2000). These competing claims to the Old Testament and other teachings in the Bible between the Jews and the Christians causes problems for Biblical Theology because the interpretations for the Bible can cast doubt on the authenticity of its teachings. Biblical theology mostly refers to a Christian approach where theologians assess the Bible based on an understanding of the progressive history of God where God unveils himself after the Fall and within the Old and New Testament (Hagner, 1993). Biblical theology also highlights the Old Testament in order to understand how each area or part fits the life of Jesus and his journey and growth as a man. In instances where there are competing claims between Judaism and Christianity, the biblical theology somehow becomes vague and confused (Mead, 2007). Normally, biblical theology seeks to establish a bet ter understanding of the bible using the history leading up to the biblical references. The Christian theology for the bible seeks to understand how the writer knows God, the extent to which God’s plans are unveiled through the Messiah, how Israel has responded to God’s relationship up to this point, and how a given subject successively progressed within its redemption history (Mead, 2007). The competing claims of Judaism and Christianity makes the Christian and the Jew less committed to the teachings of the Bible, choosing instead to follow what they perceive as true (Cohn-Sherbok, 2001). The belief of God and His teachings is often based on faith and the basis for the most part of such faith is the account of Jesus’ life here on earth. Where the basis for such faith is put on shaky ground, the faith also becomes unstable (Cohn-Sherbok, 2001). The purpose of biblical theology is to place individual texts within a historical context. Its revelations are based on the history which progresses in the Bible. The support for such theology comes from Luke 24.27 as he declares that â€Å"and beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, Jesus explained to the disciples what was said in the scriptures concerning himself†. This would indicate that the Old Testament spoke of the messiah, and Jesus was the messiah. In order to establish an improved understanding of