Christians who don't care for the Old Testament?

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I keep running into people (non-Catholics) who don’t care about the Old Testament. They seem to accept it as Scripture, but insist that it’s a waste of time to read the Old Testament because it “takes away valuable time that could be spent studying Jesus”, or something along those lines. Has anyone else run into this? I respond with what I think is an appropriate answer, but they never seem to care. I’m hoping that others have had more success than I have in convincing people of its importance.
 
Interesting. In the groups I’ve been in for Bible Study, both Catholic and Protestant, both old and new were studied.

As that song goes: “You can’t have one without the other”.
 
It is a common sentiment among the Baptists I have run into.

However it seems like their bibles gloss over John 6
 
Fr. White, O. P. said, “Thomas Aquinas affirms that we cannot love what we do not know, and that when we grow in understanding of God, we can also grow in love for Him, precisely because we begin to understand more deeply who God is.”

Lacking understanding, the mind fails to see what is hidden in any given meaning. The Fathers and Doctors, particularly S. Thomas Aquinas and S. Bonaventure present the Old and New Testament in their commentaries.

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. The more they increased, the more they sinned against me; I will change their glory into shame.” (Hos 4:6,7)

Without knowledge, you cannot love
 
We have another thread on this forum dealing with the same question
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"The Old Testament: Why Can't We Just Get Rid of It?" An Article Responding to The Many People Who Find Things in the Old Testament They Don't Like Sacred Scripture
“Let’s face it: The Old Testament can be hard to take,” this article begins, before going on to face the questions people, going back to the early Church, have raised about the things in the Old Testament they find hard to take.
Click to expand...
 
A large part of the problem is because of the method of Bible interpretation (hermenutic) where the events in the Bible are taken literally, instead of using the traditional quadruple way of understanding scripture, which removes the problems from seemingly contradictory or immoral parts of the Bible, as well as reveals that Our Lord and Lady are the true meaning of every word of the Bible.

“Not in bread alone doth man live, but in every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God.” Math. 4:4 (humans live on every word, meaning every part of the bible is the gospel, which enlivens)

“I will open my mouth in parables: I will speak propositions from the beginning.” Psalm 77 (78):2

“Albeit the Prophet reciteth historically things done, yet the same were parables, similitudes, and figures of other things: yea of secret hidden Mysteries, obscurely signified in the old Testament, and revealed in the new.” Douay-Rheims comment ibidem.

“Therefore every Scribe/scripture scholar/theologian instructed in the kingdom of heaven, is like to a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure new things and old.”

"These are the words which I spake to you, when I was yet with you, that all things must needs be fulfilled, which are written in the law of Moyses, and the Prophets, and the Psalms (the whole old testament) of me.

“Ye search the (old testament) scriptures, for you think in them to have life everlasting: and the same are they that give testimony of me: and you will not come to me that you may have life.”
 
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Thom18 said:
I keep running into people (non-Catholics) who don’t care about the Old Testament. They seem to accept it as Scripture, but insist that it’s a waste of time to read the Old Testament because it “takes away valuable time that could be spent studying Jesus”, or something along those lines. Has anyone else run into this? I respond with what I think is an appropriate answer, but they never seem to care. I’m hoping that others have had more success than I have in convincing people of its importance
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Hmmmm:roll_eyes:

MY experience is somewhat the opposite. Where dare I say “many” non-catholics prefer the OT precisely because the NT affirms and confirms just One True God; One true Faith and One True Church, when correctly read and understood. Take for example**: Mt 10:1-8; Mt 16:15-19; John 17: 17-20 and Mt 28:18-20**; paying close attention tot eh singular tense of each of these teachings,

God Bless you,
Parrick
 
There’s a document from the Pontifical Biblical Commission entitled something like The Jewish People and Their Scriptures in the Christian Bible. It is a stab at connecting the Testaments.

I like to study the OT for a lot of reasons. The commentaries from the Jewish Publication Society help a lot for line-by-line study, although they have their biases built into the commentary.

The multivolume Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture Series from Intervarsity Press is a collection of excerpts from the early Church Fathers. Benedict XVI recommended a revival of patristic study of scripture. There had a lot to say about the OT.

I think that the OT cannot be well understood without a commentary, to start off with. I make frequent use of the Oxford Univ Press 2nd Ed of The Jewish Study Bible, also. It has an appendix of 400 pages of essays about many aspects of the Jewish scriptures.

The Jewish commentaries bring out the fact that there were variants of scripture in Biblical times. For example, since there was no Hebrew dictionary for the ancient Hebrew scriptures, the Greek Septuagint is the next best text to understand the wording of the Hebrew, since it was done by believing Jews.

One writer in the JSB speculates on why death and sex are treated specially in the OT, so many rules – because God does neither of them. So, you’re unclean if you touch a dead body and have to undergo ritual purification. The rules about sexual conduct relate to the holiness of God that we are all supposed to strive for – rape, incest, beastiality, etc. are un-godlike.

The answer to the title question is, it’s harder to understand the nuances of the writings of the OT. Why should there be a prohibition against making a garment etc. out of a mixture of wool and cotton? Because that was sacred – the veil of the tabernacle was made that way. It wasn’t to be used for any other ordinary purposes. The precise formula of tabernacle incense was also sacred and not to be used anywhere else. Other prohibitions were intended to discourage confusion with nearby gentile practices. There were logical reasons for those commandments that don’t occur to us today.

Your not supposed to boil a kid in its mother’s milk, because that was a gentile delicacy. etc.
 
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That is a very interesting post and those commentaries and essays sound like a great companion and a great help in truly understanding the Old Testament scriptures.
 
I love the variety of writing in the Old Testament: history, songs, prayers, poetry, law, wisdom, prophecy and apocalypses. In many ways I find it much more enjoyable to read than the NT.
 
I bet the REAL story is that they “selectively” don’t care about the OT. I imagine that is far more common. Of course there is the new covenant, but our Lord did say he was not throwing out the old law. Something to that effect.
 
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