CHAPTER IX THE TESTIMONY OF CHRIST TO THE OLD TESTAMENT BY WILLIAM CAVEN, D. D., LL. D., LATE PRINCIPAL OF KNOX COLLEGE, TORONTO, CANADA Both Jews and Christians receive the Old Testament as containing a revelation from God, while the latter regard it as standing in close and vital relationship to the New Testa ment. Everything connected with the Old Testament has, of recent years, been subjected to the closest scrutiny_the authorship of its several books, the time when they were written, their style, their historical value, their religious and ethical teachings. Apart from the veneration with which we regard the Old Testament writings on their own account, the intimate connection which the_y have with the Christian Scriptures necessarily gives us the deepest interest in the conclusions which may be reached by Old Testament criti cism. For us the New Testament Dispensation presupposes and grows out of the Mosaic, so the books of the New Tes tament touch those of the Old at every point: In vetere tes- tamento novum latet, et in novo vetus patet. (In the Old Testament the New is concealed, and in the New the Old is revealed.) We propose to take a summary view of the testimony of our Lord to the Old Testament, as it is recorded by the Evangelists. The New Testament writers themselves largely quote and refer to the Old Testament, and the views which they express regarding the old economy and its writings are in harmony with the statements of their Master; but, for various reasons, we here confine ourselves to what is related of the Lord Himself. 46
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