Knowing God Through The Old Testament

Christopher Wright explores in depth the Father images that pervade the biblical narratives, psalms and prophetic texts of the Old Testament. God is acknowledged as tender yet terrifying, challenging to the nations and yet intimately personal, offering loving care, provision, discipline and forgiveness.

Combining three volumes into one, Knowing God Through the Old Testament brings together three of Christopher J. H. Wright's best loved books: Knowing God the Father Through the Old Testament, Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament, and Knowing the Holy Spirit Through the Old Testament. Knowing God the Father Through the Old Testament explores images that pervade the biblical narratives, psalms, and prophetic texts of the Old Testament. God is acknowledged as tender yet terrifying, challenging to the nations, and yet intimately personal, offering loving care, provision, discipline, and forgiveness. This is the God whom Jesus knew, and whom we can know, as Father. Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament uncovers Jesus' self-understanding as Son of Man and Son of God from his deep roots in the Hebrew Scriptures. As the Jesus who fulfilled the mission that God had given to Israel is revealed, we discover that the more we understand the Old Testament, the closer we come to the heart of Jesus. Knowing the Holy Spirit Through the Old Testament traces the Holy Spirit through the pages of the Old Testament. We see the Third Person of the Trinity in the decrees of prophets and psalmists, in the actions of judges and craftspeople, in the anointing of kings, and the promise of a new creation. The witness of the whole of Scripture directs us to a Holy Spirit empowering the people of God, and sustaining and renewing the face of the earth. This three-volume work will strengthen and deepen readers' personal relationships with the triune God by enabling them to know him through deep immersion and engagement with his Word, especially in the less familiar voices of the Old Testament. This is a voyage of biblical discovery, crossing many horizons and exploring especially the sources of our knowledge of God the Holy Trinity—Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

We cannot know Jesus without knowing his story. Today the debate over who Jesus is rages on. Has the Bible bound Christians to a narrow and mistaken notion of Jesus? Should we listen to other gospels, other sayings of Jesus, that enlarge and correct a mistaken story? Is the real Jesus entangled in a web of the church's Scripture, awaiting liberation from our childhood faith so he might speak to our contemporary pluralistic world? To answer these questions we need to know what story Jesus claimed for himself. Christopher Wright is convinced that Jesus' own story is rooted in the story of Israel. In this revised and updated book he traces the life of Christ as it is illuminated by the Old Testament. And he describes God's design for Israel as it is fulfilled in the story of Jesus.

We tend to think of the Holy Spirit as the straggler of the Trinity, a latecomer in God's interaction with the world. But our first introduction to the Holy Spirit is not the drama of Pentecost in the second chapter of Acts. We first meet the Holy Spirit in the second verse of the Bible, hovering there, speaking the world into existence. Christopher Wright begins here and traces the Holy Spirit through the pages of the Old Testament. We see the Third Person of the Trinity in the decrees of prophets and psalmists, in the actions of judges and craftspeople, in the anointing of kings and the promise of a new creation. Knowable and discernable in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit is thus eminently knowable to us. The witness of the whole of Scripture, from its first pages to its last, directs us to a Holy Spirit empowering the people of God, and sustaining and renewing the face of the earth.

Christians often pay scant attention to the Jewishness of Jesus. Chris Wright's book sets out to redress the balance, exploring the identity, values and teaching of Jesus in the light of the Old Testament.

Some people think the Old Testament has nothing to say about God as our Father, or about the Holy Spirit, whilst others try to find Jesus somewhere on every page of the Old Testament. Chris Wright brings a much-needed corrective to these misconceptions in his masterful three-in-one volume, Knowing God – The Trilogy. After exploring the identity and mission of Jesus in the light of the Scriptures he knew so well – our Old Testament, the book goes on to see how God reveals himself as Father in the same Scriptures, and works powerfully through his Spirit. Wright’s thoughtful and engaging exposition of multiple biblical texts invites us to encounter the Trinity not just as a doctrine we affirm but as persons we can know.

We first meet the Holy Spirit in the second verse of the Bible, hovering there, speaking the world into existence. Christopher Wright begins here and traces the Holy Spirit through the pages of the Old Testament. He shows that the Spirit is knowable, and that the Spirit empowers God's people and sustains the earth.

From the first verses of Genesis, the Spirit of God makes a dramatic appearance in the Bible. However, despite the importance of the Spirit in the Old Testament, it has been the focus of surprisingly little scholarship. In response, this volume assemblesa host of premier Old Testament scholars to address various aspects of the subject. Major thematic essays and studies of relevant biblical texts are arranged in eight main sections: orientation of the Ancient Near Eastern context; the Spirit and its relation to creation, wisdom, creativity, prophecy, leadership and the future, and finally the Spirit at Qumran.