A simple faith or a simplistic theology? Part 2

You made it to the end of my initial post? Commiserations.  As promised, I shall consider the relationship between the Old and New Testaments and in particular how Christianity has approached the Old Testament.

 The subject is a minefield. There are competing and compelling claims made by theology scholars.  It is safe to say that no one opinion is 'right".  You dear reader must reach your own conclusion as I have mine. 

One body of thinking asserts the Old Testament is aimed at the New Testament and that Judaism's claims to the Old

 Testament are swept away by Christian claims. The theologian Bultmann claims the Old Testament is a history of failure.  

A contrary opinion (with which I agree) is that of Brueggemann. He states:

Such a way of presenting the Old Testament proceeds as if the community of Judaism was only an interim community which existed until the New Testament and then withered into non-existence and insignificance.

Christians read back into the Old Testament from the standpoint of the New Testament to claim it is a pointer to Jesus. However the Old Testament does not clearly point solely to Jesus. 

Taken on its own the Old Testament may be interpreted in different ways one of which is the Christian interpretation looking back into it for scriptural evidence for Jesus.  Put bluntly Christianity has hijacked the Old Testament for its own ends. Judaism however continues to use the Old Testament.

As I have indicated this is a complicated subject which I do not consider I can do justice to. For my part I think it is unnecessary to delve into the Old Testament to understand and act upon the message of Jesus.  This is not to say I consider the Old Testament to be unimportant.  On the contrary, for Judaism it is of central importance. It is Christianity's misguided arrogance which seeks to  assert its superiority through a misunderstanding of the Old Testament.