It’s too bad the label “Old Testament” has become attached to the Scriptures of Israel, which constitute the first section of the Christian Bible. The reason I say this, and I speak as a Christian, is that the adjective “old”—especially when juxtaposed to “new”—usually suggests something that lacks freshness and vitality. In our society, the law of obsolescence insists that we discard the old and turn to the new. Many people are tempted to look at the Old Testament this way. When I began to teach the Bible back in 1946—lo, forty years ago, it was customary to understand […]