Why is the OT much longer than the NT? Is there a lesson to be learned here? I put this in the Covenant Theology forum because I suspect that has something to do with the answer.

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Tim Lindsay
member, Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church, Halifax, NS, Canada
Living in Cape Town, South Africa
"under the Southern Cross, at the foot of Table Mountain, not far from the Cape of Good Hope"

But how can we even be sure there is an answer?

Unless the bible reveals by revelation a significance in the lenghts of the OT vs the NT, any answer we were to come up with, no matter how spiritual sounding, would be just speculation on our part.

I grant your point. But is there something we can take from the length of time spent describing the Law in the Pentateuch and the many instances of Israel turning away from and back to the Lord. The Psalms are a hymnbook...etc.

Perhaps my question incorrectly divides the two testaments, especially given the thinking of covenental theology.

The OT is typological and the NT contains fulfillment of those types, Christ was typified in sooo many ways, and now in the NT He is revealed. That would be one reason why, I think..

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~ Charles Stephen Barribeau ~
Christ Presbyterian Church , OPC (They sing alot of Psalms!)
Original Westminster Standards (I need to study more...)
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Janesville, Wisconsin (In the fellowship of Bob Vigneault and Matt+Megan Meisberger)

The NT was the conclusion to the very detailed and well-illustrated argument made in the OT, that salvation is of the Lord.

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Patrick
MDiv, RTS Jackson
Pastor, Grace Presbyterian Church (OPC), Lisbon, NY

"He does well, that discourses of Christ; but he does infinitely better, that by experimental knowledge, feeds and lives on Christ." Thomas Brooks.
"Let us not please ourselves that we have deep understandings, but let us shew our understandings by our practice." Richard Sibbes

It seems to me that we might be straining at gnats here trying to figure out the reasoning. Two very basic reasons that come to mind, but neither of them as far as I can see has any real spiritual significance. These seem as likely as any other explanation.

1) genre: the NT is mostly brief doctrinal letters, which will of necessity be short, while the NT has a ton of narrative history, prophetic history and the whole of the church song book, which would expected to be longer
2) time elapsed in composition: the OT was written over a very long period of time, from Moses to Malachi; the whole of the NT was written in 30 years (if you are an early-date Rev guy like me) or 50 years (if you accept the 95-ish AD date)

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Todd K. Pedlar
member, First Congregational Church, (CCCC) Cresco, IA
http://inprincipiodeus.solideogloria.com
http://puritanwisdom.blogspot.com

"As God did not at first choose you because you were high, He will not now forsake you because you are low."
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The very obvious thing that sprung to mind immediately is that the OT is a record of hundreds and hundreds of years of history whereas the NT 'covers' less than a hundred.

I know its not very spiritual but it is a practical answer in part!

NOTE: I hadn't seen Todd's reply above when I typed this.

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Jonathan Hunt

Elder holding forth the word of life at:
Cheltenham Evangelical Free Church (Confessionally Based)
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom

Logic is a systematic method of coming to the wrong conclusion with confidence.
-- Thomas Elsworth

Okay, good answers, gentlemen.

A follow up question would be: how do we rightly divide our time between study of the different parts of the Bible. If we read through the Bible in a "straight-through" fashion every year, we don't get to the NT before September or October. Is this the proper balance? I realize that the NT (especially the letters) are more packed with doctrine as compared to historical narrative, for example.

Or how do we rightly divide our time in the in-depth study of single books?

Because the Holy Spirit inspired more authors and more words.

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Rich
PCA, Northern VA
Student, New Geneva Theological Seminary

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I like it.

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Paul Korte
OPC
Flint, MI

They who perceive in themselves discoveries of the divine goodness, so full and absolutely perfect, and who make them the subject of earnest meditation, will never embrace new doctrines, by which the very grace they feel so powerfully in themselves is thrown into the shade. --John Calvin

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I wouldn't call the division OT/NT minor or inconsequential by any means. It is an important one.

However, I think Patrick's answer was one of the best. The Bible is a unit, it is one story and Christ and the NT explanation of his final revelation. Read that way, the NT is the BIGGEST single portion of the Bible, when we consider it as a unit, all the matter of which is contained in a period of less than 100 years, one average human lifetime.

Moses' books cover phenomenal lengths of time. And still, the books of Moses and Joshua cover a single generation/lifetime of composition.

Then you have a gap, and then Judges, Ruth, Samuel--the Davidic era, along with many Psalms; Solomon and his writings could be grouped with this portion.

Then you have Kings (brief records of the prophets) and move into the writing prophets, a third grouping.

And lastly, the exilic and post-exilic era.

That's four major "periods" of biblical literature, before you get to the NT, and Christ, and an "overflow" of the Holy Spirit, culminating in the NT writings, a huge amount of explanation and clarification of all that came before.

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Rev. Bruce G. Buchanan
ChainOLakes Presbyterian Church, CentralLake, MI


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You are suppose to preach Christ no matter what. So even when you preach from the OT you should get help from the NT. You can't understand the OT without the clarification of the NT. And it works the other way too. So, no matter what passage you preach, there's going to be some information in the other testament that will help.

More pages.


ba dum ching (haha miller you're so witty)

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Miller Ansell
Christ Covenant Prebyterian Church (OPC)
Amarillo, TX