{"id":6580,"date":"2025-06-19T06:50:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T10:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/learn\/?p=6580"},"modified":"2025-07-30T11:38:33","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T15:38:33","slug":"jesus-old-testament-symbols","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/learn\/topics-themes\/explainers\/jesus-old-testament-symbols\/","title":{"rendered":"Encountering Jesus in the Symbols of the Old Testament"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As a former college pastor, I loved starting Bible studies at the beginning of each school year. There is an almost indescribable magic that comes from watching 18\u201322-year-olds grab hold of the Bible for themselves \u2014 some for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One year, I decided to structure these studies in a \u201cBible in two semesters\u201d format, with key chapters from the Old Testament in the fall, and key passages from the New Testament in the spring. I had been reading deeply from early Christian Bible commentaries and had become increasingly convicted that our modern Christian formation was leading us to neglect the Old Testament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accordingly, I decided to spend a full semester on the Old Testament, even though I had a large number of atheist and agnostic students. To my delight and astonishment, multiple students who had never had sustained exposure to the Gospel came to faith that semester \u2014 before<\/em> they had ever read a page of the New Testament!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Return to Symbol: Recovering Early Christian Reading Practices<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

How was it possible for these students to encounter Jesus Christ and make a commitment of faith while only reading the Old Testament? We shouldn\u2019t be shocked at this possibility, since most early Christians did not read the New Testament, as it was yet to be written<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As it turns out, it was through a return to early Christian reading practices that enabled students to encounter Jesus right at the beginning of our Old Testament Bible study. Early Christians read the Bible with an acute attention to symbols: repeated occurrences of objects such as water, fire, trees, and above all, mountains<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since God is the author of the entire Bible, he has arranged it so that these symbols stitch together the various stories of the Bible, and enable us to draw closer to Jesus. For instance, we can learn about the sacrifice of Christ not only from the wood of the cross, but also in the wood of the tree of life. We can learn about our commitment to Christ not only in the water of baptism, but also in the passing of Israel through the waters of the Red Sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Examples of Symbolism in the Bible<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

How can we see these kinds of connections between symbols in the Bible? In order to do so, we have to first learn the overall story of scripture<\/a>. Fortunately, the Bible gives us a preeminent symbol that can guide us through its story of creation, fall and redemption: the mountain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Mountain<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In the Bible, mountains are the places where human beings encounter God and draw near to God\u2019s glory. The garden of Eden rested on top of a mountain, and it was here that Adam and Eve were created in order to worship and have intimacy with God<\/a> (Genesis 2<\/a>). Their goal was to one day reach the top of Eden and partake in the tree of life. But because of their sin, they were banished from Eden<\/a> instead; the Fall was a literal fall off of the mountain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rest of the Bible is a story of God making a way for humankind to get back to this mountain: <\/p>\n\n\n\n