It is curious that much of Europe is celebrating #PENTECOST as a public holiday this week, yet few seem to have any recollection of basic religious history. Incidentally, Pentecost takes place on the 50th day after Easter Sunday, marking the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Jesus Christ, as described in the Acts of the Apostles (New Testament).

Discussing the differences between the 'demiurge' in Plato's Timaeus and the Christian God, someone asked me recently about the distinction between the two Testaments. In a nutshell...

The Old Testament is the original Hebrew Bible, written between 1200–165 BC. It contains more than twice as much material as the New, and comprises 39 books in the Protestant Bible (with 7 additional books for Catholics and 10 for Orthodox Bibles, known as Apocrypha or Deuterocanonical books). The Old Testament was written mostly in Hebrew, with a few chapters in Aramaic (closely related to Hebrew), while the New Testament was written in Greek. The Old Testament was composed over more than a millennium; the New Testament, by contrast, was completed in about 60 years. The Old Testament narrates the history of the people of Israel across centuries, beginning with God’s creation of the world and humankind, and includes stories, laws, and moral lessons that underpin religious life for both Jews and Christians.

Tradition held that a single author wrote the first five books of the Bible—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy—known collectively as the Torah (Hebrew for “instruction”) and the Pentateuch (Greek for “five scrolls”). That author was believed to be Moses, the Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of captivity in Egypt and across the Red Sea toward the Promised Land. By the time of the Enlightenment, however, most religious scholars began to question the idea of single authorship.

The New Testament’s 27 books were written by various Christians after 70 AD (with scholarly consensus that the Gospels were not penned by the individuals to whom they are attributed). The New Testament records the life of Jesus—from his birth and teachings to his death and resurrection—a narrative that constitutes the foundation of Christianity.

In other words, the Old Testament chronicles God’s power and works, looking forward to the coming Messiah. The New Testament reveals Jesus as the Messiah, reflecting back on his life and teachings as the basis for the church and the spread of the gospel. While the Old Testament emphasises the Mosaic covenant and the Law of the Lord, the New Testament inaugurates a new covenant, in which Jesus comes as the fulfilment of the Law. No longer would the Jewish people need to fulfil the Law for atonement; Jesus offers forgiveness and eternal life to all who believe in Him.

A common claim is that the God of the Old Testament (sometimes termed the 'demiurge'—craftsman or creator) is a god of #power and wrath, whereas the New Testament’s God is a god of #love. Happy Pentecost!

#religion #leadership #europe