We have a friend that says about the King James, “If its good enough for Jesus its good enough for me!”
That is not what I’m talking about here. I am talking about the fact that when ever the scriptures are referred to, in the New Testament, Jesus and his disciples are referring to the Old Testament, it is the only Bible they had.
2 Timothy 3:15 And that thou hast known the holy Scriptures since childhood, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation, 
through the faith which is in Christ Jesus.
16 For the whole Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable to teach, to improve, to correct, and to instruct in righteousness,
17 That the man of God may be absolute, being made perfect unto all good works.
Me and Lei have spent a lot of time in the Old Testament lately and I was thinking about this discussion.
I would think that Jesus Peter & Paul had “their” Bible pretty much memorized (Jesus Duh!) So if we are trying to understand what these guys that lived 2000 years ago were trying to say when they spoke or in their writings, wouldn’t we need to have the OT pretty much memorized too, in order to think like them.
They are constantly quoting from their Bible, they don’t cite the verse like we do, is that because they expected their audience to have the OT memorized too?
ahh…yeah…i totally agree. So many times pastors/mentors at our church talk about that. Our teachings are always taking into account the ‘entire’ word of God. And the little bit that i’ve dabbled in systematic theology, it’s researching a topic using the whole bible. Personally for me, God speaks to me quite a bit in the OT. When i go to a bible study in the OT, learning about the experiences the people of the bible went through (david, abraham etc) and what the societies went through, i relate and get challenged. I don’t read the OT enough, but when being taught by someone with insight and application, it really hits home.
Well, Randy, you are vague and I talk way too much. lol
But yeah, i see what you are saying. At the time of writing, the OT was all there was. That’s hard for me to wrap my head around. They must have REALLY lived out ‘being in the Word’. Knowing oral traditions, i can just see families sitting around reciting the OT and discussing those stories. Friends that have gone on missions, they say that other countries still treat the Word like that today, being in it all day and meditating, discussing & praying about it all the time. We Americans are very lax huh?
I am always too vague, I’m working on it.
I feel like verse 16 is quoted a lot by folks who are referring to the entire Bible, which is fine, I’m sure that if God was guiding Paul when he wrote it, God knew people would take it that way.
But Paul is not talking about his own letters when he refers to “God Breathed” scriptures or writings, do you think? I’m sure he is talking about “his” Bible, the old testament.
And I guess sometimes I feel like the old testament is being ignored, and how can it be if Paul says we need it “to teach and instruct in righteousness”.
not meaning to sound sarcastic or rhetorical, but what are you getting at? what about the Scripture? The fact that it’s referring to OT yet speaking about Christ?