For 2,000 years we have been using the NT to learn all about God, the OT is boring, full of old laws, genealogy that means nothing to us, violence, and a lot of it is just plain not understandable, nor does it fit with the God we learn about as we read the NT.
So what does this have to do with what I’m reading? I think that God was there directing when the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. It took a long time for scholars to truly learn from them, but finally this is happening. It isn’t only the scrolls, themselves; it is opening up other findings of ancient writings whose language couldn’t be understood before. The OT was written in a language very different from ours, one that evolved through the ages like our language has. As an example, look at the way Shakespeare used language.
For many years our culture and thinking has been separating us from understanding the OT. Most people were limited to the NT and a few books of the OT like psalms. God was speaking to us with scripture we had to understand to know Him, and knowing God is as important as eating. Now there are men who have devoted years to learning that is now available. I don’t mean commentaries that give a man made viewpoint, but an explanation of the world God was speaking to so we can better understand God.
Some of these men are professors in universities, some just write. All must be read with prayer and reliance on the Holy Spirit. But God has opened this for us; I think we are to walk through the door opened for us.
I found Ted Bradford on the net at “torahclass”. He tries to keep to the facts and only the facts, no personal agenda. I think he sometimes gets in the way of his writing, but everyone has the bible and prayer for handling that. You can choose to just not know anything about any of this, I think God opened it for us and it is up to us to learn.
Tom talks of the OT as roots, but so does Paul. Rom 11:18 do not boast over the branches. If you do boast, remember that it is not you that support the root, but the root that supports you.